This book drained me. I'm reading along - watching the relationships between the terrorists and the hostages. Cheering for Ishmael when he asks to play chess, listening for Cesar to sing, enjoying the cooking, the gardening, the language lessons, the singing. As Carmen says at one point - why would anyone want to leave here? We know this can't happen - that eventually their co-existence will end - but still hope prevails. And with 8 pages to go - WHAM - hopes and dreams are shattered. Carmen won't learn Japanese, Ishmael will not be adopted, Cesar will not go to Italy to sing, Mr. Hosokawa will not have to decide between his wife and Roxanne, Messner can go home to Switzerland. 
As others have said, I didn't care for the epilogue - although I don't know how I would have ended the story. Maybe with a profile of Gen teaching languages to children, and Roxanne singing only Puccini - but not with the two of them together.