Bust of Harry S Truman

In 2020, the 75th year anniversary of the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, I was given a public commission to create a bust of Harry S. Truman for Hotel Kansas City. Truman may have advocated for civil rights domestically, but he also authorized the dropping of atomic bombs on Usami’s native country. For me, a Japanese native who now lives in the American Midwest with my family, having mixed-race children in a period of civil unrest helped shape the complexity of my depiction of Truman. My key motivation in my depiction was a fear of repeating the worst of history. I hope that my art increases public awareness so we will not make the same mistakes again, and that we will find better paths for the future.

The bust of Truman is now permanently installed at the lobby of Hotel Kansas City. It is open for public. 1228 Baltimore Avenue Kansas City, MO, United States, 64105

Slide show of the Bust of Harry S Truman for University of Colorado Boulder’s Introduction to the Anthropology of Japan course. Sponsored by the Center for Humanities & the Arts and the Center for Asian Studies, University of Colorado Boulder