Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet: Thirteen (1942) Summary & Analysis

One month passes. Henry has turned thirteen. His father is confined to a wheelchair, and while he can whisper words to Henry’s mother, he refuses to speak to Henry. Keiko left for Camp Minidoka on August 11th. She’s now been gone more than a month, and Henry has not received a single letter from her. Chaz Preston has been kicked out of Rainier Elementary for vandalizing buildings in Japantown. Henry is wracked with guilt over not telling Keiko how he feels. He feels that even “after all the time he’d rebelled against his father’s wishes and his father’s ways […] he wasn’t that different from him at all”—not when it came to communicating his feelings.

Walking home alone from school one day, Henry stops to talk to Sheldon. Henry tells Sheldon how much he regrets his goodbye with Keiko. He says, “I didn’t even really say goodbye as much as I sent her away.” Sheldon suggests that he and Henry take the Greyhound bus to Idaho to find Keiko. Henry insists that he can’t leave his father: “If he found out I’d gone all the way to Idaho to see a Japanese girl, his heart would give out completely…” Sheldon assures Henry that his father’s stroke was not his fault, but Henry leaves for home anyway, convincing himself that going to see Keiko “just isn’t practical right now.”

At home, Henry’s mother informs Henry that a birthday card came from him. It’s from Keiko, and she signs it saying: “I won’t write you again, I don’t want to bother you. Maybe your father is right.” Hands shaking, Henry goes to his room and counts the money he’s saved all summer. He emerges with a suitcase and tells his mother he is going to the bus station and will be back in a few days.

Henry and Sheldon take the Greyhound bus together. Henry is planning to give Keiko his “I Am Chinese” button and try to sneak her out of Camp Minidoka with him. Henry and Sheldon make it to Walla Walla, where they stop and order food to go. They’re both surprised by how welcoming the people are whom they meet at the restaurant.

Finally in Idaho, Henry and Sheldon have no trouble finding Camp Minidoka: it has become “the seventh largest city in Idaho.” The two ride into the camp with a group of nurses. Sheldon points out Japanese men digging a sewer line and guesses that “it’ll be months before they get hot water or flushing toilets.”

Inside the camp, Henry finds a staff member who arranges to have a letter sent to the Okabes, notifying them they have a visitor. She cautions Henry that it might take a day for Keiko to get the notice that he is here. Henry fills out the slip and writes his name as “visitor,” since he wants to surprise Keiko. Henry and Sheldon wait for hours, until visiting hours end. As they head back outside, resolving to return the next day, Henry imagines he hears Keiko’s voice.

In fact, Keiko is there, standing outside the visitor’s center, clutching the notice Henry filled out. Keiko runs to Henry and he slips his hands into hers through the fence that separates them. Henry tells Keiko that he came to apologize for not saying goodbye. “I didn’t know what goodbye really was,” he says. Then he leans in to kiss Keiko through the fence. She kisses him back. “I came to do that,” he says.