Executive order 9066 (Original song)

About the Japanese internment camps. Inspired by reading personal stories from the people who were in the camps.

Self-criticism for this video: I'm used to using a guitar pick, but since I start out finger-picking here, I have to do finger strumming after. I use my thumb here, which I'm pretty sure is not right :) Also, I think I could have played the guitar a tiny bit louder.

Lyrics:


[C]Executive order 9066.
[F]We've got two weeks to prepare.
Who'll take [C]care of our home and our farm while we're gone
to some [G]camp, don't even know [C]where?

Say good[C]bye to our friends back home,
wishin' us [F]well as we board the bus.
Seems un[C]fair, since we're Americans,
but [G]FDR knows [C]best.

[F]Arrive in Pomona one [C]May afternoon
[D]at the parking lot of the [G]fairgrounds.
[F]But this ain't no fair, it's just [Am]barracks I see,
and [D]guards standing [G]around.

Our new [C]home is quite small, we're [F]five in one [C]room.
Not [F]sure what happens next.
I [C]keep myself busy, [F]reading all [C]day
[G]Steinbeck and Hemmingway [C]help me forget.

On the [F]move again, on a [C]train to Heart Mountain,
This [D]new camp will be our new [G]home.
Got a [F]job, teach English, twelve [Am]dollars a month.
tobuy [G]clothes for the Wyoming storms.

Seems we [C]might be set free, if we [F]take one small [C]test
to [F]prove our loyalty.
But there's [C]no way to answer the [F]questions [C]right,
Guess a [G]"No-No" it'll have to be.

Instrumental: F C D G F Am D G G7

The [C]war is now over, we're [F]free to go [C]home.
A bit [F]nervous 'bout the world outside.
But we [C]must look forward, leave this camp behind
The [G]future is open [C]wide.
Yes, we [C]must look forward, leave this camp behind
The [G]future is open [C]wide.


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Category:

Music

[therealEmpyre]

That's a good song about a sad chapter in our country's history.

[songblurred]

I drive by Heart Mountain at least once a summer. I don't know where the camp was exactly but I can imagine it was a pretty cold place to be in winter, and how awful it must have been to be betrayed by your country in this way. I love that you are writing songs, Carmen. You are good at it and you don't write the same old stuff that everybody else does. Excellent harmonies in the chorus.