Thinking that she would take a group of about 30 in the spring of 2018, she launched the “Unofficial Rohwer-Jerome Pilgrimage” Facebook page to publicize it. Last autumn, Kimiko Marr, a JACL Watsonville-Santa Cruz chapter director, decided to organize a pilgrimage to the Rohwer and Jerome internment camps in southeast Arkansas. (played Sulu in Star Trek) who was interned at Rohwer as a small boy. She did not see her parents again until 1948. But the fear and fascination soon turned to mimicry. Its peak population reached 8,475 people. It planned to use this facility to incarcerate ethnic Japanese, including American citizens from West Coast areas considered strategic to the war effort. On November 13, M. C. Brown, a local tenant farmer, shot at three Japanese Americans from Rohwer who were working outside the camp with a white overseer, wounding two of them. "I found out one of my neighbors, Sadami Yada, and her brother, Sam Yada, and his family, were in camps at Rohwer Relocation Camps. “There is strong Santa Anita-Stockton rivalry,” Rohwer Outpost managing editor Kaz Oshiki told WRA Community Activities Supervisor Ed Marks during the latter’s October 1942 visit. [15], World War II internment camp for Japanese-Americans, Shooting of residents by a civilian at Rohwer, U.S. National Register of Historic Places, disenfranchisement of African-American citizens, List of National Historic Landmarks in Arkansas, National Register of Historic Places listings in Desha County, Arkansas, "National Register of Historic Places Registration", https://www.dropbox.com/sh/2nihl23t9tg7uxv/AAAUYc2PkAR72q99FMxy7jGfa/14)%20SOLDIERS%20AND%20CAMPS?dl=0&preview=!SOLDIERS+AND+THE+CAMPS+(Alphabetical)+646B.pdf&subfolder_nav_tracking=1, "Report to the President: Japanese American Internment Sites Preservation: Rohwer Relocation Center", Encyclopedia of Arkansas History & Culture, http://southernspaces.org/2008/john-yoshida-arkansas-1943, Rohwer Relocation Center Memorial Cemetery, Arkansas Highway 1, Rohwer, Desha County, AR, Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians, Crystal City Alien Enemy Detention Facility, Fort Lincoln Alien Enemy Detention Facility, Fort Missoula Alien Enemy Detention Facility, Fort Stanton Alien Enemy Detention Facility, Seagoville Alien Enemy Detention Facility, Japanese American Memorial to Patriotism During World War II, Densho: The Japanese American Legacy Project, Japanese Evacuation and Resettlement Study, Bainbridge Island Japanese American Exclusion Memorial, History of the National Register of Historic Places, National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Rohwer_War_Relocation_Center&oldid=1001653658, Buildings and structures in Desha County, Arkansas, Historic American Landscapes Survey in Arkansas, Tourist attractions in Desha County, Arkansas, World War II on the National Register of Historic Places, Protected areas of Desha County, Arkansas, National Register of Historic Places in Desha County, Arkansas, Temporary populated places on the National Register of Historic Places, Short description is different from Wikidata, Pages using infobox NRHP with governing body, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 20 January 2021, at 17:42. Origin of camp population: Mostly from Los Angeles(4,324)and San Joaquin (3,516) Counties Via "assembly centers": Most came from Santa Anita (4,415) or Stockton (3,802) "ASSEMBLY CENTERS": Rohwer also received the highest number of transfers from Jerome (2,734) upon that camp's closing Rural/Urban: Mostly urban Peak population: 8,475 Though the administration opposed this effort, after a series of negotiations, it did agree to allow such schools as a vehicle to keep children occupied in the last days of the camp. Deterioration is discussed in a report from the National Park Service to the President. In contrast to most of the relocation center sites, many of the blocks in the Rohwer Center are shaded by trees. If there’s one true thing about studying history, it’s that there’s always more to learn. The Rohwer Japanese American Relocation Center in Arkansas is largely lost to history. According to Community Analyst Charles Wisdom, the non-Southerners on the staff considered the Southerners “to be basically unfriendly, or at best indifferent to the evacuees.” One exception was Joseph Boone Hunter, the chief of community services and one of three assistant directors at Rohwer under Project Director Ray D. Johnston. Today, the cemetery is the only part of the Rohwer Relocation Center that remains. “They must think we are midgets,” wrote Yoshie Ogata in her diary after her first day at Rohwer. degree from Vanderbilt University in 1920, he went to Japan as a missionary for the Disciples of Christ and taught there as well. Over 10,000 evacuees passed through Rohwer during its existence, and over two thirds of these were American citizens. This rail line also served the Jerome War Relocation Center, which was located 30 miles (48.3 km) southwest of Rohwer. Over seventy years ago, my family and I were forced from our home in Los Angeles at gunpoint by U.S. soldiers and sent to Rohwer, all because we The tallest structure is the smokestack from the hospital incinerator. To arrive at camp, the incarcerees endured a three-day train ride to Arkansas. Mt. The euphemistically named "Rohwer Relocation Center" in Arkansas was one of ten concentration camps administered by the War Relocation Authority (WRA) to house Japanese Americans forcibly removed from the West Coast during World War II. After the Rohwer camp was closed in 1945, the barracks were removed by the surrounding communities and most were refashioned to suit other needs. In response, the Rohwer Community Council began plans to start its own school. Residential barracks at Rohwer Relocation Center near McGehee, Ark., as photographed in 1943. As a result of these policies, relatively few Japanese Americans left Rohwer and Jerome to do outside agricultural work, something that thousands of Japanese Americans did at other WRA camps. The set-up of the questions was confusing and internees were suspicious of their true purpose. A bill that would have prohibited “members of the Mongolian race” from attending white schools failed to pass. About 2,000 students attended the camp's schools, which were opened on November 9, 1942 after some delay. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia The Japanese American Internment Museum, also known as the WWII Japanese American Internment Museum and the Jerome-Rohwer Interpretive Museum & Visitor Center, is a history museum in McGehee, Arkansas. The town lies between two places of great sadness: Jerome internment camp to the southwest, and Rohwer camp to the northeast. Oral history interviews, photos, newspapers, and other primary sources that document the Japanese American experience from immigration through redress with a strong focus on the World War II mass incarceration. The largest remaining structure is the high school gymnasium/auditorium, which was added to and was in service with the local school before it closed in July 2004. The "loyalty questionnaire," as it came to be known, created anger and confusion because of two questions: one asked Japanese Americans if they were willing to volunteer for military service (despite their mistreatment by the government and the army) and the other if they would "forswear their allegiance to the Emperor of Japan" (although many had never held such allegiance in the first place). While these students were able to participate in sports and other activities, their forced confinement meant Most Nisei were under 21 years old. In its National Historic Landmark summary on the Rohwer Relocation Center Cemetery, the National Park Service writes: Rohwer Relocation Camp was constructed in the late summer and early fall of 1942 as a result of Executive Order 9066 (February 19, 1942). Rohwer became home to approximately 2,000 school-age children, who attended classes within the confines of the camp. In 1943, the WRA required all adults in Rohwer and the other camps to submit to a series of questions. “The architects or engineers who planned them must have anticipated a very short race of people.”. Most of the administrative staff at Rohwer were white Southerners, including both locals from southeast Arkansas and those from other parts of the South. As one might expect, initial encounters between the Stockton and Santa Anita groups resulted in a mixture of curiosity and conflict. This year’s Rohwer Pilgrimage will take place this weekend, and Densho Content Director Brian Niiya has collected ten little-known facts about the former incarceration site to get ready. Rohwer was one of the last camps to close, with the last inmates leaving on November 30, 1945. [2], The architect of the camp was Edward F. Neild of Shreveport, Louisiana, who also designed the camp at Jerome. Born in Allen, Texas in 1886, he was an army chaplain in France in World War I. The remaining two-thirds were American born citizens–Nisei. Brown claimed that he thought they had been trying to escape. [1] A tank-shaped memorial, made of reinforced concrete, guards the cemetery, commemorating Japanese Americans who fought for their country during World War II. 13, and the shoe store in P.S. [1] Deterioration is visible in photographs of the site. The camp housed, along with the Jerome camp, some 16,000 Japanese Americans from September 18, 1942, to November 30, 1945, and was one of the last of ten such camps nationwide to close. We were known as the Sharpies from Stockton and they thought we weren’t so ‘square’ when they saw how we were dressed. Stay up to date on Densho News. It was listed as a National Historic Landmark in 1992. [Header image: Original WRA caption: “Rohwer Relocation Center, McGehee, Arkansas. Rohwer held people from Los Angeles and San Joaquin County, California. Your donations allow us make our material free to everyone and to continue in the important work of preserving the stories of the past for the generations of tomorrow. It closed on November 30, 1945. He met his wife, fellow missionary Mary Cleary, there, and their two children were born in Japan. Only 2 percent of eligible men in Jerome (and in Rohwer) enlisted. Hall 19, the dry goods store in P.S. This was the only camp to have a stockade, or military-style prison. Under this order, over 110,000 Japanese Americans and their immigrant parents were forcibly removed from the three Pacific Coast States—California, Oregon, and Washington. Adults took jobs with the administration, hospital, schools, and mess halls, in addition to agricultural work or labor details outside camp. A significant number of former Jerome inmates were transferred to Rohwer. In order to post comments, please make sure JavaScript and Cookies are enabled, and reload the page. Over 8,000 of its inmates left to return to their original homes. Some 2,147 others, a quarter of Jerome's population, were classified as "disloyal" after giving unfavorable responses to the questionnaire. These barracks were called “recreation halls” at all of the other WRA camps, but at Rohwer, they were called “public service halls” or “P.S. Given his experience in Japan, he was the staff “expert” on Japanese culture and psychology. Finally, a private guard hired to protect the wood supply of one of the camp contractors fired birdshot at inmates, injuring them. Rohwer Incarceration Camp in Arkansas was located in wooded swampland with persistent drainage problems. The Rohwer War Relocation Center was a World War II Japanese American concentration camp located in rural southeastern Arkansas, in Desha County. It was in operation from September 18, 1942, until November 30, 1945, and held as many as 8,475 Japanese Americans forcibly evacuated from California. Perhaps the most unusual use of a public service hall was P.S. However, the closet shelves and rods were extremely low. The Rohwer library was initially housed in P.S. Along with some of her students, Kansuma performed at Santa Anita and Rohwer and also traveled to Jerome to put on shows there. He fired his gun, and one of the Japanese American men was struck in the hip by a pellet while another was wounded in the calf of the leg. Densho: The Japanese American Legacy Project, © Copyright 2019 Densho. We always went out all draped out in style like the L.A. fellows so that we got along good.”. Full citations will be included there, but feel free to post questions in the comments or email us at info@densho.org in the meantime! Shasta is 50 miles away and visible on a clear day. The Rohwer Outpost (October 24, 1942 to July 21, 1945) was the newspaper of the Rohwer , Arkansas, concentration camp. Currently you have JavaScript disabled. All rights reserved. The camp cemetery survives as the only site still identified as having been part of the internment center. The former were a mostly rural population who came from Stockton, Lodi, French Camp, and other area communities; the latter included a mixture of Los Angeles city dwellers from Boyle Heights/East Los Angeles and other parts of the city, along with farmers from the southwestern and southeastern parts of Los Angeles County and communities such as Lawndale, Gardena, and Whittier. A few families remained in Arkansas, because they had There are buttons to push at each sign with a recording of George Takei. [10] The Find A Grave website lists 25 memorials for Rohwer War Relocation Center Cemetery.[11]. Furushiro, who was stationed at Camp Robinson, had been on his way to visit his sister in Rohwer. The Rohwer War Relocation Center site is now an Arkansas State University Heritage Site,[12] and features a memorial, the camp cemetery, interpretive panels and audio kiosks. Rohwer was located 27 miles north of the other internment camp, Jerome Relocation Center. [1][5] It has a monument to Japanese American war dead from the camp, and also a monument to those who died at the camp. They were among the most decorated and suffered some of the worst casualties in the war. [14], M.C. Governor Homer Adkins initially opposed the WRA's proposal to build Rohwer and its neighbor, Jerome, in Arkansas, but relented after being assured that the Japanese American detainees would be controlled by armed white guards at these facilities and they would be removed from the state at the end of the war. The monuments found within the camp's cemetery are perhaps the most poignant record of this time. Neither of these is marked in any way to indicate historical significance. The Rohwer relocation camp cemetery, the only part of the camp that remains, is now a National Historic Landmark. Hunter had an unusual background. The camp was still under construction when the first inmates began to arrive. 12, dubbed “Rohwer Toyland,” a toy library inmates set up for children aged six to fifteen. George Hosato Takei was born April 20, 1937, in Los Angeles, California. [3], Rohwer opened on September 18, 1942, and reached a peak population of 8,475 by March 1943. Trees planted by residents have grown tall. The largest remaining structure is the high school gymnasium/auditorium, which was added to and was in service with the local school before it closed in July 2004. The second camp … While other WRA camps were seeing their populations gradually decline through 1943 and 1944 as inmates began to leave to “resettle” in areas outside the West Coast restricted area, Rohwer’s population suddenly increased by over a third with the arrival of 2,489 people from Jerome upon that camp’s closing in the summer of 1944. 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