In 1986, Henry Lee joins a crowd outside the Panama Hotel, once the gateway to Seattle's Japantown. It has been boarded up for decades, but now the new owner has discovered the belongings of Japanese families who were sent to internment camps during World War II. As the owner unfurls a Japanese parasol, Henry, a Chinese American, remembers a young Japanese American girl from his childhood in the 1940s - Keiko Okabe, with whom he forged a bond of friendship and innocent love that transcended the prejudices of their Old-World ...
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In 1986, Henry Lee joins a crowd outside the Panama Hotel, once the gateway to Seattle's Japantown. It has been boarded up for decades, but now the new owner has discovered the belongings of Japanese families who were sent to internment camps during World War II. As the owner unfurls a Japanese parasol, Henry, a Chinese American, remembers a young Japanese American girl from his childhood in the 1940s - Keiko Okabe, with whom he forged a bond of friendship and innocent love that transcended the prejudices of their Old-World ancestors. After Keiko and her family were evacuated to the internment camps, she and Henry could only hope that their promises to each other would be kept.Now, forty years later, Henry explores the hotel's basement for the Okabe family's belongings and for a long-lost object whose value he cannot even begin to measure. His search will take him on a journey to revisit the sacrifices he has made - for family, for love, for country.
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Great story around downtown Seattle and the Japanese internment
Jane E
May 1, 2014
Excellent insight into a period that shames all of us Americans.
Judy H
Mar 28, 2013
Excellent Historical Novel
This novel gives a rare perspective on how disrupted Americans of Asian descent were treated after the Japanese attacks on Allied forces during WWII. Through the eyes of the major characters, the author brings a clear understanding to readers and to the modern generation of Asians portrayed in the novel.
Charlene C
Mar 31, 2012
Book gave you a personalized look into the life of young America at a time of war and how it affected personally two groups of citizens their lives.
Good read
Marcia B
Aug 4, 2011
Reminder of time gone by
This is a truly charming story, but don't let that
put you off!
It takes you to the time of the attack on Pearl Harbor...and then moves you into the lives of Asian American families living in Seattle.
It a wonderful reminder that as children...we do not know all the stories our parents have to tell.