Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet: A Novel

In 1986, Henry Lee encounters a crowd outside the Panama Hotel in Seattle's Japantown, which has been closed for decades. The new owner has discovered belongings left behind by Japanese families sent to internment camps during World War II. As artifacts are displayed, Henry, a Chinese American, recalls a young Japanese American girl named Keiko Okabe from his childhood in the 1940s. The two shared a bond of friendship and innocent love that crossed the prejudices of their families' older generations. When Keiko and her family were evacuated to internment camps, she and Henry could only hope their promise to each other would endure. Forty years later, Henry searches the hotel's basement for the Okabe family's belongings and a long-lost object of immeasurable personal value. His search becomes a journey to revisit the sacrifices he has made for family, love, and country.