In the Yellow No Same series, Roger Shimomura uses his hallmark Pop Art, comic book style to point out the contradictions inherent in the decision to send thousands of American citizens to internment camps during World War II (Roger's family among them) because they were of Japanese descent. The figures behind the barbed wire in each of the images form a literal representation of the separation and confinement these citizens suffered. The figures are recognizably of Japanese or Asian ancestry, but they clearly depicted as Americans and are clothed in typical American dress (a young person is dressed as a cowboy; another sports a baseball cap; another wears an Army uniform). To drive the point home clearly that these are indeed Americans that America has chosen to confine, one of the images shows Mickey Mouse, one of the quintessential icons of American popular culture, behind the barbed wire as well. He seems to be shouting, "Hey, it's me, Mickey! I'm one of you!"
In the foreground of each image, outside of the barbed wire confinement, Shimomura has placed a traditional Japanese figure in traditional Japanese dress, straight out of the ukiyo-e woodblock prints that were popular in Japan from the 17th to 19th centuries — the comic books of their day. The Japanese Americans are therefore depicted both as separated from their ancestral culture by virtue of being Americans and from their contemporary culture by virtue of their being perceived as not being Americans. The Japanese figures serve as outsiders witnessing the predicament of their contemporary kin, and their expressions (of concern, puzzlement or anger) subtly comment on the disconnection they see.
As viewers, we are drawn into confronting the disconnection as well, and this is where Shimomura is so effective — the richly colored Pop Art imagery draws us in, and then the subtleties begin to reveal themselves. We are engaged, and we begin to understand.
Roger Shimomura was born in Seattle, Washington in 1939. He received his BA degree from the University of Washington in 1961 and his Master of Fine Arts from Syracuse University. He lives and teaches in Lawrence, Kansas, where he has taught art since 1969 at the University of Kansas.
