How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
"He got hit pretty hard with something fairly flat, Art. Puts me in mind of a type of gun butt wound I saw a few times in the war. One of those kendo strikes the Japs used." (5.52)
Memories of war haunt several of the characters. Here, such memories (and a good dose of prejudice against the Japanese) inspire Horace Whaley to tell Art Moran that he should be looking for a Japanese killer—when it isn't even established that a murder has been committed.
Quote #2
Judge Fielding called for a recess then, seeing that her emotions had overwhelmed her, and Etta followed Ed Soames into the anteroom, where she sat in silence, remembering. (9.10)
We're not sure how anyone has any mental energy to devote to the court proceedings, given how much time they're spending offering us detailed flashbacks. Etta has been testifying for the prosecution, and in the process we got to go back in time and see events as they occurred more or less through her (xenophobic) eyes.
Quote #3
Ishmael Chambers was out walking aimlessly in the snow, admiring it and remembering. The trial of Kabuo Miyamoto had brought that past world back for him. (12.2)
Ishmael, too, has been overwhelmed by the past and memories as a result of the trial. In particular, he's thinking about Kabuo Miyamoto's wife, Hatsue, who was his girlfriend as a teenager. They parted under painful circumstances, and Ishmael has never really gotten over it, so these memories sting and are pretty debilitating for him.