Profile of Mirikitani, a resident of The Village, an assisted living center in New York City.
Excerpt: "His 3-1/2 years of confinement [at Tule Lake], which he calls a 'big government mistake, very stupid,' left him with ambivalent feelings about being a Japanese-American. While proud to be an American, Mirikitani, like many of the internees, has strong memories of the shameful Tulelake years that continue to linger and cause anger. A painting that he does over and over shows an aerial view of the camp with its squat buildings and grassy fields, with a tiny solitary figure at the bottom representing him. 'This is history,' he said, pointing to his work."
"In the late 1990s, while searching the Internet for art depicting life in the U.S. internment camps that held Japanese and Japanese Americans during World War II, artist and University of Kansas Professor Roger Shimomura came upon such a drawing for sale on eBay. He learned that the artist was a homeless Japanese American named Jimmy Tsutomu Mirikitani, and that he sold his work in Washington Square Park in New York City."
"Eighty-year-old Jimmy Mirikitani survived the trauma of WWII internment camps, Hiroshima, and homelessness by creating art. But when 9/11 threatens his life on the New York City streets and a local filmmaker brings him to her home, the two embark on a journey to confront Jimmy's painful past. An intimate exploration of the lingering wounds of war and the healing powers of friendship and art, this documentary won the Audience Award at its premiere in the 2006 Tribeca Film Festival."
"At 25, the Sacramento born artist was interned at Tule Lake for three and one-half years before renouncing his citizenship to return to Hiroshima. At 80, he was a self-proclaimed grand master artist living on the streets of New York when Linda Hattendorf found him and pushed “record” on her camera."
