Kenji
Fort Minor (Mike Shinoda)
pages 746-747
The main point that Mike Shinoda makes in his work Kenji is the discussion of all the hardships faced by the Japanese-American people who were forced to live in the Japanese Internment camps of World War II. More specifically, Shinoda makes clear everything they endured in and out of the camps they were sent to. At one point, he writes, "Just like he guessed, the President said, 'The evil Japanese in our home country will be locked away,'" (page 746) Here, Ken, the man the song is about, saw the headlines in the news about World War II and knew what it would lead to, the conclusion of all Japanese being involved and they're sentences to the internment camps. In conclusion, it was Shinoda's main point that the American-Japanese faced a lot because of Pearl Harbor and the country responded too strongly.
In my view, Shinoda is right and he expressed his point in a perfect way. I think that too many Americans and government officials reacted too strongly regarding the situation and the decision to implement the internment camps. For example, he talks about how he had "To get his life packed in two bags, Just two bags, couldn't even pack his clothes," (page 746) and how many of the others didn't even have anything to take what they needed with them. In conclusion, I agree with Shinoda that the internment camps of World War II were something very hard on the Japanese-Americans who had to endure them.
