Kishi Bashi Uses The History Of Japanese Internment To Explore America Today
To make his latest album, Omoiyari, the Japanese-American artist decided to turn to the past. He visited Japanese internment camps and made music inspired by the stories he found there.
Kishi Bashi's "Summer of '42" is a love song inspired by and set in one of the darker chapters of American history: the internment of Japanese-Americans after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. "What are the things you wanted / The same as anyone," the songwriter and multi-instrumentalist sings. "Just a hand to hold a little / After all is said and done."
"" is the lead single fromout May 31. Although Kishi Bashi's family was not sent to the internment camps — his parents immigrated to the United States after WWII — the Japanese-American artist says that the current political climate has turned his attention back to that period. On , he considers the lessons it offers and how they might inform the modern American experience.
