Mike Shinoda of Linkin Park

Linkin Park - Mike Shinoda Creates T-Shirt For Japanese Disaster Relief Fund

16 March 2011

Linkin Park rocker Mike Shinoda has designed a special T-shirt to raise funds for the victims of Japan's devastating earthquake and tsunami.

The star, who's father is Japanese American (Poston block 305-2-AB) , has teamed up with bosses at charity organisation Music For Relief to release the black top, which features an origami butterfly to signify the "idea of rebirth".

A second design, bearing the words 'Not Alone', is also available for purchase on the band's official website. All proceeds from the $25 (£16.70) shirts will be donated to the Japanese relief effort following Friday's (11Mar11) double disaster.

Shinoda is also working on plans for a charity single after receiving positive feedback from fans on his Twitter.com blog after asking, "Does anyone want a new Linkin Park instrumental song, to benefit Mfr (Music For Relief) Japan relief?"

Source:  http://www.contactmusic.com/news.nsf/story/mike-shinoda-creates-t-shirt-for-japanese-disaster-relief-fund_1207530

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Insights from family on Japanese American internment

By Mike Shinoda of Linkin Park

My dad (Poston 305-2-AB) told me about internment a long time ago. I think he told me really early. I know that when he told me, I didn’t quite grasp it. I was too young or at that point too interested in other things to be able to really understand the concept fully. And you’ll see as you get a little bit older. You’ll start to see it in history books, in school and whatnot. And you know, they devote…what do they devote? Like a half a page. You know, there’s a big picture of Pearl Harbor and this whole thing about how awful that was and then there’s a little thing about internment like in there somewhere.

And at that point, I think it struck me like, “That’s weird. Why don’t they…like my dad told me all about that and it’s weird that they didn’t really talk about it.”

And I know over time…you know, I didn’t go on any big crusade to figure it out or anything. I think just over time, the collection of information happened and I started asking…I’d ask my relatives every once in a while. I’d ask people and the funny thing is they wouldn’t tell me. They’d give me such a watered down answer as to what their internment experience was.

I think that that bothered me because of the “it-can’t-be-helped” attitude, the shikata ga nai attitude is so…it was so useful back then but these days, in my opinion right now, I just don’t…I think that that for my generation has been a little bit of…it’s been a little bit of a detriment, a little bit of a…like something that we personally wish that our older relatives and our elders would put aside to a certain degree so that we can learn about the story.

And so when I was making this Fort Minor record, my new record, it is like more of a solo kind of a project. It is more of a focus on my experiences mixed with my creative ideas. I’m making all the music, producing every song, mixing every song, and then lyrically, I wanted to get in some things that were my own. So I got into that subject a little bit, did an interview with my dad (Poston 305-2-AB), who’s the second to youngest of 13. I mean they’re not all alive any more but 13 kids. And my aunt, who’s the oldest. So it’s the 2 perspectives. He was like 3 years old. She was in her 20s when…during the 40s when they were interned and I got…I think I got some really great insight into what happened.

Credits: Watase Media Arts Center, Japanese American National Museum
Source: http://www.discovernikkei.org/en/interviews/clips/538/

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Fort Minor - Kenji     Compositor: Mike Kenji Shinoda

Note: Mike Shinoda's father was interned at Poston 305-2-AB

Kenji

My father came from Japan in 1905

He was fifteen 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 to 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 Harbor'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 would 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 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 the war broke out

The F.B.I. came and they just come to the house and

"You have to come"

"All the Japanese have to go"

They took Mr. Nii

The people couldn't understand

Why they had to take him because he's just innocent laborer

So now they're in a town with soldiers surroundin' them,

Every day, every night looked down at them,

From watchtowers up on the wall,

Ken couldn't really hate them at all;

They were just doing 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 wondered if it 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 bagson the 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

"Oh we're gonna stay til least"

Then my husband died before they close the camp.