For Their Consideration

By Dean K. Hata

This is a poem Jr. YBA member and UCI student Dean Hata composed and recited at a recent "Tomo no kai" (Japanese Friendship Night) performance.

 

For their consideration to sacrifice

to give up their freedom

and everything else we consider good in life

So that today we can get an education

and understand and know

the facts about the desecration

that took place about fifty years ago

We're so concerned about money and material things

that most of us have forgotton

that there was a time when our people had nothin

when there were toilets with no doors

and bedrooms with dirt all over the floor.

a place where nothin was clean

where the bedrooms were small

the only entertainment was Time magazine

and a picture up on the wall

They sleep on sacks filled with straw

Had to lower their standards bein' watched through all the holes in the wall

We complain about everything

as if we have nothin

but our grandparents gave up everything

so that we could have somethin

Gave up their college degree putting up minimal fus

did all that for me and all of us

So feel bad when you complain

about havin to shop in the rain

Think they had that

in an internment camp

My grandmother left her house in LA

So that some day I might design one in Marina Del Ray

And drive around in a air condition car

in stead of draggin my feet in the desert of Manzanar

So to show our respect

we have a play on deck

to show that we recognize

all the struggles of your life

to show that we appreciate

our present state

so here it is for all of you to see

as Tomo no Kai presents

Set Adrift the Memory