Last week I got a sad email from Mr. Hori’s daughter, Susan. Mr. Hori passed away at the age of 95. My heart goes out to his children, Susan and Robert. They took such good care of him and he always told me how proud he was of them. Mr. Hori was such a vibrant, …
This is the conclusion of the series of Mr. Hori and the Panama Hotel: A Nisei Immigrant Story Part I, Part II, Part III, Part IV, Part V, Part VI, Part VII From Mr. Hori’s stories, I tried to imagine camp life in the middle of the Idaho desert. Especially, this being the age of information,I wondered if being interned was …
Continuation from the series of Mr. Hori and the Panama Hotel: A Nisei Immigrant Story Part I, Part II, Part III, Part IV, Part V, Part VI In the fall of 1943, the Japanese internees at Puyallup, Washington were bused to the train tracks in Puyallup, and travelled by train to their permanent internment camp called Minidoka Relocation Camp in Hunt, …
Continuation from the series of Mr. Hori and the Panama Hotel: A Nisei Immigrant Story Part I, Part II, Part III, Part IV, Part V The government began sending a notice to each family informing them to report with their belongings on a designated day at a specific location. Mr. Hori recalls waiting in line on 8th Avenue …
Continuation from the series of Mr. Hori and the Panama Hotel: A Nisei Immigrant Story Part I, Part II, Part III, Part IV In early 1942, the US government plastered the telephone poles with posters stating that all Japanese living within a certain boundary were to report to the government office by certain date in …
On Saturday, Eddie Horikawa, my friend who is 91 years old and my ikebana teacher’s husband, was honored with ninety other Nisei veterans and received the Congressional Gold Medal for their WWII service. Nisei, are second generation Japanese American; those born in the United States to Japanese immigrant parents. It was an honor to see …
Continuation from Part III. click here for Part I and Part II. Sunday, December 7, 1941 the Japanese invaded Pearl Harbor and the following day, President Roosevelt gave his famous Infamy Speech, declaring war against Japan. Although Seattle is a good distance away from Hawaii, life in Japantown started to change. Announcements to the citizens …
Continuation from Part I and Part II: Running the apartment house on 6th and Colombia whilst attending Broadway HS was busy work for the young Takashi but because his parent’s limited English, he had to assist them with the business. Upon graduating high school, he decided to attend the University of Washington to study accounting. …
Mr. Hori today in front of his home Part II Sanjiro and Toyo Hori had four children: Toyome born in 1916, Takashi (1918), Fukashi (1921) and Aiko (1926). Although, they lived in America, Takashi, as the first born son in a Japanese family, was responsible to carry on the family business. The meshiya that Sanjiro …
Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet is a historical fiction novel about a little love story between a Chinese boy and Japanese girl during the 1940’s Japanese internment of WWII based in Seattle, Washington. As you can imagine, it’s a popular choice for book clubs where I live because you can actually visit …