Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet Chapter 16 Summary

Fires (1942)

  • Henry immediately heads toward Nihonmachi because he sees plumes of smoke from the distance. He's terribly worried about Keiko and her family.
  • When he gets to Japantown, he sees that a bunch of people are setting garbage cans on fire. A young man is taking pictures of it as it happens.
  • When Henry asks what's going on, the man tells him that it's not garbage that people are burning—it's anything that can link them to Japan.
  • People are burning their kimonos, their Japanese flags, and even their family photo albums. How tragic.
  • The photographer admits he burned all his old photos, even his wedding photos. It's obvious this hurts him a lot.
  • Henry can't stand to see this anymore, so he runs all the way home.