Manzanar Lyrics - The Long Way Around - Tom Russell

He said my name is Nakashima 

And I'm a proud American 

I came here in '27 

From my homeland of Japan 

And we picked your grapes and oranges 

Made some money, bought a store 

Until 1942 

Pearl Harbor and the war 

Came those relocation orders 

They took our house, the store, the car 

Then they drove us to the desert 

To a place called Manzanar 

The Spanish word for "apple orchard" 

Though we saw no apple trees 

Just the rows of prison barracks 

And barbed wired boundaries 

And we dream of apple blossoms 

Waving free beneath the stars 

Till we wake up in the desert 

The prisoners of Manzanar 

Manzanar 

Fifty years, they've all but vanished 

And now I am an old man 

But I don't regret the day 

That I came here from Japan 

But on moonlit winter nights 

I often wish upon a star 

That I'd forget the shame and sorrow 

That I felt at Manzanar 

And we dream of apple blossoms 

Waving free beneath the stars 

Till we wake up in the desert 

The prisoners of Manzanar 

Manzanar