Tom Russell Manzanar Lyrics

He said my name is Nakashima
And I'm a proud American
I came here in '27
From my homeland of Japan

And I 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
And they drove us through the desert
To a place called Manzanar

The Spanish word for "apple orchard"
And though we saw no apple trees
Just the rows of prison barracks
With barbed wire 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, have all but vanished
And now I'm an old man
But I don't regret the day
That I came here from Japan

But on moonliss 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

And we dream of apple blossoms
waving free beneath the stars
Till we wake up in the desert
the prisoners of Manzanar
Manzanar...