Over the weekend I finished reading “Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet” by Jamie Ford. In addition to having a great title and cover, this book was a wonderful read and one in which I really connected with the characters. It was fictionalized history and was told in flashbacks to 1942-46 from the point of 1986.
The theme of the book centered around two pre-teen friends – one Chinese and one Japanese – both living in Seattle during the WWII years. The historical part involved the evacuation of the Japanese from their homes and their imprisonment in the “settlement camps” during the war. Many of them were unable to take some of their personal items and they ended up being stored in the basement of the Panama Hotel in downtown Seattle. The book opens with the items being discovered after being stored away, unknown to the current hotel owner, for over 40 years.
There actually was/is a Panama Hotel and personal items from these people were discovered and a part of the hotel has been turned into a museum. Since we hope to be in Seattle later this summer, I plan to see the museum for myself.
I’ve been intrigued with the whole idea of the relocation of the Japanese which was precipitated by an executive order signed by President Roosevelt. Ralph wrote a paper on the topic in high school and since then I’ve read several pieces of fiction based on this part of our history. Ford’s book is by far the best yet.
We are home from our trip to Phoenix and discovered last night that the main refrigerator/freezer was sick. Fortunately we have a large freezer as well as a second refrigerator so we lost very little food. I was secretly holding out for a fatal diagnosis but turns out we just need a new adaptive defrost timer. Who knew I even had one in the first place? It’s up and running again and the new part will be installed Friday.
In the meantime the whole thing will be thoroughly cleaned – something I try to do every few years whether I need to or not!
