STATUS: Enjoyed a quiet day because of the Passover holiday. I caught up on a lot of emails.
What’s playing on the XM or iPod right now? CUTS LIKE A KNIFE by Bryan Adams
If you have read HOTEL ON THE CORNER OF BITTER AND SWEET, you’ll know that in the front matter of the book, there is a picture of a Japanese girl circa 1942. She’s wearing a tag on her jacket and it’s implied that she is leaving for the internment camps.
It’s a powerful picture.
The week before last, Jamie was doing a reading/signing at Woodland Reads. He discovered that the young girl in the photo is still alive and lived nearby. So he invited Mae Yanagi to come and be his special secret guest.
And she did! Okay, I got a shiver just looking at the pics so here they are.
She stuck around and signed books with Jamie for the whole evening. How cool is that?
Pretty cool! It sounds like a great moment. I can’t even imagine what that’d be like.
I remember the post where you talked about his query and first mentioned the “I am Chinese” buttons.
Fascinating stuff.
And a BIG congrats to author and agent.
That is so cool! I loved Hotel and this just makes it even better.
What a wonderful surprise for those who went to his signing and got to meet her and have her sign their books, too. That’s an adorable picture of her as a little girl. How did he discover that she’s still alive? Did he do some research or was it by accident?
That’s incredible! Gives me goosebumps!
That is beyond cool!! I loved the book, one of my all time favs and now…well, that is just icing on the cake.
How very sweet.
Layla Fiske
Wow, that is very cool! I need to read that book!
Very cool. I love it when things come full circle. (I almost typed I love it when a plan comes together but it didn’t seem correct)
That’s amazing. Wish I’d been there.
It’s amazing how synchronicity works–I got chills looking at the picture.
So awesome. Tx for this inspiring post.
It’s so lovely to see her as an adult with a big smile on her face, after looking at that sweet little girl and knowing what she was about to endure.
“Bitter and Sweet” is right! And now for the sweet. It’s wonderful to see her happy smile.
That’s really awesome! (And I love that it happened in Woodland–I love my hometown 🙂
Wow! What an experience for both of them!
I love stories like that.
Like! Like, like, like. (Like that it worked out like this.)
I was following Jaime’s status updates on facebook, thinking how damn cool is this. Everything about this book is wonderful.
Finally read it last month and LOVED it – especially after spending quite a bit of time on the Seattle U campus this past winter and realizing that’s THE neighborhood. If I get back, I plan to explore further.
What a cool story about the picture, Kristin. I’d love to hear her story some day.
Loved the book, and what a super cool thing to happen, a character coming off the page and into real life.
way too cool.
How very cool! What a wow moment for them both.
That’s amazing! What a great follow up on a fantastic story.
So cool and she is so much smarter than me for following up on an idea. Some time back I found out there was one man who survived both Hiroshima, where he was on business and was severely burnt, and Nagasaki, his home town where he went to recover from the first attack. I figured he probably died long ago, but then read an article that he died 4 Jan 2010. That would have been a real good story. The fact he was at both was real bad karma, the fact he survived both and lived till he was 94 says his karma was in perfect balance. Anyhow I really liked the story of the meeting.
Very cool. I’ll go and order this book now.
I was moved when I read this. Thanks for passing it along.
VERY cool.