Shimomura Crossing the Delaware

Roger Shimomura Born 1939

Born Seattle, Washington

Roger Shimomura's artwork casts a light on the alienation experienced by many Asian Americans. He knows well the pain associated with xenophobia, and the feeling of disconnect between the symbol of the American flag and the lived experience of those who exist simultaneously as "an other" and "a citizen." As a small child during World War II, he and his family were relocated from their home in Seattle to a Japanese American incarceration camp in Idaho. The experience of displacement in his family's new homeland shaped his identity.

The source for this painting is Emanuel Leutze's monumental oil on canvas Washington Crossing the Delaware (1851). Shimomura has positioned himself in the guise of George Washington with samurai warriors as his Continental troops. The body of water resembles San Francisco's harbor with Angel Island, the processing center for Asian immigrants, in the background. The work echoes the compositions of Katsushika Hokusai's wood-block prints.

Credit: National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; gift of Raymond L. Ocampo Jr., Sandra Oleksy Ocampo, and Robert P. Ocampo