American Citizen #2, Roger Shimomura

The young boy riding a toy scooter in Shimomura’s American Citizen #1 grew into the child wearing a yellow shirt and blue shorts in Shimomura’s American Citizen #2. In both images, barbed wire can be seen out of the window above the child’s head.
Born in Seattle, Washington, Shimomura was two years old when he was imprisoned with his family at Minidoka Internment Camp in southern Idaho during World War II. In 1942, when the United States was engaged in the Asian-Pacific war against Japan, President Franklin D. Roosevelt ordered the removal of more than 110,000 people of Japanese ancestry from California, Alaska, and portions of Oregon, Washington, and Arizona, regardless of their
citizenship. Positioned next to Rye’s installation, Shimomura’s two prints remind visitors that citizenship can be a deeply personal issue, ingrained in one’s memories, experiences, and values.

The work of Japanese-American artist Shimomura betrays the many ways that childhood experiences mark adult identities. At first glance, these lithographs appear to show idyllic scenes of a young, well-tended boy who entertains himself in a peaceful home. The serene blue sky glimpsed through the window, however, is marred by sharp rows of barbed wire. These prints, like others Shimomura has created, portray his experiences while interned at Camp Minidoka, Idaho, during World War II. Inspired by his grandmother’s diaries and his own intimate memories, the artist represents the small human details of daily life within the context of an internment camp.

In addition to prints from his American Citizen series, two of which are seen here, Roger Shimomura also references his time spent in a Japanese internment camp in his book Memories of Childhood, which is also in the Spencer Museum’s collection. This book of ten lithographs with letterpress quotes portrays his earliest memories while interned with his paternal grandmother and parents at Camp Minidoka, Idaho, between 1942 and 1944.