The Cats of Mirikatani

The Cats of Mirikatani was a very moving documentary. It began with Jimmy Mirikatani, an Eighty-year-old Japanese man so fixated upon America’s injustices in WWII that he chooses to be homeless rather than take assistance from the government: “No need help social security. No need American passport.” I have always felt that it is unhealthy to fixate on any one event and allow it to define you. Somehow, Mirikatani made it work. Although he was homeless, he was content to draw in the streets, through heat, rain, and snow. He never begged, just sold his paintings every now and again. It was clear that he did not paint for the sake of selling his art, even though it was his only means of sustenance. He drew what he felt strongly about: cats, Japanese internment camps, and the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. That people were interested in his art was just a secondary benefit. This really speaks to his character. At the same time, one could only imagine what he endured to become so against support. Even so early on in the film, I could that he was a strong man with strong principles.

The story really began to delve into the most significant parts of Mirikatani after 9/11. On that fateful day, Linda Hattendorf found him in the deserted streets of Manhattan and brought him to her home. It took a toxic fog to make Mirikatani willing to accept help. However, when he took it, he seemed to be perfectly at home with the idea. He answered many of the questions Linda asked him, and was very vocal about his opinion. His statements brought to light many eerie parallels between the events following the collapse of the World Trade Center and those following America’s war with Japan in WWII. As he watched news on the attack he said, “Can’t make war. Five seconds, ashes.” When he saw the words “Nuke-em” written on a car he told Linda, “They don’t know nothing. People in Japan all warm hearted people. Not evil.” Mirikatani really identified with the discrimination that anyone who “looked” Muslim had to face. He knew that a majority had no connection to the actions of the few. As the story unfolded, more evidence of his deep resentment towards America unfurls: “Stupid American government…crook government.”

Japanese internment- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6mr97qyKA2s

                              versus

Discrimination against Muslims - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMFF-EwiVpw

The more Linda talked to Mirikatani, the more she came to understand his feelings. Jimmy Tsutomu Mirikitani was born in Sacramento California in 1920. However, he was raised in Hiroshima, Japan. When he was 18, he returned to the United States to pursue a career in art. He lived with his sister and her family, in Seattle. Before the war broke out, he had been promised a position as a professor of art in a college. Instead he was sent to an internment camp and separated from his sister. There, he was forced into being a renunciant, which stripped him of a social security number, passport, and citizenship. Even after the war ended, Jimmy was imprisoned.  He was forced to work in a frozen food manufacturing plant for long hours. Finally, he was released. He was never notified that his citizenship was restored. It was only thanks to Linda that he found out. From then on Jimmy made his own way. Again, it was only thanks to Linda that he was able to get in contact with his cousin’s daughter and his sister. Linda also helped him to apply for a Social Security number, and to movie into his own apartment, even though he was initially against the idea. As the film progressed, it was plain to see that the two had begun to care for each other. However, Jimmy needed to find stability, once again, on his own.

For a man of his age and experience, that kind of change needed to begin from within. That is why the reunion at the internment  camp came at the most opportune time. 

Jimmy said that he would go back to Tule Lake to pray for a young man who died at the camp. He was the boy that inspired his cat drawings. The reunion was therapeutic for Jimmy. On the bus back home he told Linda of a dream he had in which he saw the boy, and the boy said, “Goodbye.” Jimmy was at peace, “Not mad anymore. Passing through memory. People know now. I tell everything… Memory. Ghost people. Very kind to me. Ghost people sleeping In the Tule Desert.” He had finally forgiven America. He had lain to rest the ghosts of the past, the ones who likely haunted him for most of his life, reminding him of the persecution his people had endured. I am very happy that the story ended in redemption and transcendence, and that when Jimmy died, he left in good terms with the country he was born in, the country that owed him a better life than he had.

References:

http://www.thecatsofmirikitani.com/aboutFilm.htm