Kenji

"My father came from Japan in 1905
 He was 15 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 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 LA from Japan, they called him "immigrant"
 In Japanese he'd say he was called "issei"
 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 Harbour'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 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 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'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
 Someday we'll get out, someday, someday
 "Yeah, soon as war broke out
 The FBI 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 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 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
 Then they got back to their home and
 What they saw made them 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 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'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, pretty bad
 I, I remember my husband said, "Oh, we're gonna stay 'til last"
 Then my husband died before they closed the camp"