"Make Art, Not War" is Jimmy Mirikitani's motto.
Photo from: http://www.thecatsofmirikitani.com/
Born in 1920 in California and raised in Hiroshima, Japan until age 18 when he returned to the United States, in 2001 Jimmy Mirikitani is a homeless 80 year old Japanese-American artist living on the streets of New York. World War II has ended over 50 years ago, yet Mirikitani continues to express the pain and anger of his war year life experiences through his art and words for all who will see and hear.
Befriended by filmmaker Linda Hattendorf, who takes him into her apartment after she finds him choking in the dust clouds in the aftermath of the 9-11 disaster, Mirikitani embarks on an inner and outer journey of making peace with his past.
The film follows Mirikitani, with the assistance of Hattendorf, as he reunites with long-lost relatives and revisits the internment camp which held him prisoner during WWII. In the bonus features of the DVD, Mirikitani, now 88 years old and making his first trip back to Japan in seven decades, arrives for the annual anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima.
More about the documentary, "The Cats of Mirikitani":
http://www.thecatsofmirikitani.com/aboutFilm.htm
More about Jimmy Mirikitani, and photographs of his art: http://www.discovernikkei.org/nikkeialbum/en/collection/12320/list