Hotel On The Corner Of Bitter And Sweet Essay

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In the opening pages of Jamie Ford’s stunning debut novel, Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, Henry Lee comes upon a crowd gathered outside the Panama Hotel, once the gateway to Seattle’s Japantown. It has been boarded up for decades, but now the new owner has made an incredible discovery: the belongings of Japanese families, left when they were rounded up and sent to internment camps during World War II. As Henry looks on, the owner opens a Japanese parasol. This simple act takes old Henry Lee back to the 1940s, at the height of the war, when young Henry’s world is a jumble of confusion and excitement, and to his father, who is obsessed with the war in China and having Henry grow up American. While “scholarshipping” at the exclusive Rainier Elementary, where the white kids ignore him, Henry meets Keiko Okabe, a young Japanese American student. Amid the chaos of blackouts, curfews, and FBI raids, Henry and Keiko forge a bond of friendship–and innocent love–that transcends the…show more content…
His father is intent on sending him to China, now that the Japanese are being pushed back, to finish his education traditionally. Henry arrives home one day to find a ticket to China in his name. He agrees to go on the condition that his father (as part of an association of elders) saves the Panama Hotel from being sold because it is where Keiko's family stored the larger part of their belongings when they were shipped to the internment camps. Many families stored their possessions in the basement of the Hotel. He wrote one final letter to Keiko, stating that he would be leaving for China and he wanted to see her before he does. On the day of the appointment, Keiko didn’t show up. Instead, it was the postal clerk who talked to Henry whenever he sends letter to Keiko. She gave him his letter with a “Return to Sender” mark, saying she was sorry. He thanked her and asked her name. It was Ethel Chen – his

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