The Panama Hotel

More than anything else, the Panama Hotel is a symbol of the place that Japantown was before the Japanese were evacuated. The hotel was designed and built by a Japanese architect. For this reason, it was a place that Henry’s father forbade him to go. The hotel also worked as a go-between both in time and place. The hotel is described as “a place between worlds when he was a child, a place between times now that he was a grown man” (62). When Henry was a child, the hotel was a place between Japantown and Chinatown. In time, the hotel has remained the same from the time he was a child. Even though it has been purchased, the owner strives to keep the hotel true to its history. When he steps back into the renovated lobby as an adult, he feels as if...