Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet

Henry’s relationship with Keiko grows after her family is evacuated from Nihonmachi, but as their love begins to blossom, they are separated by the physical barbed-wire barrier of the internment camps, with Henry as a visitor on the outside and Keiko as a prisoner on the inside. Their first kiss is through the barbed wire at Camp Minidoka. The barbed wire is an example of a physical barrier, but the invisible barriers in Henry’s life are stronger, such as the massive divide between him and his father.

Jazz is Henry’s escape from his troubles with family and school. The music transcends the troubled situation in Nihonmachi and unites people from different races and backgrounds. Henry and Keiko form a particular bond over the music, specifically an elusive Oscar Holden record on which their friend Sheldon plays saxophone. The music can be heard at crucial moments in the story: when Sheldon serenades a deserted Nihonmachi, when Keiko plays the record from within the confines of Camp Harmony, and when Sheldon’s family and friends gather to hear the record one more time as he is dying.