“My father came from Japan in 1905. He was fifteen when he immigrated from Japan. He worked until he was able to buy – to actually build a store.”
Let me tell you the story in the form of a dream
I don't know why I have to tell it but I know what it means
Close your eyes and just picture the scene / as I paint it for you
It was World War II when this man named Kenji woke up
Ken was not a soldier / he was just a man with a family
Who owned a store in LA / that day
He crawled out of bed like he always did
Bacon and eggs with wife and kids / he lived on the
Second floor of a little store he ran
He moved to L.A from Japan
They called him “Immigrant” / in Japanese
He'd say he was called "iisei" / that meant
First Generation In The United States
When everyone was afraid of the Germans / afraid of the “Japs”
But most of all afraid of a homeland attack
And that morning when Ken went out on the doormat
His world went black 'cause
Right there / front page news
Three weeks before 1942
"Pearl Harbor's been bombed and “The Japs Are Coming"
Pictures of soldiers dying and running
Ken knew what it would lead to
Just like he guessed / the President said,
The “evil Japanese” in our home country will be locked away
They gave Ken a couple of days
To get his whole life packed in two bags
Just two bags
Couldn't even pack his clothes
Some folks didn't even have a suitcase
To pack anything in
So two trash bags was all they gave them
When the kids asked mom / where are we going
Nobody even knew what to say to them
Ken didn't want to lie
He said the US is looking for spies
So we have to live in a place called Manzanar
Where a lot of Japanese people are
Stop it / don't look at the gunmen
You don't wanna get the soldiers wondering
If you gonna run or not 'cause if you run then you might get shot
Other than that / try not to think about it
Try not to worry 'bout it being so crowded
'Cause someday we'll get out / someday / someday.
”Yeah, soon as war broke out, the F.B.I came and… they just come to the house and, you have to come. All the Japanese have to go. They took Mr. Ni, the people couldn't understand, why did they have to take him because he's just an innocent laborer…”
So now they're in a town with soldiers surrounding them
Every day every night / looked down at them
From watchtowers up on the wall
Ken couldn't really hate them at all
They were just doing their job and
He wasn't gonna make any problems
He had a little garden / vegetables and fruits that he gave to the troops
In a basket his wife made
But in the back of his mind he wanted his families life saved
Prisoners of war in their own damn country
What for?
And time passed in the prison town / he wondered
If he'd live it down when they were free
The only way out was joining the army / and supposedly
Some men went out for the army / signed on
And ended up flying to Japan with a bomb
That 15 kiloton blast put an end to the war pretty fast
Two cities were blown to bits
The end of the war came quick
And Ken got out
Big hopes of a normal life with his kids and his wife / but
When they got back to their home / and
What they saw made him feel so alone
These people had trashed every room
Smashed in the windows and bashed in the doors
Written on the walls and the floor:
"Japs not welcome anymore"
And Kenji dropped both of his bags at his sides and just stood outside
He looked at his wife without words to say
She looked back at him wiped the tears away
And said Someday we'll be okay / someday
Now the names have been changed but the story's true
My family was locked up back in '42
My family was there
Where it was dark and damp
And they called it an internment camp
”When we first got back from camp, it was pretty bad”
“I remember my husband said, ‘Oh, we're going to stay ‘till last.' Then my husband died before they closed the camp”
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