Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Belonging, Bigotry, and Identity
Silence vs. Communication
Family Dynamics and Inheritance
Memory
Love and Self-Sacrifice
Summary
Analysis
Henry avoids walking through Chinatown; he doesn’t want to run into one of the truant officers, members of local Chinese families who patrol the streets looking for children skipping school. Henry heads toward the photography studio where he once saw a picture of Keiko on display. He finds the photographer he spoke with that day photographing what looks like a garbage fire. The photographer explains that families are actually burning “anything that might connect them to the war with Japan”: letters, clothing, photographs. “I burned my own wedding photos,” the photographer says. Overwhelmed, Henry flees homeward with the taste of smoke in his mouth.
The photographer’s anguish over having been compelled to burn his wedding photos illustrates the devastating emotional toll that anti-Japanese feeling took on Japanese Americans during this period. Additionally, the photographer’s willingness to destroy belongings so precious to him demonstrates the length to which many Japanese Americans were willing to go to prove their loyalty to their country—despite the fact that that country turned a blind eye to their emotional sacrifice.
Themes
