I saw a wonderful movie last Sunday, called The Cats of Mirikitani. This is story of a lost soul, being reborn after the tragedy of 9/11. A homeless Japanese man, Jimmy Mirikitani, born in Sacramento, California is found on the streets of New York by Linda Hattendor. Jimmy is an artist who makes his living on the streets by selling his art work.

Jimmy as a young artist.

Jimmy was taken to Hiroshima by his parents and returns to the United States when the Japanese wants to enlist him in the army. Jimmy says no, I’m an artist not a fighter, and I’m going back to the United States. After Pearl Harbor, 120,000 Japanese Americans are sent to concentration camps. Jimmy is sent to Tule Lake, California along with 18,000 inmates at the camp. Jimmy is only 18 years old, and alone. His citizenship is stripped from him, with out legal recourse. His parents are killed when the atomic bomb is dropped on Hiroshima. His only remaining relative, a sister is also in a concentration camp, but is separated from Jimmy.

After he is let out, he does various jobs, winding up on the streets of New York at the age of 70, which is where Jimmy and Linda become friends a year before 9/11. At the time of their meeting, he is 80 years old. When she first saw him she asked to buy one of his pictures, and he said no, he would give it to her if she would take pictures of him and the pictures he makes. So she began returning every day, with a video camera, recording his thoughts and conversations about art, his life, and living on the streets of New York. They become friends, of a sort.

Jimmy at age 80 on the streets of New York

A year after meeting Jimmy, the tragedy of 9/11’s occurs. Since Jimmy is so near the Twin Towers and the area that Jimmy is in is now deserted, all businesses are closed, and the air is filled with noxious fumes and dirt, Linda decides to have Jimmy move into her one bedroom apartment. He only agrees when she tells him the air is poisonous, like it was in Hiroshima. Linda continues to almost constantly film their now joined lives. Many months later, as their relationship grows and he becomes almost like a grandpa, Linda manages to find that the government has restored his citizenship in 1952 (but he never got the letter). She finds, first his cousin, Janice Mirikitani, Poet Laureate of San Francisco, and then a long lost sister in Seattle. Jimmy joins an annual pilgrimage of concentration camp survivors who return to the site of the camp, and finally, is healed.

The most wonderful part was that after the movie, Linda and Jimmy came on stage. Linda answered questions about the movie, and Jimmy at the age of 87, belted out a Japanese song, Grown Men Don’t Cry, all of which was very touching. A must see movie, showing the prejudice that existed at the time and that we find now again, with our Mid-Eastern friends lumping all as one.
Visit the website at http://www.thecatsofmirikitani.com/