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Roger Shimomura: Justified Internment

 

            Roger Shimomura is a Japanese-American artist who makes paintings and prints that deal with social issues of Japanese-America (“Press Release Biography” 1). In one painting by Roger Shimomura called Justified Internment, he addresses the issue of Japanese internment camps during World War II.

            On February 19, 1942, President Roosevelt signed an executive order which put more than one-hundred twenty thousand Japanese-Americans into internment camps (Keaton 22). They were called relocation centers for the Japanese-Americans (Siasoco 1). This executive order by President Roosevelt to place Japanese-Americans into internment camps was due to Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 (Austin 81). Two-thirds of the Japanese who were put into these internment camps were actually United States citizens (Siasoco 1). Many of these Japanese-Americans were also farmers that competed against Caucasian farmers, who resented the Japanese farmers (Siasoco 1).

            The internment camps that the Japanese-Americans were sent to were overcrowded and had poor living conditions which any American would resent (Blevins 1). The places where the Japanese-Americans were staying in were thrown together quickly to accommodate the Japanese in the internment camps (Blevins 1). Many of the places where the Japanese were staying had no running water (Blevins 1). Also many of the Japanese-Americans were middle class farmers and business people who were not used to these poor conditions (Blevins 1).

            The Japanese-Americans in the internment camps lost their homes, farms, and businesses due to the fact that they were in these internments camps and could not pay their bills while they were inside the camps (Siasoco 1). In 1944, President Roosevelt recalled the executive order for the Japanese internment camps and in 1945 the last internment camps were closed (Siasoco 1). The United States government paid reparations to the Japanese-Americans for the things that they had lost due to being in the internment camps (Siasoco 1).

            In Roger Shimomura’s painting Justified Internment, he has a guard with a gun who is supposed to be guarding an internment camp. The guard in the painting is also supposed to be Representative Howard Coble of North Carolina, the Chairman of the Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security (Justified Internment 1). During a radio program, Representative Coble said that he believed that he agreed with the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II (Justified Internment 1). Representative Coble’s belief, that Japanese-American internment during World War II was justified, is represented by him being a guard of the internment camp in Roger Shimomura’s painting Justified Internment. Representative Coble as a guard with a gun at his post and the fence with the barbed wire behind him is symbolic of how the Japanese should not be let out of the camp and that no one should be allowed into the camp. The guard in the painting seems to on high alert because the gun is pointing outward as if ready for anyone to come and try to release the Japanese-Americans.

Roger Shimomura uses his creativity in this painting to portray his thoughts of the Representative Coble. Through the painting of Justified Internment the viewer can see what Representative Coble thinks about the Japanese internment during World War II. The portrayal of Representative Coble’s comments in the radio program in Roger Shimomura’s painting Justified Internment is interesting.  Without even have heard the radio program in which Representative Coble expressed his thoughts of the Japanese internment during World War II a viewer of the painting Justified Internment would be able to tell what was going in the painting. Roger Shimomura visually gets his point across of how he felt about Representative Coble’s comments.

 

Works Cited

 

Austin, Allan. "Japanese Americans, World War II." Americans at War. Ed. John Resch. Vol. 3: 1901-1945. Detroit: Macmillan Reference

 

USA, 2005. 81-83. 4 vols. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Thomson Gale.  31 October 2005.

 

<http://find.galegroup.com/gvrl/infomark.do?&type=retrieve&tabID=T 001&prodId=GVRL&docId=CX3427300255&eisbn=0-02-

 

865993-7&source=gale&userGroupName=clemsonu_main&version=1.0>.

 

Blevins, Larry. “The Cruelty of Japanese Internment: Camp Harmony.” Evergreen State College. 26 Oct. 2005

 

<http://academic.evergreen.edu/b/blelar29/>.

 

Keaton, Angela. "Civil Liberties, World War II." Americans at War. Ed. John Resch. Vol. 3: 1901-1945. Detroit: Macmillan Reference

 

USA, 2005. 22-24. 4 vols. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Thomson Gale. 31 October 2005 .<http://find.galegroup.com/gvrl/info

 

mark.do?&type=retrieve& tabID=T001&prodId=GVRL&docId=CX3427300231&source=gale&userGro

 

upName=clemsonu_main&version=1.0>.

 

Shimomura, Roger. “Justified Internment.” Grep Kucera Gallery. 2003. 26 Oct. 2005.

 

<http://www.gregkucera.com/shimomura_stereotypes.htm>.

 

Shimomura, Roger. “Press Release Biography.” Roger Shimomura. 2005. 26 Oct. 2005.<http://www.rshim.com/pdf/rshim_1page_bio.pdf>.

 

Siasoco, Ricco Villanueva and Shmuel Ross. “Japanese Relocation Centers.” Japanese Internment in World War II. Infoplease. 26 Oct. 2005.

 

<http://www.infoplease.co m/spot/internment1.html>.