Film Squibs: Cats of Mirikitani

The Cats of Mirikitani (2006)*

Dir. by Linda Hattendorf

Just as the news soon after 9/11/01 was filled with images of the Twin Towers falling, this coming weekend the media will be similarly filled with images reminding us of this turning point in our lives.  Some people will soak up every minute of it; others will refuse to take part in commemorating such a painful experience.  Some have already stopped reading this article.  As lawyers/law students, we are constantly asked to interpret the past.  The development of common law can be seen as a reactive process in which we look to history to figure out how to deal with the present.  Yet, most of us are still unsure of how to deal with the emotional imprint this event has left on the way we see the world…

The Cats of Mirikitani follows the story of Jimmy Tsutomu Mirikitani, a WWII internment camp survivor who lives on the streets of New York sharing his art with whoever will stop and pay attention.  As director Linda Hattendorf follows Jimmy, before and after the events of 9/11, the film takes the audience through a process of remembering the past.

The film starts out with Jimmy, living on the streets of New York.  We learn that he has been drawing pictures of cats, internment camps, and the dropping of the atom bomb on Hiroshima for as long as people can remember.  As Jimmy repeats over and over again, “born in Sacramento,” and that his family was wiped out in Hiroshima, we feel that no matter how many times he draws the scenes of his life, he could never purge himself of his resentment.  Even as the events of 9/11 interrupt the film, they do not seem to interrupt Jimmy’s view of the world.  For him, it was much of the same kind of violence that has shaped his life.

Likewise, as law students, we are reminded time and again of the lessons one must learn from WWII and other wartime situations in light of the war on terror today.  Usually, the discussions take on the form of analogies, which seems to be the preferred method of reading cases, distinguishing facts, etc.  For example,

The fear of the Japanese during WWII : the fear of Muslim-Americans post-9/11.

The deprivation of individual liberty : the tension between individual liberty and national security in light of the war on terror.

But the film takes us through a different process of remembering by layering stories to communicate a feeling.  By the end of the movie, we notice a change in Jimmy, especially when the film takes us and Jimmy back to the internment camp at Tule Lake.  There, the film uncovers Jimmy’s promise as a young artist and the root of his desire to paint cats, as if to turn over a stone to reveal the other side of the story of Japanese internment.  There, I felt the frustration of a helpless individual in the face of an unresponsive and crooked government.  At the same time, however, I couldn’t shake the fear I felt on 9/11 as a high-school student, watching the towers fall.  This multilayering of roles forced me to go inside myself, where I observed the struggle to reconcile these feelings.

So I submit to you that we can view the law in a similar way.  Instead of side-by-side analogizing from a third-person perspective, we can shift the time-axis to reveal how the law interacts with real human needs and desires (the need to be heard, the desire to be safe, etc.).  Further, as we read cases and remember the past, we can turn over the cases and recognize that the contradictions and tensions in the law are really my own.

The very legitimate fear that I felt on 9/11 is the fear that deprives people of their individual liberty : I value my individual liberty and expect that my voice will be heard by a responsive government.

So for what it’s worth, this is how I have decided to interpret the events of the past this weekend, by recognizing that the American condition is my own.  As Jimmy Mirikitani underwent a transformation, I too can come to terms with these conflicting memories and emotions inside myself.  Then, and perhaps only then, can I begin to prospectively imagine how to deal with these conflicts that extend beyond myself, and into the world.

-T.Noda

*The film can be viewed online here (http://www.dramafever.com/drama/4014/1/Cats_of_Mirikitani/) as a part of the DigiFest (http://www.dramafever.com/digifest/), which features a number of Asian-American films and documentaries.