"The Cats of Mirikitani"

The film "The Cats of Mirikitani" shows that there is always history that is being swept under the rug. In this case it was the history of Japanese Internment. There is always history that is not being taught or talked about as much as it should be. Japanese Internment is one of those histories.

Jimmy Mirikitani was born an American Citizen, but his family moved back to Japan when he was just a baby. He eventually moved back to America to pursue his dream of becoming an artist. It was in his early twenties that he was interned at a camp in the California desert. Jimmy's citizenship in the U.S. was revoked, but eventually given back to him without his knowledge. Jimmy lead an interesting life after the camps. He moved to New York and worked as a personal chef to a rich man on fifth avenue. After his employer passed away, Jimmy just started drifting around New York trying to sell his art.

Jimmy's story is special to American history because like so many other people he was taken out of his home and forced to live in these camps. These people were put into these camps because of their ethnicity. It was a dark time in American history. People were outraged and disgusted by what Hitler was doing to the Jews and other people he did not deem Aryan, but something similar was happening right here in America. There was not a mass extermination of the Japanese people, but the living conditions in the camps were atrocious. There was little food and water, and disease was rampant.

Japanese Internment happened because people were afraid. People are allowed to be afraid, but the extent of the fear of the people in America after Pearl Harbor, imprisoned thousands of innocent people.

Something very similar happened after 9/11. People of Arab descent in America were discriminated against because of their ethnicity or skin color. It was another dark time in America, but thankfully innocent people were not imprisoned to make people feel safe. There were talks of doing something similar like Japanese Internment to Arab Americans, but it never got there. After 9/11 Arab Americans were discriminated against and treated like Japanese people in America after Pearl Harbor. It looked like history was going to repeat itself, but it never got that far thankfully. But the discrimination that Arab Americans faced was terrible, and there were some cases of Arab Americas being beaten up or killed because of what they looked like.

What I took away from the film "The Cats of Mirikitani" was that America was a place of dreams, but those dreams can be crushed in two seconds flat. Jimmy Mirkitani was born an American citizen, but during a time of crisis in America, his American identity was taken from him.

Children are taught in history classes about George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. They are taught about World War II, Hitler and Pearl Harbor. What they are not taught is what happened after Pearl Harbor to Japanese people living in America. Japanese Internment is glossed over in the history books. There is normally one paragraph or page depicting the pain and suffering that Japanese people living in America post Pearl Harbor experienced. American history books only teach the "good" things that happened in America, and gloss over the things that happened that are not so pleasant.

I think that American history is told through the eyes of white men, because this country was founded by them. The funny thing is that white men are becoming the minority, but  what is not so funny is that they still hold most of the power. There is a vast history of American that is not told because people find it uncomfortable or unpleasant, but those stories, like Jimmy's need to be told so that people can know what not to do when they are afraid.