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Date Original
1944 May 30
Description
Official correspondence from the War Location Authority to Hazel Retherford. The letter requests that Hazel transfer to Rohwer Relocation Center to teach elementary school. It also discusses pay and food allowances.
Biographical/Historical Note
After the bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9022, creating the War Relocation Authority (WRA). The WRA selected ten sites in which to imprison more than 110,000 persons of Japanese ancestry, over two-thirds of whom were American citizens. Two of these centers were in the Arkansas Delta, one at Rohwer in Desha County, and the other at Jerome in sections of Chicot and Drew counties. Over 16,000 Japanese Americans were incarcerated in these two centers between October 1942 and November 1945. Hazel Linam Retherford was born on January 27, 1906. During World War II, she was a teacher at both the Jerome and Rohwer Japanese relocation centers in Arkansas, eventually helping to close both centers. She later went to Washington, District of Columbia, to complete War Relocation Authority records on the camps.
Transcription
5-30-44
Dear Mrs. Retherford,
The Washington office has asked us to confirm your willing-
ness to transfer to Rohwer as Elementary Teacher, SP-4, $1620.
Will you please give Mr. Whitaker an original and one copy
of a memo indicating your desires in this matter as soon as you can.
I imagine that Miss Rodgers talked with you about this before
she left for Denver, but, since I am not sure, I thought I should
take this extra precaution.
Thanks,
Ruth
RHogan
MEMORANDUM
May 30, 1944
TO: All Appointed Personnel
FROM: E.B. Whitaker, Project Director
SUBJECT: Collection of Cash for Meals and Quarters for Month of June.
As Payrolls are prepared in advance in order that salary checks
can be delivered currently as due, it has been the custom in the past
to deduct subsistence and quarters obligations two weeks late, there-
fore all employees from whose salary these deductions are made are
never current with their payments.
Numerous employees will be leaving the Center during the Month of
June, and it has been decided, that in order to facilitate collection,
to put all meals and quarters for the month of June on a cash basis.
The following procedure will be adopted June 1st.
MEALS
All meals consumed will be paid for in cash at the following
rates, which will include the Supervisors Salary:
Regular Boarders $.25
Regular Boarders 1/2 Meals .15
Casual Boarders .35
Casual Boarders 1/2 Meals .20
Persons leaving the Project prior to June 15th will still owe
for the period May 16th to May 31st which amount will be deducted
from the June 15th Check.
QUARTERS
Payment for quarters occupied for the Month of June is required
to be paid in Cash to Mr. Thos. B. Lyle, Agent Cashier, at the time
of departure.
E.B. Whitaker
Project Director
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
WAR RELOCATION AUTHORITY
PENALITY FOR PRIVATE USE TO AVOID
PAYMENT OF POSTAGE, $300
----
OFFICIAL BUSINESS
Mrs. Hazel L. Retherford
IMPORTANT
Physical Description
Correspondence, 8.5" x 11"
Subjects
Evacuation of civilians; Military assistance; Military camps; Camps; War; Japanese; Japanese Americans--Evacuation and relocation, 1942-1945; World War, 1939-1945--Concentration Camps--United States--Arkansas; Internment camps; Relocation camps; Rohwer Relocation Center (Ark.)
Contributor
War Relocation Authority; Ruth Hogan; E.B. Whitaker
Geographical Area
Arkansas
Language
English
Identifier
MS.000643, Box 1, Folder 1, Item 18
Resource Type
Text
Collection
Hazel Retherford papers, MS.000643
Publisher
Arkansas State Archives
Contributing Entity
Arkansas State Archives
Recommended Citation
Official correspondence from the War Relocation Authority to Hazel Retherford, Hazel Retherford papers, Arkansas State Archives, Little Rock, Arkansas.
Rights
Use and reproduction of images held by the Arkansas State Archives without prior written permission is prohibited. For information on reproducing images held by the Arkansas State Archives, please call 501-682-6900 or email at state.archives@arkansas.gov.
Disciplines
United States History
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Additional Content
Amon Guy Thompson papers, MG04582-MG04586; Austin Smith papers, 1942-1945, MG04350; Beauty Behind Barbed Wire: The Arts of the Japanese in Our War Relocation Camps, MG01299; Community Analysis Reports and Community Analysis Trend Reports of the War Relocation Authority, 1942-1946, MG03846-MG03847; Japanese Camp papers, MG03848-MG03869
