In the wake of the attack on Pearl Harbor in December of 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued on February 19th, 1942, Executive Order 9066--which designated military zones along the United States coast and directed the army to remove all residents of Japanese ancestry from these areas. The president then created the War Relocation Authority (WRA), a federal agency tasked with caring for the approximately 110,000 Japanese-Americans uprooted by Executive Order 9066. The WRA saw to the planning and construction of long-term internment camps located in the interior of the country where the displaced population would be held for the duration of World War II. Two of the selected sites were located in the Arkansas Delta, one at Rohwer in Desha County--which operated from September 18, 1942-November 30, 1945--and the other at Jerome in sections of Chicot and Drew counties--which operated from October 6, 1942-June 30, 1944. The internment camps at Rohwer and Jerome would incarcerate over 16,000 Japanese-Americans between October 1942 and November 1945.
This collection exhibits materials from school administrators and superintendents, pastors, teachers, social welfare workers, and WRA administrators associated with the internment camps. Materials also source from the Homer Adkins’ gubernatorial papers, articles from the McGehee Times and Dermott News, and the official closing roster of the Rohwer Relocation Center.
All materials within this online exhibit are available for research at the Arkansas State Archives. These items were digitized by the Arkansas State Archives as part of a joint project entitled “Rohwer Reconstructed,” overseen by the University of Arkansas’ Center for Advanced Spatial Technologies and funded in part by a grant from the National Park Service through the Japanese American Confinement Sites Grant Program.
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Newspaper article, "Rohwer MP Company Gets New Commander"
Newspaper article discussing the military police unit at Rohwer Relocation Center.
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Newspaper article, "Sabotage is Reported at Jerome Center"
Newspaper article discussing food waste at Rohwer Relocation Center.
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Newspaper article, "Segregation of Disloyal Japs [sic] Begun"
Newspaper article about reports by the first War Relocation Authority of relocation from camps throughout the United States of disloyal Japanese Americans to other centers in California.
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Newspaper article, "Segregation To Begin At Jerome Next Wednesday"
Newspaper article discussing the beginning of relocation of disloyal Japanese Americans to Tule Lake Relocation Center in Newell, California.
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Newspaper article, "Senate Committee Makes Investigation Of State's Jap [sic] Relocation Centers"
Newspaper article about the Senate committee investigation into the activities of the Jerome Relocation Center.
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Newspaper article, "Senate Committee Would Abolish All Relocation Centers In The Country: Report Says Camps Are Only Trouble Breeders"
Newspaper article outlining a Senate report on Japanese-American Relocation Centers in the United States.
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Newspaper article, "Short Wave Radios Prohibited at Relocation Centers"
Newspaper article discussing a ban on short wave radios at all relocation centers.
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Newspaper article, "Some Items Which We Should Know About The Japs [sic]"
Newspaper column about Japanese activity during World War II in the United States.
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Newspaper article, "Southern Hospitality"
Newspaper article discussing the local response to relocation in Jerome and Rohwer.
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Newspaper article, "Study Plan of 'Freeing' Some Japanese: Senate Committee Making Investigation"
Newspaper article discussing the prospect of loyal Japanese-American workers leaving relocation centers.
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Newspaper article, "Telefact: Japanese in U.S. Internment Camps"
Telefact outlining the Japanese-American presence in United States Internment Centers.
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Newspaper article, "Three Soldiers from Rohwer Center Arrested for Car Theft"
Newspaper article describing a car theft in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, by three of the military police assigned to Rohwer Relocation Center.
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Newspaper article, "To Have Movies at Rohwer Center"
Newspaper article discussing the beginning of movie showings at Rohwer Relocation Center.
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Newspaper article, "To Resettle 20,000 Evacuees in Agriculture: 21 Midwestern States to Get Farm Labor"
Newspaper article discussing the movement of 20,000 evacuees to Midwestern states for agricultural jobs.
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Newspaper article, "To Resurface Rohwer Road"
Newspaper article discussing the resurfacing of the road on the way to Rohwer Relocation Center.
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Newspaper article, "Town and Farm In Wartime"
Newspaper article discussing the detrimental living conditions of Japanese American relocation centers.
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Newspaper article, "Transfer of 36 Japs [sic] Blocked by Governor"
Newspaper article discussing Governor Adkins' refusal to allow Japanese Americans to work on Norfork Dam.
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Newspaper article, "Uncertainty And Fear Causing Trouble At Centers"
This article discusses issues that have arisen in Arkansas's Japanese-American relocation camps and the response of National WRA director, Dillon S. Myer.
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Newspaper article, "Uncertainty Held to be Causing Jap [sic] Distrust"
Newspaper article discussing the uncertain feelings about post-war life for interned Japanese Americans at Rohwer and Jerome Relocation Centers.
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Newspaper article, "Unrest Apparent In Reports From Jerome Center: Many Rumors Heard Here Remain Unconfirmed"
Newspaper article reporting on further unrest at Jerome Relocation Center.
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Newspaper article, "Volunteer Nisei Combat Unit to be Formed: Was Requested by Loyal Japanese Americans"
Newspaper article discussing a Nisei combat unit being formed at the request of Japanese Americans internees.
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Newspaper article, "What the Japs Think of a Local Baseball Nine as Caucasians"
Newspaper article discussing the Japanese-American perception of a local baseball team.
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Newspaper article, "Whitaker Named Director At Jerome Relocation Center"
Newspaper article about the appointment of E.B. Whitaker as temporary manager of Jerome Relocation Center.
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Newspaper article, "Worker Is Killed by Train Monday at Jerome Center"
Newspaper article discussing the death of John K. Elam Sr.
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Newspaper article, "Would Prevent Japanese From Buying Land: Bill Introduced in State Senate"
Newspaper article discussing the presentation of a bill to keep Japanese Americans from buying land in Arkansas.