Austin Sims
English1, Blue1
Mrs. Witt
September 27 2011
Cats of Mirikitani
There where many Japanese Americans in the internment camps during WWII. This is one mans account of what happened in those camps. In the movie “Cats of Mirikitani” there is a man named Jimmy and he lives on the streets in New York.
Jimmy is a homeless man who has lived in the Japanese internment camps during WWII. Jimmy is very frustrated with the American government because he lost his citizenship when he got placed in the internment camps. Not only did he get placed in the camps and got his citizenship taken away, he was born in the U.S.A but there was a mistake and it said that he was an immigrant.
The conditions in the camps where terrible. There were long days of hard work with little food and little water. In the movie it showed were they stayed and it looked like jail maybe even worse. There were no bed shelves just an open floor. Jimmy told a story about how one day before the camps were out one man hung himself because he couldn't think of spending one more day in the camps. There were many deaths in his camp babies and young children died in these camps.
Jimmy also told a story about a young boy that used to follow him every were. The boy loved cats and always asked Jimmy to paint him cats cause he loved cats. That’s were the cats in his artwork originated from. When he was on the streets he would never take money for his art work. He would just ask for a picture so he could remember it.
After ever thing Jimmy has been through he has stayed positive that him and his sister would reunite. They eventually did reunite. He also went to social security and he got his citizenship back.