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 "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 the 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 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