Japanese Internment Songs - WWII

Subject: Japanese Internment Songs
From: Haruo
Date: 26 Jan 20 - 07:33 PM

Just wondering what songs came out of, or in response to or in memory of, the internment of the Japanese Americans of the western United States in concentration camps during World War II.

Subject: RE: Japanese Internment Songs
From: Jeri
Date: 26 Jan 20 - 08:05 PM

Tom Russell wrote Manzanar, sung by Tom Paxton.

Subject: RE: Japanese Internment Songs
From: Jeri
Date: 26 Jan 20 - 08:07 PM

James Keelaghan's Kiri's Piano

Subject: RE: Japanese Internment Songs
From: Karen Impola
Date: 26 Jan 20 - 10:02 PM

I think Jeri forgot to link to Tom Russell's Manazar. Here are the lyrics.

Subject: RE: Japanese Internment Songs
From: Karen Impola
Date: 26 Jan 20 - 10:22 PM

Greg Trooper wrote and sang a song called Everywhere, probably better known in the version recorded by Billy Bragg

I think there's a song on one of Laura Love's earlier albums - it may be called "Fences" - but I can't find lyrics or a recording online.

Subject: RE: Japanese Internment Songs
From: GUEST,Starship
Date: 28 Jan 20 - 10:47 AM

Re Laura Love: could you be looking for 'My Side of the Fence'? If so, it's on-line.

Subject: RE: Japanese Internment Songs
From: Joe Offer
Date: 29 Jan 20 - 05:29 AM

I found a brief clip of Laura Love's Fences (When I Was Young) [click] - but I couldn't find the album or song on Spotify.

Not a song, but I gotta recommend the novel When the Emperor Was Divine, which tells the story of a young girl interned at the Topaz camp in Utah. It's such a powerful story. It was our "One Book, One Community" book a few years ago, and it was so good. When we were in Utah a couple years ago, I had to stop at the museum that commemorated the nearby camp. There's nothing at the camp anymore, so I didn't go there.

The Manzanar camp is near the California entrance to Death Valley, and the National Park Service has done a good job of making the camp into a memorial to the people who were interned. If you're going to Death Valley, plan to spend a couple hours at Manzanar. It's a desolate place, but it has an absolutely beautiful view of Mount Whitney - a place of internment so close to a place of such beauty.

-Joe-

Subject: RE: Japanese Internment Songs
From: Karen Impola
Date: 29 Jan 20 - 12:06 PM

Starship, can you provide a link?

I find no evidence online that a song by Laura Love called "My Side of the Fence" exists.

There is a song called "Fences (When We Were Young)" on Love's album Z Therapy. I *think* it's the song I remember, but I can't find the lyrics online, and the short clip that Joe Offer linked doesn't tell me. I'm going to have to dig out the CD.

Subject: RE: Japanese Internment Songs
From: Haruo
Date: 01 Feb 20 - 01:25 AM

Any out of or about Minidoka?

Subject: RE: Japanese Internment Songs
From: GUEST,henryp
Date: 01 Feb 20 - 02:12 AM

Dorothea Lange

Although Dorothea Lange’s Japanese internment photographs were commissioned by the federal government as part of its documentary programs, they were suppressed for the duration of the war. Never actively distributed, her prints were sometimes defaced by military personnel, the word “impounded” scrawled across them. After the war ended, the photographs were discreetly deposited in the National Archives, where they remained, largely unseen and unpublished, for decades.

Subject: RE: Japanese Internment Songs
From: GUEST,maeve
Date: 01 Feb 20 - 08:24 AM

http://www.minidokaswingband.com/

The Minidoka Swing Band Song

Subject: RE: Japanese Internment Songs
From: Haruo
Date: 01 Feb 20 - 11:35 AM

Thanks, maeve! I'll be sharing that at church!

Subject: RE: Japanese Internment Songs
From: mg
Date: 01 Feb 20 - 06:57 PM

linda allen i believe wrote one. i wrote one about strawberry farmers in woodland, washington. but i doubt i will find the lyrics. I used to pick berries for them. Tsugawa was the name.    a woman in vancouver bc wrote a very one she sang at a music camp. perhaps jon bartlett would remember her name and see if she wants to be mentioned.

Subject: RE: JUK ww2 Internment Songs
From: GUEST,Philippa
Date: 02 Feb 20 - 08:44 AM

"Collar the Lot". There have been a lot of books written about the German, Austrian and Italian internees in WW2 (some of whom were refugees from the Nazis, mainly Jewish). Any songs?