Kenji (Interview Version)

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 d**n 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"