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