Mr. FORD: There's sort of a lost jazz recording that is a central element in the story, and it's something that they share together. They share the music together, and then when this certain Seattle jazz performer - who actually is the only non-fictional character in the book, Oscar Holden - when he records a record and they buy that together, when they wander out of Chinatown and Japantown to this stalwart department store in Seattle, they're seen as outsiders. And racism can be subtle, and there's instances in the book where it's portrayed as such. Henry’s Inner Conflict. Henry is most conflicted in following his father’s rules and expectations. He ends up doing things that outright defy his father, and others that are done on the sly. Regardless, Henry spends three years being ignored by his father entirely, and told during such highly emotional times that he is a stranger, that he is dead to his father. Henry must choose between what is right and his father’s hatred for the Japanese. For a highly traditional family, it is not something that is easy for Henry, but it is something he must do. Mr. FORD: At the time, it was a saw mill community and a farming community with a sizable Japanese population, but because it was self-contained and it was isolated, that was the first area that was evacuated. It was - you know, there was one bridge leading onto the island and then a ferry towards Seattle, so it was pretty easy for the Army to round everyone up, and it was almost an experiment in, was this feasible? How can we do this? 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.

Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet". Publishers Weekly. 255 (37): 40. 2008-09-15. ISSN 0000-0019. 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.Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet' is a love story of many things - Seattle, families and people in cultural transition, letting go of beloved traditions, an innocent romance between a boy and a girl - while it also quietly reflects on the failures and stresses behind 'multiculturalism'. Jamie Ford joins us from the studios of KGPR in Great Falls, Montana. Thanks so much for being with us. Camps were set up with barbed wire that were meant to protect the people within from those who wanted to hurt them. Finding a place for these camps were difficult due to various organizations such as labor unions and even American Indians. Those within could leave the camps. Some 40,000 Japanese families requested placement in camps where they had free food and many other benefits while other Americans had rationing. One old Japanese woman told the author she was working 16 hours a day until she entered the camp. She missed it. Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet has been translated into 35 languages. [ citation needed] Songs of Willow Frost [ edit ]

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. The author said, at the end, that he did not intend to make this book about the internment camps...but perhaps he should have put that statement at the beginning because I think maybe people were expecting that to be the focus of this book... World War II caused prejudices to explode within and without the enclaves, both from national patriotism and personal considerations. To some White Americans, there were no differences between the Japanese-Americans, Chinese-Americans and the enemy Japanese. Likewise, to many immigrant first-generation Chinese-Americans, all Japanese were enemies since Japan had been slaughtering Chinese in China for a decade, long before the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. Henry's father hated the Japanese whether American-Japanese or not. He had suspicions about Japanese-American loyalties the same as many Whites did. He forced Henry to wear a large button declaring Henry to be Chinese in English to protect him from abuses from White people (in spite of the button, Henry still suffers from beatings by a white student at school).Sue Fawn Chung (2000). "Chapter 12". In Kriste Lindenmeyer (ed.). Ordinary Women, Extraordinary Lives: Women in American History. Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 9780842027540 . Retrieved July 13, 2016. I’ve had friends travel to Iran in the past and they’ve told me wonderful things—about the history, the culture, and especially the kind and generous people. I enjoyed 'Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet' by Jamie Ford. It is deceptively low-key and emotionally even-tempered despite the controversial subject matter. For me Jamie Ford's heralded, multiple award-winning Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet was an entirely luke warm reading experience from start to finish.