Fort Minor - A idade da inocência de Mike Shinoda

Tanto tempo de ausência! Mas eis-me de volta!
Desta vez para falar de um projecto que há bem pouco tempo cheguei até mim, os Fort Minor! Devo dizer que quando pela primeira vez os ouvi através do seu 1º single "Believe Me", não me chamaram muito a atenção. Uma música com uma boa batida e pouco mais! Mas ficou no ouvido a voz de um dos elementos da banda. Seria mesmo Mike Shinoda? Resolvi certo dia investigar e aí estava, os Fort Minor são um projecto paralelo aos Linkin Park de Mike Shinoda.
Fiz o download do álbum (lamento imenso mas comprar um álbum de uma banda que não conheço e pagar 17 euros pelo mesmo não fazem parte das minhas prioridades financeiras!), e descobri o que esperava. Um som mais suave, mais easy-listening mas mais groovy do que os Linkin Park. Afinal Mike Shinoda funciona como MC nestes e os Fort Minor permitem-lhe expandir ainda mais as suas raízes nesse sentido.
Do álbum retirei um Whered You Go (belissima com a participação de Holly Brook e Jonah
Matranga) e Kenji.
A música Kenji reporta-se às raízes de Mike Shinoda dos EUa. A emigração de seu avô Kenji Shinoda para a Califórnia, a constituição da sua família e as vicissitudes que a 2ª Guerra Mundial trouxe às suas vidas!
Da música retirei algo de que nunca tinha ouvido falar: Após o ataque japonês em Pearl Harbor, a comunidade japonesa (assim como, parte da alemã, italiana, romena, etc) foi colocada em internment camps, onde viviam em condições pouco condignas, sem cozinhas ou sanitários adequados e em casas sobre-lotadas. Razão invocada pelos norte-americanos para esta situação:
A defesa nacional uma vez que temiam um ataque interno por parte dos japoneses e também para protegerem a comunidade japonesa dos ataques dos norte-americanos mais radicais que não concebiam a ideia de existirem americanos de origem japonesa sem que estes fossem verdadeiros inimigos!
Para a história ficam estes "campos de internamento (concentração)" e Kenji que não saiu com vida do mesmo.
Fica o testemunho:

Kenji - Fort Minor

My father came from Japan in 1905
He was 15 when he immigrated from Japan
He, he... he worked until he was able to buy this patch
And build a store

Let me tell you the 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 always 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 'Immigrant,'
In Japanese, he'd say he was called "Issei,"
That meant 'First Generation In The United States,'
When everyone 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 Harbour's Been Bombed And The Japs Are Comin',"
Pictures of soldiers dyin' and runnin',
Ken knew what it would lead to,
Just like he guessed, the President said,
"The evil Japanese in our home country will be locked away,"
They gave Ken, a couple of days,
To get his whole life packed in two bags,
Just two bags, couldn't even pack his clothes,
Some folks didn't even have a suitcase, to pack anything in,
So two trash bags was all they gave them,
When the kids asked mum "Where are we goin'?"
Nobody even knew what to say to them,
Ken didn't wanna lie, he said "The US is lookin' 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 wonderin',
If you 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; bein' so crowded,
Someday we'll get out, someday, someday.

As soon as war broke out
The G.I came and they just come to the house and
"You have to come"
"All the Japanese have to go"
They took Mr. Lee
People didn't understand
Why did they have to take him?
Because he's an innocent labourer

So now they're in a town with soldiers surroundin' them,
Every day, every night look down at them,
From watch towers up on the wall,
Ken couldn't really hate them at all;
They were just doin' their job and,
He wasn't gonna make any problems,
He had a little garden with 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 families life saved,
Prisoners of war in their own damn country,
What for?
Time passed in the prison town,
He wanted them to live it down when they were free,
The only way out was joinin' the army,
And supposedly, some men went out for the army, signed on,
And ended up flyin' to Japan with a bomb,
That 15 kiloton blast, put an end to the war pretty fast,
Two cities were blown to bits; the end of the war came quick,
Ken got out, big hopes of a normal life, with his kids and his wife,
But, when they got back to their home,
What they saw made them 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 wiped the tears away,
And, said "Someday we'll be okay, someday,"
Now the names have been changed, but the story's true,
My family was locked up back in '42,
My family was there it was dark and damp,
And they called it an internment camp

When we first got back from camp... uhh
It was... pretty... pretty bad

I, I remember my husband said
"Are we gonna stay 'til last?"
Then my husband died before they close the camp.