June 12th, 2016 brings us 74-days away from the National Park Service Centennial. In this edition of the #CentennialCountdown we go back 74-years to 1942 when Chiura Obata was sent to an internment camp in 1942.
"Obata was a Japanese immigrant and renowned artist who spent much of his career painting landscapes of Yosemite National Park. He also taught at the University of California, Berkeley.
During World War II, Obata and his family were relocated to an internment camp in Topaz, Utah, where he founded the Topaz Art School and encouraged his fellow prisoners to look to nature, as he did, for strength during the "intolerable sin" of their incarceration. One of his watercolors from the camp was donated to Eleanor Roosevelt, in thanks for her speaking out against the internment of Japanese-Americans. After the war, he returned to teaching and took many trips with the Sierra Club to paint landscapes. (PBS, America's Best Idea)
To see more of Obata's amazing art you can check out this website: http://obata.wilderness.net/
