Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet (18 page)

The hotel was the most impressive building in Nihonmachi, or the entire district for that matter. Standing as a sentinel between two distinct communities, it provided a comfortable home for people fresh off the boats, rooming by the week, or the month, or as long as it took to find a job, to save a little money, and to become an American. Henry wondered how many immigrants had rested their weary heads at the Panama Hotel, dreaming of a new life that began the day they stepped off the steamship from Canton or Okinawa, counting the days until they could send for their families. Days that usually turned to years.

Now the hotel stood as a run-down shell of its former glory. Immigrants, fishermen, and cannery workers who weren't allowed to bring their families with them from the Old Country used it as a permanent bachelor hotel.

Henry had always wanted to go down to the lower level. To see the two marble bathhouses, the
sento
, Keiko called them. They were supposedly the largest and most luxurious on the West Coast. But he was too scared.

Almost as scared as he was to tell his parents he was meeting Keiko. He'd hinted to his mother--in English no less--that he had a Japanese friend, and she had immediately shot him her stink-eye, a look of shock so profound he immediately dropped the subject.

Most Chinese parents were indifferent to the Japanese, or the Filipinos who were arriving daily fleeing the war or seeking better fortunes in America. Some Chinese harbored ill feelings, but most simply kept to themselves. His parents were different--they checked his shirt for an "I am Chinese" button every time he walked out the door. Father's nationalistic pride, his banner of protection, just kept swelling.

When he walked Keiko home, a polite wave or an occasional "Hello" to her parents was about as far as Henry got. He had been certain his father would somehow find out, so he kept his visits to a minimum. Keiko, on the other hand, gushed to her parents. About her friend Henry, his musical interests, and about wanting to meet for lunch today.

"Henry!" There she was, sitting on the front step waving. An early spring was showing signs of new life, and cherry blossoms were beginning to bloom--the streets, lined in pink and white flowers, finally smelled of something other than seaweed, salty fish, and low tide.

"I can be Chinese too," she teased him, pointing at Henry's button.
"Hou noi mou
gin."
It meant "How are you today, beautiful?"--in Cantonese.

"Where did you learn that?"

Keiko smiled. "I looked it up at the library."

"Oai deki te ureshii desu,"
Henry returned.

For an awkward moment, they just looked at each other, beaming, not knowing what to say, or in which language to say it. Then Keiko broke the silence. "My family is shopping in the market, we'll meet them for lunch."

They raced through the Japanese market to meet her parents. He let her win, a courteous gesture his father would have expected of him. And of course, Henry didn't know where he was going anyway. He followed her to the lobby of a Japanese noodle shop--recently renamed the American Garden.

"Henry, so nice to see you again." Mr. Okabe wore gray flannel pants and a hat that made him look like Cary Grant. Like Keiko, he spoke beautiful English.

The manager sat them at a round table near the window. Keiko sat across from Henry, while her mother found a booster seat for Keiko's little brother. Henry guessed he must have been all of three or four. He was playing with his black lacquered chopsticks, his mother scolding him gently, telling him it was bad luck.

"Thanks for walking Keiko home every day, Henry. We appreciate your being such a conscientious friend."

Henry wasn't exactly sure what
conscientious
meant, but as Mr. Okabe said it, he poured him a cup of green tea, so he took it as a compliment. Henry took the cup of tea with both hands, a sign of respect his mother had taught him, and offered to fill Mr.

Okabe's cup, but Keiko's father had already begun pouring his own, using the marble lazy Susan to work his way around the table.

"Thank you for inviting me." Henry wished he'd paid more attention in English class. Until he was twelve, he had been forbidden to speak English in his own home. His father had wanted him to grow up Chinese, the way he had done. Now everything was upside down. Yet the cadence of his words seemed to have more in common with that of the fishermen who came over from China than with the English Keiko and her family spoke so fluently.

"That's an interesting button you have on, Henry," Keiko's mother observed in a sweet, grandmotherly way. "Where did you get it?"

Reaching up, Henry covered it with his hand. He'd meant to take it off on the way over but had forgotten it in the race to the restaurant. "My father gave it to me; he said I'm supposed to wear it at all times--it's embarrassing."

"No, your father is right. He's a very wise man," Mr. Okabe said.

You wouldn't think that if you met him.

"You shouldn't be ashamed of who you are, never more than right now."

Henry looked at Keiko, wondering what she thought about this conversation. She just smiled and kicked him under the table, obviously feeling more at home here than in the school cafeteria.

"It's easy to be who you are here, but it's harder at school," said Henry. "At Rainier, I mean." What am I saying? It's hard being who I am
in my own house
, with my own family, he thought.

Mr. Okabe sipped his tea, reminding Henry to sip his own. It was lighter, with a flavor more subtle and transparent than the black oolong teas his own father favored.

"I knew going to a Caucasian school was going to present certain challenges for Keiko," Mr. Okabe said. "But we tell her, Be who you are, no matter what. I warned her that they may never like her, some might even hate her, but eventually, they will respect her--as an American."

Henry liked where the conversation was going, but he felt a little guilty too, wondering about his own family. Why hadn't anyone ever explained it that way? Instead he got a button and was forced to
speak his American.

"There's a free outdoor jazz concert on Jackson Street tonight-- Oscar Holden will be playing," Keiko's mother said. "Why don't you invite your family to join us?"

Henry looked at Keiko, who was smiling and raising her eyebrows. He couldn't believe what he was hearing. He'd seen Oscar Holden only that one time with Keiko.

He'd heard him a few times before that, but only by pressing his ear to the back-alley door of the Black Elks Club, where the legendary jazz pianist happened to be practicing.

The offer was tempting. Especially since he'd seen so little of Sheldon now that he was subbing for Oscar's usual sax man--"a once in a lifetime gig," Sheldon had called it.

Indeed.

But, unlike Keiko's parents, Henry's didn't care for
colored
music. In fact, they didn't seem to listen to music at all anymore. Classical or modern. Black or white. The only thing they listened to on the radio these days was the news.

It was a kind offer from the Okabes, but one he'd have to decline. Henry could picture the scene like a ten-cent horror matinee at the Atlas Theater--complete with Chinese subtitles. A dark tragedy springing to life as he explained that not only did he have a Japanese friend but her whole family wanted to take his to a jazz concert.

Before he could fake a polite answer to Mrs. Okabe, a half-empty bottle of
shoyu
began skipping around the table. Henry grabbed it and felt the ground tremble.

Through the rattling window, he could see a large deuce-and-a-half army truck belching black diesel fumes as it rumbled into the square. Its metal frame creaking and piercing the lumbering thunder of its massive engine. Even before its gas brakes squealed, people on the street began scattering in all directions. Only the very old or the very young stayed to observe the truckload of soldiers who sat stoically in the back of the massive rig.

More trucks kept coming, one after another, unloading American soldiers and military police with rifles who began canvassing the neighborhood, nailing small posters to doors, storefronts, and telephone poles. Merchants and customers alike poured out to see the commotion. Henry and the Okabes stepped onto the sidewalk as soldiers walked past, handing out copies of the flyer--"Public Proclamation 1," which was written in English and Japanese.

Henry looked at the paper in Keiko's hand. The bold type screamed: INSTRUCTIONS TO ALL PERSONS OF JAPANESE ANCESTRY. It was all about Japanese families being forced to evacuate, for their own safety. They had only a few days and could bring next to nothing--only what they could carry. At the bottom, it was signed by the president of the United States and the secretary of war. The rest of the flyer was a mystery to Henry, but not to Keiko's family. Her mother immediately began crying.

Her father looked upset but remained calm. Keiko touched her heart with her finger and pointed to Henry. He touched his and felt the button his family wore. "I am Chinese."

Better Them Than Us

(1942)

Henry burst into the little apartment he shared with his parents. His father sat in his easy chair calmly reading
Hsi Hua Pao
, the
Seattle Chinese Post.
His mother was in the kitchen, slicing vegetables from the sound of it--a knife rhythmically tapping a cutting board.

Henry handed a copy of the proclamation to his father, trying to breathe. He rubbed his side where it ached from running ten city blocks. Father glanced at it--Henry could tell by the look in his eyes that he was waiting for an explanation, in
American
, of why Henry was so upset. No, not this. Not now.
Just speak to me
was all Henry could think. He said the same in Chinese.

Father shook his head sternly, cutting Henry off as he tried to explain.

"No! You can't ignore me. Not anymore," Henry argued in English before slipping back into Chinese. "They're taking everyone away. All the Japanese. The army is taking everyone away!"

His father handed the proclamation back. "Better them than us."

His mother appeared from the kitchen, speaking Chinese, looking for an explanation. "Henry, why does this matter? We're at war. And we're our own community.

We take care of each other. You know this as well as anyone."

Henry didn't know what to say--or in which language to say it. He looked at both of his parents, and the words fell out. "It matters to me," he said in Chinese. Then he switched back to English. "It matters because
she's
Japanese."

He stormed to his bedroom, slamming the door. The images of his parents'

dumbfounded expressions lingering in his troubled mind. Through the door, he could hear them begin to argue.

Henry opened his window and climbed out onto the fire escape, leaning against the stiff metal railing, dejected. He could hear the army trucks thundering in the distance.

Beyond the alley, in the streets of Chinatown, people simply went about their business; some were looking, talking, or pointing in the direction of Nihonmachi, but for the most part, everyone was calm.

Henry watched as a car packed to the windows with boxes rolled up to the back door of the Kau Kau restaurant. To his surprise a young Japanese couple hopped out as people from the restaurant poured into the alley, hauling boxes of what Henry could only presume were personal effects into the restaurant. The things left unboxed were what gave it away. A floor lamp. A long rug, rolled and tied to the roof of the rusty green sedan. It all went inside, all but four suitcases, which the couple shouldered as best they could. There were hugs all around between this Japanese couple and their Chinese friends.

The Japanese couple walked off, out the alley and down the street, looking as though they were being dragged toward the train station. Henry looked up and down the alley one last time, thinking about Keiko and her family. About how they'd left the American Garden restaurant to try to make their own arrangements.

Henry went back inside and sprawled on his bed as his mother came in. He pawed through a stack of comic books, then saw the cover of
Marvel Mystery Comics Number
30
, the last issue he'd bought. The cover featured the Human Torch battling a Japanese submarine. The war is everywhere, Henry thought, shoving the comics under his bed as his mother set a plate of butter-almond cookies on his nightstand.

"Do you need to talk, Henry? If so, then please talk to me." She spoke in Cantonese, her eyes not masking her concern for him.

He looked at the open window. The blackout curtains hung stiff and heavy, barely moving in the breeze. He couldn't understand the chatter of the people on the street below. It drifted in and out like his longing to understand what was going on around him.

"Why won't he talk to me?" Henry asked his mother in Cantonese, still looking out the window.

"Who talk? Your father?"

After a long pause, Henry looked at her and nodded.

"He talks to you every day. What do you mean, why won't he talk?"

"He talks, but he doesn't listen to me."