ArtistsNetwork.com 79Hill, once said that he was known
to instill in his students “a way to
observe, a way to see and appreciate
the beauty of nature.” He also con-
tinued to lead the art society he’d
cofounded in 1924, which had a mis-
sion to foster an interest of the art and
culture of Japan in the United States.
World War II changed everything.
With President Roosevelt’s signing of
Executive Order 9066, in February,
1942, the expulsion of Japanese-
Americans from the West Coast became
a “military necessity.” More than
100,000 Japanese-Americans were
forcibly removed from their homes and
relocated to incarceration camps.
Obata and his family were among
them, able to bring only what they
could carry to the prison camps
where they would spend some two
years in detention. One of Obata’s
last acts before being jailed was to sell
more than 100 pieces of his art and
use the money raised to create and
fund a scholarship through Berkeley
for a student, “regardless of race or
creed, who ... has suffered the most
from this war.”
Almost immediately after he and
his family were detained, Obata set
to work forming an art school in the
detention center, believing the power
of creativity would raise the spirits of
his people. When Obata was relocated
LEFT
Silence, Last
Twilight on an
Unknown Lake,
Johnson Peak
1930; color woodcut
on paper, 11x15⅝
SMITHSONIAN AMERICAN
ART MUSEUM, GIFT OF THE
OBATA FAMILY, 2000.76.13;
© 1989, LILLIAN YURI
KODANIBELOW
Untitled (Bears)
ca 1930s; ink on
paper, 20½x15½
PRIVATE COLLECTION