[intro]
My father came from Japan in 1905,
he was 15 when he immagrated from Japan,
he, he, he worked until he was able to buy this building, store.
[intro]
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 allways 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 immagrant and Japanese,
he'd say he was called Isé,
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 cuz,
right there, frontpage news,
3 weeks before 1942,
Pearl Harbor's been bommed 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 would be locked away,
they gave Ken a couple of days to get his whole life packed in 2 bags, just 2 bags,
couldn't even pack his clothes, some folks didn't even have a suitcase, to pack anything in, so 2 trashbags, is all they gave them,
and when the kids ask 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 Imaginare, when alot of Japanese people are,
stop it, don't look at the gunmen,
you don't wanna get the soldiers wondering,
if your gonna run or not,cuz if you run then you might get shot,
other than that, try not to think about it,
try not to worry about it being so crowded,
someday we'll get out, someday, someday,
[phone talk]
so now they're in a town, where soldiers surrounding them, every day, every night look down on them, from watchtowers up on the wall,
Ken couldn't really hate them at all,
they were just doing they're job and,
he wasn't gonna make any problems,
he had a little garden, vegatables and fruits he gave to the troops in a basket his wife made,
but in the back of his mind he wanted his familly's lifes saved,
prisoners of war in their own damn country, what for?
time passed in the prison town,
he wanted livin' if he livin down,
if it went then they were free,
the only way if I joined in the army supposedly,
some men went out for the army sign on,
and ended up flying to Japan with a bomb,
that 15 kiloton blast put an end to the war pretty fast,2 cities were blown to bit, 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 allone,
these people have trashed every room,
smashed in the windows and bashed in the door,
and written on the walls and the floor;
Japs not welcome anymore,
and Kenji dropped both of his bags to the sides and he just stood outside he,
looked at his wife without words to say,
she looked back at him, wiped them tears away,
said someday we'll be okay, someday,
now the names have been changed but the story's true, my familly was locked up back in '42,
my familly was there where it was dark and damp, and they called it an inturnmentcamp.
[outro]
when we first got back from camp,
it was pretty, pretty bad,
I, I remember my husband said,
are we gonna stay to last,
then my husband died,
before they closed the camp.
