The Panama Hotel represents the way in which memory persists and manages to reassert itself, even when it is thought to have been long since buried and forgotten. While the hotel once served as a place for recent immigrants from China and Japan to rent a room while establishing their new lives in America, by the 1940s (when Henry is a child) the hotel has fallen into disrepair. In Henry’s adulthood, the hotel is finally being restored by its new owner, Palmyra Pettison, and the inciting incident of the novel is the discovery of abandoned belongings in the hotel basement. Evacuating Seattle to be forced into internment camps, many Japanese families left treasured items in the Panama Hotel, hoping to someday return and collect them.
The hotel thus has a multilayered quality: many histories have been metaphorically rewritten, erased, and re-inscribed on the walls of this building. Henry has been dealing with this phenomenon for years, trying his best to forget his first love, Keiko, while he builds a life with his wife, Ethel, and their son, Marty. But like the items discovered in the basement of the hotel, Henry’s childhood memories remain buried just below the surface. Though the hotel stands as a painful reminder to Henry of losing Keiko, he finds that confronting this memory liberates him—not only bringing him emotional peace, but also reuniting him with his long-lost love.
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The Panama Hotel Symbol Timeline in Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet
The timeline below shows where the symbol The Panama Hotel appears in Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
The Panama Hotel (1986)
...curious onlookers—including a television crew—Henry Lee stands before the Panama Hotel in downtown Seattle. The hotel once served as “a gateway between Seattle’s Chinatown and Nihonmachi, Japantown,” and the only time...
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Henry approaches the steps of the hotel, which has been boarded up since 1950, and listens as the hotel’s new owner, Palmyra...
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Marty Lee (1986)
...home and turns on the news to listen for information about the discovery at the hotel. Soon, Marty arrives for a visit. Marty is a college student studying chemistry, and Henry...
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Bud’s Jazz Records (1986)
...Holden record, as well as the recent discovery of World War II belongings at the Panama Hotel . When Henry tries to buy a record, the storeowner gifts it to him, offering...
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Dim Sum (1986)
...his dad. After being pressed, Henry confesses that he is planning to head to the Panama Hotel and ask to look around. Marty asks whether Henry is planning to look for “some...
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I Am Japanese (1986)
Henry is on his way to the Panama Hotel to request permission to look through the belongings that have been discovered. On the bus...
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At the hotel, Henry meets with Palmyra Pettison, the building’s new owner. She asks whether Henry is a...
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The Basement (1986)
Henry enters the basement of the hotel, which is packed full of trunks and looks like “a secondhand store.” Henry feels sure...
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Old News (1986)
Henry continues searching through belongings in the hotel basement. He is struck by how “random” the items seem, reminding himself that “people once...
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Palmyra Pettison arrives to let Henry know the hotel is closing for the day. She agrees to let him return the same time next...
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Marty’s Girl (1986)
...Henry spends the entire day in Chinatown, looking for “any excuse to walk by the Panama Hotel .” When he arrives back home, he finds Marty waiting for him. Henry panics, thinking...
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Ume (1986)
...to daydream about how much easier it would be to sort through belongings at the Panama Hotel if he had help.
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...then asks Marty and Samantha to meet him next Thursday in the tearoom of the Panama Hotel .
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Tea (1986)
Marty and Samantha meet Henry at the Panama Hotel tearoom. Marty explains to Samantha that Henry was not allowed in Japantown as a boy,...
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...Henry merely asks his son and Samantha to join him in the basement of the hotel. Once there, Henry explains that when the Japanese families of Seattle were sent to interment...
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Parents (1942)
On Saturday, Henry and Keiko meet in front of the Panama Hotel . In Cantonese, Keiko asks Henry, “How are you today, beautiful?” “I can be Chinese...
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Sketchbook (1986)
In the basement of the Panama Hotel , Henry, Marty, and Samantha sort through items. Henry finds himself annoyed that Marty and...
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Visiting Hours (1942)
...says no; she stored it with her family’s other belongings in the basement of the Panama Hotel . Henry promises that, regardless, he’ll bring the items Keiko requested to her next Saturday.
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Home Again (1942)
...about getting a new Oscar Holden record to replace the one Keiko left in the Panama Hotel before going to Camp Harmony.
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...sneak in and retrieve Keiko’s record from the basement, but when he crosses behind the hotel, Henry finds Chaz Preston, Will Whitworth, and several other school bullies also trying to break...
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Dinner (1986)
...Henry. The three toast to “a successful find in the basement time capsule of the Panama Hotel .” Samantha brings out the special dessert she’s made: dragon’s beard candy. “I’ve been practicing,”...
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Steps (1986)
...and dedicated husband, but he would walk blocks out of his way to avoid the Panama Hotel and the memory of Keiko.” Henry tells Marty that he should keep Keiko’s sketchbook; he’s...
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Moving (1942)
...the Okabes’ stall because there is a banner on it that reads “Welcome to the Panama Hotel .”
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Sheldon Thomas (1986)
...to give Sheldon the Oscar Holden record he found with Marty and Samantha in the Panama Hotel basement. Henry warns Sheldon that the record is broken, but Sheldon asks to hold it...
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Years (1945)
...buy the Panama Hotel. Henry’s father gives “a crooked smile,” and Henry intuits that the hotel will, indeed, soon be sold. He feels saddened thinking that when Keiko comes home, there...
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Meeting at the Panama (1945)
...father. He plans to start over in China, and he hopes that “if that old hotel [is] still around, Nihonmachi [can] start over too.”
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...in March, one month from now, he will meet her on the steps of the Panama Hotel . Henry tells the girl at the post office that this is the last time...
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...specified in his letter, and Henry is waiting for Keiko on the steps of the Panama Hotel . Henry thinks of this as “one last noble gesture, so when he board[s] the...
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V-J Day (1945)
...finds himself at the Panama Hotel, knowing that “if he [takes] another step toward the hotel, […] he [will] break Ethel’s heart.” He turns away, and sees Ethel across the sidewalk;...
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