Again, thinking about the ways that the United States memorializes dark moments in our history. . .
The Panama Hotel in Seattle's Japantown (part of the International District) came up in conversation when some of us visited the Bieblplatz (the book burning memorial) here in Berlin. The Panama Hotel was owned by a Japanese businessman who leased the building to friends while he was interned during the Second World War; as Japanese folks--many of them US born--were preparing to leave their homes in the face of forced relocation, the owner of this hotel offered space to store belongings in the basement of the hotel. Many of the items were never claimed.
When the hotel changed owners and went through significant remodeling sixty years later, some families were reunited with long lost items. Others remain in the basement of the Panama Hotel. There is a lovely tea shop on the ground floor of the hotel, and between two tables toward the back of the tea shop, there is a plexiglass window that allows you to peer down into the basement and see some of the items that remain.
http://www.seattleglobalist.com/2012/06/06/japantowns-panama-hotel-hides-a-treasure-trove-of-history/1789
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