Panama Hotel basement 'cold storage' of Japanese American belongings

The Panama Hotel in Seattle's International District retained a basement 'cold storage' room where many Japanese American residents left opaque, sealed boxes when they were forcibly removed to internment camps during World War II. Those boxes and other personal effects were later rediscovered and have been preserved in situ as a tangible record of the wartime incarceration; the site is often cited in local histories of the Japanese American community. The hotel and its preserved basement are documented elements of Seattle's historic built environment.