Ex-Jerome internee speaks Aug. 6 in LR

Frank Sata, one of thousands of Japanese-Americans who was forced to live in an internment camp in Arkansas during World War II, will be in Little Rock on Aug. 6 to discuss his experiences and how it shaped his father's art and his own work as an architect.

Sata, then 8 years old, was shipped with his family from their home in California to Jerome in southeast Arkansas, where the U.S. War Relocation Authority built one of two Arkansas internment camps for Japanese Americans. Sata's father, J.T. Sata, was an accomplished artist who documented life in camps in Arkansas and Arizona in a series of oil paintings and charcoal drawings.

Much of that art is on display in Concordia Hall of Butler Center Galleries, 409 President Clinton Ave., as part of "Drawn In: New Art from WWII Camps at Rohwer and Jerome," and will remain in the Butler Center for Arkansas Studies' collection after the exhibition closes on Aug. 23.

The younger Sata, who lives in Pasadena, Calif., became an architect. His own work was influenced by his experience of the World War II camps, his father's art and photography, and architect Frank Lloyd Wright's fascination with Asian architecture.

Sata will give his lecture at a Legacies & Lunch program from noon-1 p.m. Aug. 6 in the Central Arkansas Library System's Ron Robinson Theater, 100 River Market Ave., Little Rock. The entrance to the theater faces the Main Library's parking lot, 100 Rock Street. The program will be co-hosted by the Butler Center for Arkansas Studies and the University of Arkansas Clinton School of Public Service and sponsored in part by the Arkansas Humanities Council.

Admission to the Legacies & Lunch program is free and open to the public. Attendees can bring sack lunches; drinks and dessert are provided. The theater will open at 11:30 a.m. to allow attendees to eat lunch in the lobby before the program. Additional information is available at (501) 918-3033.

Metro on 07/24/2014

Upcoming Events