[02:24.00]My father came from Japan in 1905
[02:24.00]He was fifteen when he immigrated from Japan
[02:24.00]He worked until he was able to buy to actually build a store
[02:24.00]Let me tell you the story in the form of a dream
[02:24.00]I don't know why I have to tell it but I know what it means
[02:24.00]Close your eyes and just picture the scene as I paint it for you
[02:24.00]It was World War II when this man named Kenji woke up
[02:24.00]Ken was not a soldier he was just a man with a family
[02:24.00]Who owned a store in LA that day
[02:24.00]He crawled out of bed like he always did
[02:24.00]Bacon and eggs with wife and kids he lived on the
[02:24.00]Second floor of a little store he ran
[02:24.00]He moved to L.A from Japan
[02:24.00]They called him"Immigrant" in Japanese
[02:24.00]He'd say he was called"iisei" that meant
[02:24.00]First Generation In The United States
[02:24.00]When everyone was afraid of the Germans afraid of the Japs
[02:24.00]But most of all afraid of a homeland attack
[02:24.00]And that morning when Ken went out on the doormat
[02:24.00]His world went black 'cause
[02:24.00]Right there front page news
[02:24.00]Three weeks before 1942
[02:24.00]Pearl Harbor's been bombed and
[02:24.00]The Japs are coming
[02:24.00]Pictures of soldiers dying and running
[02:24.00]Ken knew what it would lead to
[02:24.00]Just like he guessed the President said
[02:24.00]The"evil Japanese" in our home country will be locked away
[02:24.00]They gave Ken a couple of days
[02:24.00]To get his whole life packed in two bags
[02:24.00]Just two bags
[02:24.00]Couldn't even pack his clothes
[02:24.00]Some folks didn't even have a suitcase
[02:24.00]To pack anything in
[02:24.00]So two trash bags was all they gave them
[02:24.00]When the kids asked mom where are we going
[02:24.00]Nobody even knew what to say to them
[02:24.00]Ken didn't want to lie
[02:24.00]He said the US is looking for spies
[02:24.00]So we have to live in a place called Manzanar
[02:24.00]Where a lot of Japanese people are
[02:24.00]Stop it don't look at the gunmen
[02:24.00]You don't wanna get the soldiers wondering
[02:24.00]If you gonna run or not 'cause if you run then you might get shot
[02:24.00]Other than that try not to think about it
[02:24.00]Try not to worry 'bout it being so crowded
[02:24.00]'Cause someday we'll get out someday someday
[02:24.00]"Yeah soon as war broke out the F.B.I came and
[02:24.00]They just come to the house and you have to come
[02:24.00]All the Japanese have to go
[02:24.00]They took Mr. Ni the people couldn't understand
[02:24.00]Why did they have to take him because he's just an innocent laborer"
[02:24.00]So now they're in a town with soldiers surrounding them
[02:24.00]Every day every night looked down at them
[02:24.00]From watchtowers up on the wall
[02:24.00]Ken couldn't really hate them at all
[02:24.00]They were just doing their job and
[02:24.00]He wasn't gonna make any problems
[02:24.00]He had a little garden vegetables and fruits that he gave to the troops
[02:24.00]In a basket his wife made
[02:24.00]But in the back of his mind he wanted his families life saved
[02:24.00]Prisoners of war in their own d**n country
[02:24.00]What for
[02:24.00]And time passed in the prison town he wondered
[02:24.00]If he'd live it down when they were free
[02:24.00]The only way out was joining the army and supposedly
[02:24.00]Some men went out for the army signed on
[02:24.00]And ended up flying to Japan with a bomb
[02:24.00]That 15 kiloton blast put an end to the war pretty fast
[02:24.00]Two cities were blown to bits
[02:24.00]The end of the war came quick
[02:24.00]And Ken got out
[02:24.00]Big hopes of a normal life with his kids and his wife but
[02:24.00]When they got back to their home and
[02:24.00]What they saw made him feel so alone
[02:24.00]These people had trashed every room
[02:24.00]Smashed in the windows and bashed in the doors
[02:24.00]Written on the walls and the floor：
[02:24.00]"Japs not welcome anymore"
[02:24.00]And Kenji dropped both of his bags at his sides and just stood outside
[02:24.00]He looked at his wife without words to say
[02:24.00]She looked back at him wiped the tears away
[02:24.00]And said Someday we'll be okay someday
[02:24.00]Now the names have been changed but the story's true
[02:24.00]My family was locked up back in '42
[02:24.00]My family was there
[02:24.00]Where it was dark and damp
[02:24.00]And they called it an internment camp
[02:24.00]"When we first got back from camp it was pretty bad"
[02:24.00]"I remember my husband said 'Oh we're going to stay till last
[02:24.00]Then my husband died before they closed the camp"