(dramatic music) - [Announcer] Murphy, Austin, Adams, Schoenfeld LLP, focusing on business law and commercial litigation is proud to support "Rob on the Road, Region Rising".

More information available at murphyaustin.com.

- [Narrator] And now "Rob on the Road", exploring Northern California.

- That's an interesting notion in there.

- Renowned artist Peter VandenBerge sits down with me to share his personal journey.

Peter has experienced dark and deadly moments as a prisoner of war in Indonesia during World War II and lived a life of forgiveness and even fame, reshaping and molding his life as an artist, carving out masterpieces collected around the world.

I'm just so glad to be here with you today.

- And I'm glad to be here with you, absolutely, with that, thank you for- - It's an honor.

At 90, Peter is one of California's most important ceramic sculptors, famed for carving ceramic busts with elongated faces, eccentric eyes, and notable noses, crowned with accents and head pieces.

This sculpture, Madame Matisse, is part of the Smithsonian Art Museum's permanent collection.

His exhibitions include Sacramento's Crocker Art Museum, the MoMA in San Francisco, the Whitney Museum in Manhattan.

Even the Louvre in France.

Impressive, no doubt.

But this is a deeply personal story of survival, resilience, and grace.

Peter was born in the Hague in the Netherlands in 1935 before his family moved to Indonesia.

This was a magical time for Peter that would quickly turn into a living nightmare during World War II.

In 1942 the Imperial Japanese Army invaded the Dutch East Indies, now Indonesia.

Japanese soldiers quickly occupied islands like Sumatra and Java, taking the local population as prisoners of war.

- The Japanese had invaded the Philippines and they wanted to conquer the whole Pacific practically.

- And you were caught up in it.

- Yeah, yeah, we were caught up in it and tried to escape, but didn't work, you know, so we, I remember very vividly that we were in a place in South Java, and my father said, we got, we're gonna go.

We have to go, you know?

So, in middle of the night we got all our belongings that we could.

We had an old Chevy, and we had to get these rubbers for your teeth so that when the bombs come down that they don't break your teeth.

- The VandenBerges tried to escape, but were captured by Japanese troops and split up.

Peter and his family would spend three years inside three POW camps under horrific conditions.

- There's this, (sighing), just a second.

- It's okay.

- Thank you.

There was a hopelessness that went there of everybody, you know, and even the kids no longer had that, you know... - The spark.

- Yeah, that's was gone.

- [Rob] World War II and the horrors of the VandenBerges captivity would rage until 1945, when Japan formally surrendered.

But before Peter's release, he experienced what he calls an unexpected miracle from a Japanese soldier.

- In one of the camps, that was the second one, Adek, the guy that was looking over the, you know, the playground, the kids were.

We asked him, you know, bluntly, because of the, if maybe, because we like to draw, could you maybe get a pencil for us or something?

And some paper.

And I didn't expect anything from him to say, what do you mean, you know?

But he was, and which is the wonderful thing about in the war, are good things, too.

And he was a good guy and he gave us some paper and some pens and pencils.

So we were able to draw.

And I, that's where I really got things.

- [Rob] Peter immigrated to America in 1954, moving to California to begin his education at Sac State.

Then his masters at UC Davis, where Robert Arneson was emerging as the father of the nationally known funk art movement.

- It was so thought provoking and interesting where some certain things will go to and should I do this?

And, you know, for- - And other sculptors.

- Yeah.

So, you know- - Arneson.

- I was Arneson's first graduate.

(laughing) Thank you.

- That's amazing.

- And then Camille was Arneson's last student.

- [Rob] Camille is Peter's daughter, an artist in her own right who works hand in hand with her dad on larger-than-life clay creations.

In 2006, Peter and Camille made a monumental journey at the invitation of Shigaraki Ceramic Cultural Park, in Japan.

- I felt in some way, all that stuff is like, history in some ways, you know, in my life.

And I felt a gratitude in some that I was able to live through all that, let's say it this way, you know.

That there were lots of people who were kind to me, you know, and understood things what happened and some way there was peace in me.

You know, like a quiet peace that I don't anymore have to go through all this.

- That's wonderful.

That is the most beautiful thing, that you found that peace.

Peace, a gift like none other for Peter VandenBerge, a prisoner of war turned world celebrated artist focused on forgiveness and family.

(dramatic music) - [Announcer] Murphy, Austin, Adams, Schoenfeld LLP, focusing on business law and commercial litigation, is proud to support "Rob on the Road, Region Rising".

More information available at murphyaustin.com.

(dramatic music)