The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) used a painting by Japanese artist Hiroshi Nagai in a social media post without his permission. The agency cropped his 2017 untitled beach scene and overlaid it with the text "America After 100 Million Deportations," accompanied by a caption about national peace. Nagai, 78, expressed being "at a loss" and disappointed that a government agency would use his work to promote a political message he does not endorse.
This incident highlights ongoing issues of copyright infringement and the weaponization of art by political entities. The DHS has a recent history of using copyrighted artwork and music without permission for propaganda, and platforms struggle to enforce image copyrights. Nagai's work, which embodies a nostalgic, idealized vision of leisure, was co-opted to support a nativist agenda, raising concerns about artistic integrity, government overreach, and the racist implications of repurposing a Japanese artist's idyllic scene to visualize mass deportations.