I was first drawn to this book when I read that it was about the Japanese Internment Camps that arose on the west coast during World War II. I've always found the fact that the United States camp to a similar solution to what it viewed as a threat to its society as the Germans. I also find it terrifying that many people in the United States now don't know that these camps existed because if you cannot learn from your mistakes, you're bound to make them again. 
 The book itself is a love story wrapped very neatly into the horrible days in the lives of Japanese Americans during this time. The story unfolds in both 1940s Seattle and 1980s Seattle. Henry, the narrator is a Chinese American, who found it necessary to wear a pin that said "I am Chinese" so that discriminating Americans wouldn't persecute him along with the Japanese. 
 Henry attended a private school and was the only non-white kid in the place, until a Japanese girl named Keiko comes to it too. That is the beginning of Henry's first love. 
 In 1980, Henry is now a widow. His wife Ethel died of cancer and he finds himself looking for the record that he and Keiko bought together all those years ago. When he finally finds it he is faced with deciding if searching for his long lost first love is a betrayal to his recently deceased wife. But with time, his son convinces him that he deserves to be happy and that Ethel, his mom, would have agreed. 
 While I'm not a fan of open ended endings, I enjoyed the ambiguity that this book left behind because it kept with the very real themes it touched upon. Good read.