Love, Life, History, Bitter and Sweet

Last week when I posted about the word bittersweet, Bonnie asked me why I had been thinking about that word and what prompted me to post about it. Aside from loving the word, I had just finished reading Jamie Ford's, "Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet" and of course, the word as one, not two words, kept reverberating in my consciousness.

Jamie Ford has created a wonderful story of love and hate. A story about two young people living in Seattle during World War II...he is Chinese, she is Japanese...but both are American, at a time when how you looked meant more than where you were born. The Japanese were being rounded up and sent inland to internment camps. Fear was running high after the bombing of Pearl Harbor at the hands of the Japanese. Fear is wrought from ignorance.

A Chinese person befriending, never mind loving a Japanese person was unacceptable at that time in history. Japan was at war with China before World War II. Perhaps it is better to say that Japan was decimating China in that war. Feelings were bitter and ran hard to the older generation. Imagine being a young boy who was being integrated into American life, American ways, told by his parents he must speak only "American" and not the family's native tongue, and had no ties to China other than those given to him by his parents. Imagine being a young boy breaking with tradition, because love is bigger than prejudice and hatred. Imagine doing that in a home where culture and tradition are more important than anything else.

This novel is about the experiences of a Chinese boy and a Japanese girl. It could happen in any culture, any race. Love does not discriminate.

Love sees only into a heart, into a soul, into a mind. Love does not see colour or the way that eyes slant, or do not. Love is not bitter, but a savoury delight. Love gives you strength and courage. It gives you wings of hope. Love allows you to be the whole of who you are and nothing less.