Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet

For book club this month we read the novel Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet. It was about a young Chinese American boy, named Henry, who meets Keiko, a Japanese American girl, in the early 1940s. They both attend white prep school as "scholarship students" in Seattle. Henry's father is adamantly anti-Japanese, as is the general population of Seattle following the attack of Pearl Harbor. In spite of this, Henry and Keiko begin an intense friendship until Keiko is taken to an internment camp with her family. At first I had a hard time getting into the book, but about a quarter of the way through I was loving it. The title is perfectly named bitter and sweet, for the story is both. My heart ached at the end. It was interesting to read about what it might have been like for Japanese American families during the war.

For book club we thought that it would be exciting to actually visit the Panama Hotel where the story was based. Even though it was a story of fiction, it was based on real events. The Panama Hotel was built in 1910 and  served as a home for generations of Japanese immigrants. The hotel was closed and boarded up during the evacuation of the Japanese Americans and remained that way until the mid 80's when it was bought by the current owner.

One of the most interesting things about the Panama Hotel is the accidental time capsule found in the basement when the hotel was purchased in the 1980's. During the evacuation of the Japanese, many of the families hid their treasured posessions in the basement of the hotel hoping to be able to retrieve them later. Unfortunately, by the time the war had finally ended, the posessions had been forgotten. Many of the items still remain in the basement today. It recalls a shameful legacy in America's past. Yet it also offers a glimpse back to a time when Seattle's bustling Nihonmachi, or Japantown, was a vibrant commercial hub of fish markets, tailor shops, trading companies, banks and grocery stores.

The owner has devoted decades to preserving the best of it. It was really cool to step back in time as we walked through the halls and some of the rooms!

After touring the restored hotel, we headed over to Bush Gardens for an authentic Japanese dinner. I'm not into Chinese/Japanese cuisine so I was a bit scared, but most of it was pretty good!

It was such a fun night ladies!