 In the opening
pages of Jamie Ford's stunning debut novel, 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 long-standing prejudices of their Old World ancestors. And after Keiko and her family are swept up in the evacuations to the internment camps, she and Henry are left only with the hope that the war will end, and that their promise to each other will be kept. Forty years later, Henry Lee is certain that the parasol belonged to Keiko. In the hotel's dark dusty basement he begins looking for signs of the Okabe family's belongings and for a long-lost object whose value he cannot begin to measure. Now a widower, Henry is still trying to find his voice - words that might explain the actions of his nationalistic father; words that might bridge the gap between him and his modern, Chinese American son; words that might help him confront the choices he made many years ago. Set during one of the most conflicted and volatile times in American history, Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet is an extraordinary story of commitment and enduring hope. In Henry and Keiko, Jamie Ford has created an unforgettable duo whose story teaches us of the power of forgiveness and the human heart. |
 Twelve-year-old
Sumiko lives on a flower farm in California, and dreams of owning
a flower shop someday. She is the only Japanese-American girl
in her class, and is often the victim of bigotry, but she feels
tranquil when she is among the flowers. Then the Japanese bomb
Pearl Harbor and the United States government send all Japanese
people to internment camps. Sumiko and her family are sent to
an Indian reservation in the Arizona desert where she discovers
that the Indians resent them for taking over their land. Living
conditions are poor and Sumiko no longer has the flowers to comfort
her, but helping Mr. Moto, a lonely old man, plant a garden,
and developing a friendship with Frank, a young Mohave boy, leads
her on a journey of self-discovery and helps her realize the
real reason that her grandfather left Japan for America long
before she was born. |
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Special Events | Related Websites Nonfiction: Japanese Relocation and Internment Camps in the U.S. During World War II; Japanese and Chinese Culture | Japanese Americans During World War II: Books for Kids and Teens | Japanese and Chinese Culture: Books for Kids and Teens | |
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 Duluth Library Foundation |
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 Minnesota's Arts & Cultural Heritage Fund |
