Isamu Noguchi

The Japanese today "are trying to make amends" for years of neglecting the now famous and greatly distinguished, Isamu Noguchi (Ernsberger). "Noguchi loved Japan, but the Japanese did not return his affection" (49). Having an American mother, a Japanese father, and an American and European educational background, Noguchi eventually found toleration and happiness in sculpture.

Noguchi, for most of his adolescence, lived a solitary life. Although he was afforded a wonderful education and traveled all over the world, he had no national identity. "In America he was too Japanese, and in Japan he was too American" (49). The fact that he was born in the United States, did not stop the Japanese mayor of Hiroshima to ask for his services. In 1952, after setting up a studio in Kamakura, Japan, Noguchi landed the assignment of designing an atomic-bomb memorial for the city of Hiroshima. Unfortunately, after many long hours of planning and design, the committee rejected his work on the discriminatory basis of not wanting to entrust a project like this to an "American."

While being rejected from Japan in the 1950s, Noguchi was also struggling with the post war prosecution of the Japanese population in the United States of America. "In America he voluntarily entered an internment camp during the war to protest U.S. hostility toward Japanese residents" (49). The rejection in 1952 of his design for the atomic-bomb memorial along with the prosecution of Japanese Americans, did not prevent Noguchi from continuing on with his career as a sculpture and activist.

In fact it was this prejudice and rejection from both the Japanese and American societies that made him decide to delve further into sculpture rather than any other medium of art. Since the only real connection he had was that with nature, (and nature is an entity that can be found constantly throughout the globe), Noguchi began to wander, never settling in one place for too long. Noguchi determined that his identity crisis was a mixed blessing. Unlike others who had attachments to certain societies and cultures in specific parts of the globe, Noguchi was able to travel, learn, and be within his comfort zone in all areas of the world. Unlike a specific culture that exists in a limited area of this world, nature and rocks are found throughout the globe and because of this, Noguchi discovered comfort in traveling and migration.