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Hiroshi Nagai, a 79-year-old Japanese illustrator known for nostalgic coastal scenes, says the Department of Homeland Security used his artwork without permission in a social media post promoting “100 million deportations.” The image, shared on DHS’s official X account on New Year’s Eve, depicts an idealized beach scene with text envisioning America after mass removals. After users alerted him to the post, Nagai publicly objected days later, writing in Japanese on X, “The image is being used without permission. What should I do about this?”
About Nagai: Nagai is a veteran illustrator whose work became closely associated with Japan’s city pop movement beginning in the late 1970s and 1980s. His illustrations have appeared on album covers, magazine spreads and commercial advertising, with imagery centered on beaches, palm trees and retro American architecture tied to themes of leisure and nostalgia. He has not made additional public statements about the DHS post, and the department has not publicly addressed his comment or clarified whether the image was licensed or removed.
DHS promotes mass deportation: The DHS post, with the caption “The peace of a nation no longer besieged by the third world” was part of the Trump administration’s messaging encouraging large-scale deportation and self-deportation. It framed “100 million deportations” as a desired outcome and presented a calm, orderly vision of the country after removals, despite the figure far exceeding estimates of the undocumented population and amounting to nearly 30% of the U.S. population. The enforcement message was paired with a stylized beach illustration rather than photographs or standard government graphics.
Prior artist objections: The incident follows other cases under the Trump administration in which immigration authorities used artists’ work without consent in deportation-related content. Immigration and Customs Enforcement previously used singer Olivia Rodrigo’s song “All-American Bitch” in a video urging undocumented immigrants to leave the U.S., prompting Rodrigo to comment, “don’t ever use my songs to promote your racist, hateful propaganda.” The soundtrack was later removed after screenshots of her comment circulated.
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Trending on NextShark: Japanese artist blasts DHS for using his art in deportation post
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AloJapan.com