Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2009

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.

Download PDF

Summary

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-7

Chapters 8-12

Chapters 13-16

Chapters 17-22

Chapters 23-27

Chapters 28-32

Chapters 33-39

Chapters 40-47

Chapters 48-52

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Tools

Beta

Discussion Questions

Chapters 13-16Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 13 Summary: “I Am Japanese (1986)”

Leaving the cemetery, Henry reflects that Marty knows almost nothing about his childhood. Now he wishes he could tell his son about Keiko, but he feels it is too soon since Ethel’s death. Henry can’t forget the sight of the bamboo parasol being carried out of the Panama Hotel, so he makes his way to the hotel, which is undergoing construction. He finds Palmyra Pettison, the hotel’s new owner, to ask about the belongings in the basement. She asks if he is a relative, and Henry is surprised to realize that she believes he is Japanese. Ms. Pettison tells him that very few other relatives have come forward to look at the items in the basement—it has been too long.

Chapter 14 Summary: “The Basement (1986)”

Henry has a difficulty time comprehending the sheer quantity of personal items stored in the basement of the Panama Hotel—crates, steamer trunks, suitcases, and more. He chooses a suitcase at random, opens it, and finds a man’s shaving kit and neckties. In another suitcase he finds a woman’s wedding dress, ruined by prolonged exposure to the basement’s damp interior. He continues to look through the belongings of strangers. At one point, he presses his nose to the page of a photo album and smells a hint of smoke.

Chapter 15 Summary: “Executive Orders (1942)”

At home, Henry’s father is pleased with the arrest of Seattle’s Japanese, people Henry recognizes as teachers and businessmen. His father explains that President Roosevelt has signed two executive orders: 9102, which created the War Relocation Authority, and 9066, which gives the government the authority to create military areas. Essentially, the entire West Coast of the United States has been designated as a military area, and the government is able to control which people remain in that area. Henry wonders what will happen to the Japanese who live on Vashon and Bainbridge Islands.

When Keiko is absent at school, and Henry ends up working alongside Denny Brown in the cafeteria. When the students come in for lunch, they want to be served by Denny and avoid Henry as if he were the enemy. Instead of returning to his class, Henry leaves school and heads in the direction of Nihonmachi. As he walks, he notices smoke.

Chapter 16 Summary: “Fires (1942)”

Henry cautiously makes his way toward Nihonmachi, avoiding truancy officers. The streets are mostly deserted. When he passes the photography studio where he saw the picture of Keiko, he sees the photographer shooting photos of burning garbage bins. But the residents of Nihonmachi aren’t burning garbage—they’re burning things that identify them as Japanese—kimonos, letters from Japan, old family photos. The photographer confesses that he burned his wedding photos the night before, although he was married right there in Seattle.

Chapters 13-16 Analysis

Henry finds he cannot forget the Panama Hotel or let past events stay buried in the past. He also finds it easy to lie to the hotel owner and say he is Japanese—an ironic circumstance in the life of a boy who used to wear a button identifying himself as Chinese. Henry is shocked to see the boxes and suitcases full of belongings and memorabilia, all of which are unclaimed. The implication of this is clear: After 40 years, many of the people whose belongings were housed in the Panama Hotel are no longer around. Some might have died, while others have moved on. Although Henry doesn’t find much of monetary value in the hotel basement, he finds items of sentimental value—letters, wedding garments, and photos.

In 1942, Henry’s father is pleased with the news that the United States has declared the Washington coastline a warzone because it means that thousands of Japanese will be evacuated from the area. This news horrifies Henry on behalf of Keiko, her family, and the many innocent residents of Nihonmachi. While Henry’s father believes it is completely appropriate to punish Japanese Americans for the actions of their ancestors or the current government of their ancestral land, Henry cannot agree with his father. He knows that it makes no sense to arrest teachers and artists and businessmen in the Japanese community. They are Americans like he is, not spies.

When Henry sets out to find Keiko, who was absent from school, he smells smoke and first believes that Nihonmachi has been set on fire. It is even worse, perhaps, to realize that the Japanese citizens are burning their own memories and pasts, not wanting to be associated with anything overtly Japanese. They are desperate to prove themselves as Americans. There is additional irony in the fact that Keiko’s parents speak perfect English and Keiko herself speaks no Japanese, yet Henry’s father speaks only Cantonese and has isolated himself within the confines of Chinatown.

Discrimination is not only aimed at the Japanese in these chapters. Henry continues to endure bullying and ostracism at school, where his peers refuse to be served by him in the cafeteria. This racism endures in the 1986 storyline, as Ms. Pettison assumes Henry is Japanese. Her assumption reflects a common ignorance that persists in America to this day, as the individual heritages and backgrounds of Asian Americans are often erased under a collective “Asian” label. This lends support to Henry’s father’s insistence that Henry explicitly mark himself as Chinese back in 1942, to avoid being lumped in with the Japanese.