Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet

Keiko, a 12-year-old Japanese girl caught up in post-Pearl Harbor fervor, considers herself American first and foremost. She lives with her family in Nihonmachi but does not speak Japanese. Like Henry, she does not choose friends based on their skin color or nationality. Though Keiko is Japanese and Henry Chinese, and though their communities and native countries are mired in conflict, the two find support and understanding in each other. Keiko is a talented artist, even from a young age. While her family is held in internment camps, she tries several times to let Henry down gently—not because she doesn’t love him but because she doesn’t want him to suffer while he waits for her.

By her account, Keiko makes the best of her situation in the internment camps, becoming involved in school and community activities. At the end, Keiko is revealed to be just as sentimental as Henry about their time together, as she has saved the Oscar Holden record he brought her at Camp Harmony and framed a sketch of them. Keiko did indeed come to find Henry after her release from Camp Minidoka and was in the crowd on V-J Day. Seeing Henry with Ethel, she did the best thing she could think to do for him: She let him go. This demonstrates how sweet and bitter forces are at work in every character’s narrative arc, not just Henry’s. Like Henry, Keiko completes her transition to adulthood when she accepts this bittersweet reality and acts in Henry’s best interests rather than her own. This choice highlights the difference in how Henry is loved by Keiko and by his father, as Keiko’s love is both selfless and considerate.

Sheldon is both Henry’s friend and a surrogate parent. He has more knowledge and insight into Henry’s life than Henry’s parents do. Sheldon takes Henry’s lunch every day because Henry would be bullied out of his lunch if he brought it to school. Sheldon, an African American, understands discrimination and helps out however he can. He hides Keiko’s family photos when Henry’s father throws them out, sacrifices his only copy of the coveted Oscar Holden record for Keiko’s birthday, and accompanies Henry to Idaho to meet up with Keiko at Camp Minidoka. Sheldon’s life is long and full, and he dies surrounded by friends and family members—a fitting end for someone who selflessly helps promote the cause of love.

Marty, Henry’s son, has grown up without knowing anything of his father’s past, other than the fact that Henry’s father was a strict, traditionalist Chinese man. Marty has projected these same feelings upon Henry, believing that an anti-Japanese sentiment kept Henry from passing through the former Japantown. Marty, by dating a Caucasian woman, has brought the story of Henry and Keiko nearly full circle. The lone impediment in his life with Samantha is Henry, and after spending only a few minutes with Samantha, Henry immediately approves of her. At the beginning of the novel, Marty also believes that Henry mistreated Ethel by keeping her at home to die when she could have gone to a nice, fancier hospice house or nursing home. This clash between new and modern, old and traditional is broken when Marty himself who encourages Henry to reunite with Keiko. Marty’s relationship with Henry serves as a foil to Henry’s relationship with his own father, as the latter was fractured beyond compare, while the former is strengthened by compassion and understanding.