1000 Candles, 1000 Cranes Rich Prezioso, ©1999 Tatertunes Music, BMI

 

My grandmother had three sons

She dreamed about her children’s children

Then came 1941

Only one son would see the war end

 

Joseph died marching in Bataan

Frank on the sands of Iwo Jima

The day the bomb destroyed Japan

She thanked God and Harry Truman

 

She blamed the godless Japanese

For having crushed her sweetest dreams

One thousand candles for my sons

Every day I will remember

 

In Illinois, far from her past

Miss Nakamura still remembers

She was six when she saw the flash

That turned the world to smoke and ashes

 

Mother taught her daughter well

Run from the fire to the river

There she found a living hell

But not a mother or a father

 

Though she survived with just a scrape

Her family vanished into space

One thousand suns, a thousand cranes

Everyday I will remember

 

My grandmother had three sons

She never dreamed she’d have a daughter

But at the age of eighty-one

She met a nurse named Nakamura

 

It was a question only meant

To make some talk and pass the hours

About a picture by the bed

A photograph of two young soldiers

 

Hatred and anger stored for years

Slowly melted into tears

One thousand candles, a thousand cranes

Everyday I will remember

 

I’ve a picture in my mind

Of two women slowly walking

August 6th, 1985

Walking to church to light a candle

 

And they once asked me to explain

Why grown men play such foolish games

One thousand candles, a thousand cranes

Everyday I will remember

 

Jacquie: vocals, pennywhistle

Rich: Vocals, guitar