The Panama Hotel and Teahouse – a nearby National Treasure

Jan Johnson, the owner of the Panama Hotel in the Chinatown International District of Seattle, gives a tour of the hotel Tuesday July 21, 2015. During World War II, the prior owner of the Panama Hotel allowed Japanese American families to store their belongings in the basement of the hotel when they were forced into internment camps. Many of the belongings have remained there, relatively untouched. The Panama Hotel recently received a grant from the National Park Service's Japanese American Confinement Sites Grant Program for over $130,000 to start cataloguing and preserving the artifacts there.

If you walk or drive down 6th Avenue toward the International District, you’ll find a National Treasure at the corner of 6th and Main Street – the Panama Hotel. This 105 year old building is the subject of the historical novel “The Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet.” Currently owned and preserved by Jan Johnson, there’s hope that the Panama Hotel may survive and live on to help us remember the history of Japanese immigrants and citizens during the first half of the 20th century.

One can stop there for tea and peer into the basement where the citizens of Japanese descent left their personal belongings at a dark time in our history as they were forced into internment camps. Thanks to Jan Johnson’s efforts there’s hope that the memories preserved in the Panama Hotel will live on.

Read more from a Seattle Times article here.

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