"He seemed all alone, and I had never seen such an elderly man out on the streets. There was something about him that compelled me to talk . . ." That was how New York documentary filmmaker Linda Hattendorf describes her meeting with Jimmy Tsutomu Mirikitani, one snowy day in New York in January 2001. Then 80 years old, Mirikitani had been painting his beloved cats as he had done for 20 years and taking shelter from the snow under the awning of a grocery shop. Hattendorf was so taken by Jimmy that she changed her usual route to and from work to "check up on him, see how he was doing." She sometimes offered money, but the elderly artist (he referred to himself as "Grand Master Artist") asked for very little except to have photocopies made of his drawings.
When the Twin Towers collapsed and New York's entire downtown area was enshrouded in fumes and despair, Hattendorf made the offer to take him to her home. During the whole of that day, Jimmy had continued to paint, his back stooped over his makeshift table and seemingly oblivious to the wails and pandemonium erupting all around him. By evening the streets were completely deserted and she found him in his usual spot, coughing from the fire smoke.
At first, he refused her offer. She was dealing with a man who had refused to accept U.S. citizenship because he didn't hold with a government that forced him into an internment camp 60 years back — as he says in the film: "But I was born in Sacramento and had a U.S. passport!" (His passport and citizenship were taken away when he was detained).