Kenji

"My father, came from Japan, in 1905

He was fifteen when he, immigrated from Japan

He, he, he worked until he was able to buy

To actually build a store"

Let me tell you a 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, 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 L.A

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 "issei"

That meant first generation

In the United States when

Everybody 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

And just like he guessed, the president said

"The evil Japanese in our home country

Would be locked away"

They gave Ken a couple of days

To get his whole life packed in two bags

Just two bags, he couldn't even pack his clothes

And some folks didn't even have a suitcase

To pack anything in

So two trash bags, is all they gave them

And when the kids asked mom, "Where are we going?"

Nobody even knew what to say to them

Ken didn't wanna lie

He said, "The U.S. 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're 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[Interlude: Mike's aunt]

"Yeah, soon as war broke out, the FBI came and

They just come through the house and, you have to come

All the Japanese have to go

They took Mr. Ni, the people couldn't understand

Why they had to take him because he's 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 family's 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

If and 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 fifteen 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

Then 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, wiping tears away

And said, "Someday, we'll be okay, someday"

Now,

the names have been changed

, but the story is 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[Outro]

"When we first got back from camp, uh

It was pretty, pretty bad."

"I-I remember, my husband said

"Oh we're gonna stay 'til last."

Then my husband died, before they closed the camp."