His Western last name "Ford" comes from his great grandfather, Min Chung (1850–1922), [1] who immigrated to Tonopah, Nevada in 1865 and later changed his name to William Ford. Ford's great grandmother, Loy Lee Ford, [2] was the first Chinese woman to own property in Nevada. 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 displays and 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 promise 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.

Henry wasn't sure which was... Worse, (pg 27) and ... More .frustrating (pg 29). Which just led me thinking: Where was the editor here? Forty years later, Henry Lee is certain that the parasol belonged to Keiko. In the hotel’s dark dusty basement he begins looking for signs of the Okabe family’s belongings and for a long-lost object whose value he cannot begin to measure. Now a widower, Henry is still trying to find his voice–words that might explain the actions of his father; that might bridge the gap between him and his modern, Chinese American son; words that might help him confront the choices he made years ago. Henry and Keiko bond over their shared love of jazz music. One night, while attending a performance by their friend Sheldon Thomas and famous Seattle musician Oscar Holden, Henry and Keiko witness the arrest of several Japanese citizens by the FBI. Not long after, many Japanese families begin to burn letters and family photos—anything that might cause the police to be suspicious of their loyalty to America. Keiko finds she can’t bring herself to burn her family’s photo albums and asks Henry to hide them for her; he agrees. Shortly after Henry meets Keiko’s parents for the first time, word comes that the Japanese American families are Seattle will be removed and resettled in internment camps.Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature winners selected". American Library Association . Retrieved December 4, 2013. Set during one of the most conflicted and volatile times in American history, Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet is an extraordinary story of commitment and enduring hope. In Henry and Keiko, Jamie Ford has created an unforgettable duo whose story teaches us of the power of forgiveness and the human heart. Praise for Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet Random House Reader’s Circle: Where did the idea for Hotel on theCorner of Bitter and Sweet come from? Until I read The Buddha In The Attic recently I knew nothing of the plight of Japanese immigrants in America during WWII but that novel opened my eyes to the problems they encountered.Having read and very much enjoyed that book I was drawn to Hotel On The Corner Of Bitter And Sweet due to its similar subject matter. I was not disappointed. Jamie Ford was born on July 9, 1968, in Eureka, California, but grew up in Ashland, Oregon, and Port Orchard and Seattle, Washington. His father, a Seattle native, is of Chinese ancestry, while Ford's mother is of European descent.

Set in Seattle during the Japanese internment during WW2. This book has a sweeping feel to it. It starts out slow - but not slow in the sense who feel like you are waiting for paint to dry - but slow in the "This is really going somewhere" kind of way. It does go somewhere by the way. Once the ball gets rolling, this book sweeps you up into the lives of two friends who made a promise to see each other again. I think the author should have made Henry and Keiko a bit older...I found it impossible to accept that these "children" had such a relationship. Absolutely implausible. I also found the writing to be clumsy, full of cliches, AND I felt nothing for any of the characters. Usually I feel some connection, but not here. I found a LOT of inaccuracies in this book and many logical incongrities, but since I was driving while listening, I could not make notes on them...but I groaned a LOT! This author really needed to do better research or have an editor who knows something about history. One of the most egregious errors was when Henry's son was participating in an online grief group...in 1986!!!!! Also in 1986, a rear-projection TV in a nursing home, Someone died in 1986 but was buried in the same cemetery as a celebrity who died in 1993. He said that a Japanese sub DESTROYED an oil refinery in CA, when, in reality, it had barely damaged the refinery. Yeah, right, sure. Many online reviewers, who know a lot more about World War II than I do, really zoned in on all the the mistakes about the war. For example, Japan occupied Canton until 1945 (not 1942 as the author stated), To me, all of these errors of fact are the signs of a lazy writer. I know that with fiction, readers are expected to suspend belief, but not about FACTS!

Jamie Ford

I had my chance, and sometimes in life, there are no second chances. You look at what you have, not what you miss, and you move forward.” Also, I think that most people can relate to seeing their first love again,at a class reunion or just by chance, and there’s this wave of nostalgia andmelancholy—- it’s very poignant and universal, I think. Plus, as a writer, itwas interesting to explore Henry’s character as an adult. As the saying goes,everyone has two chances at a parent/child relationship, once as a child andonce as a parent. To me, that was a rich dynamic worth exploring. His stories have also been included in Secret Identities: The Asian American Superhero Anthology and The Apocalypse Triptych, a series of three anthologies of apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction where Ford wrote Asian-themed steampunk. The collections were edited by John Joseph Adams and Hugh Howey. JF: I do, but I didn’t know it at the time. I lived in Ashland, Oregon, untilI was twelve, and one of my best friend’s fathers had been uprooted asa child and sent to a camp in Arkansas. I never knew that until I wasdoing my research and saw that he’d written a book of poetry about hiscamp experiences (five actually). His name is Lawson Inada–he’s nowOregon’s Poet Laureate, by the way. We were able to reconnect and hewas kind enough to read an early version of my manuscript. Henry is now in his mid-50s, a widower and an old man in his own mind. But in 1942 he was just 12, often confused by the baffling changes sweeping across the world, the country and even his own neighborhood. The son of Cantonese-speaking Chinese immigrants, Henry has received a prestigious scholarship to a private school, where he is the only non-white student. That is, until Keiko Okabe, a beautiful young Japanese-American girl, joins his class.

The story is a diary of the main protagonist Henry Lee, the story consists of two parallel story lines with one following Henry's childhood during the Second World War, and the other showing Henry as a grown man who is married and has a son.Switching between 1942 and 1986 this is an easy read on a complex subject. A historical romance with a Romeo & Juliet twist, this time the doomed love affair between Henry, a Chinese American and Keiko, a Japanese American; its historical focus the internment of Japanese Americans during WW2. The historical aspects are a close second, though. I love cultural historyand am always pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoy the researchprocess. I feel like an archaeologist, dusting off the past andpresenting it to the reader. And of course, it adds context to my characters,giving them a rich world to splash around in. I find the wholeprocess incredibly motivating as a writer.