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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Weekly report from Rohwer Relocation Center and general comment by project director
Weekly report from Rohwer Relocation Center on May 8, 1943.
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Weekly report from Rohwer Relocation Center and general comment by project director
Weekly report from Rohwer Relocation Center on May 13, 1943.
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Army Radio Station Transcription, Assistant Secretary of War John McCloy to Governor Homer Adkins
Radio station transcription from Camp Robinson's Army radio station informing Governor Adkins that the Japanese college program is the responsibility of the War Relocation Authority.
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Block managers' meeting minutes
Minutes from a Block managers' meeting on Nov. 2, 1942 at Rohwer Relocation Center.
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Block managers' meeting minutes
This document includes minutes from a block managers' meeting on Nov. 13, 1942, at Rohwer Relocation Center.
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Block managers' meeting minutes
Minutes from a Block managers' meeting on Nov. 4, 1942, at Rohwer Relocation Center.
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Dermott News article on the Arrival of Japanese Americans in Arkansas
This article discusses the arrival of Japanese Americans in Arkansas.
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Letter, Dillon S. Myer, Director of the War Relocation Authority to Governor Homer M. Adkins
Letter discussing the need for a post office at each Japanese internment camp in Arkansas and how to appropriately name them.
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Letter, D. Palmer Patterson to E.B. Whitaker
Letter written by D. Palmer Patterson, Arkansas's director under the United States Employment Service, informing E. B. Whitaker, regional director of the War Relocation Authority in Arkansas, that the Governor would not allow Japanese Americans out of the camps to work in Arkansas.
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Letter, Ebenezer L. Compere, state director, to Governor Homer Adkins
This letter is from E.L. Compere, State Director for Selective-Service in Arkansas, informing Governor Homer Adkins about Adjutant General Adams asking for information regarding housing facilities for evacuees in Arkansas.
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Letter, E.B. Whitaker, assistant regional director, to Mr. Milton Eisenhower, War Relocation Authority director
This letter details a meeting between Arkansas Governor Homer Adkins and Mr. Whitaker, the assistant regional director of the War Department. It states Adkins' demands for the state of Arkansas if the displaced Japanese Americans are relocated to Arkansas.
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Letter, E.B. Whitaker to Governor Homer M. Adkins
E.B. Whitaker, Little Rock's Regional Director of the War Location Authority, is requesting time to talk with Governor Adkins about the cooperative effort between Arkansas and the War Relocation Authority in regards to the removal and housing of Japanese Americans.
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Letter, Elmer M. Rowalt to Governor Homer Adkins
Letter written by Elmer M. Rowalt, acting director of the War Relocation Authority, to Governor Homer Adkins discussing the Otwell area as a potential site for a relocation camp.
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Letter from an ex-United States soldier interned at Rohwer, to Homer M. Adkins, Governor of Arkansas
This is a letter from an ex-United States soldier that had been relocated to Arkansas due to his Japanese ancestry. The soldier is angry that the Governor will not allow Japanese Americans to work outside the camps. He refers to the Governor as "Hitlerian" and a "saboteur" of his own country, by denying other Americans the right to help with the war effort. He does not sign his name to the letter, but calls himself, "Ex. U.S. Soldier."
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Letter from H.K. Thatcher, Executive Director of the Agricultural and Industrial Commission for the State of Arkansas, to Homer M. Adkins, Governor of Arkansas
A four page detailed description of a meeting with the War Relocation Board in regards to the two Japanese-American internment camps in Arkansas.
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Letter, from John M. Bramlette, Manager II, Utah Construction Company to D. Palmer Patterson
Letter written by John M. Bramlette, a manager with the Utah Construction Company to D. Palmer Patterson, Arkansas's Director for the United States Employment Service. The Utah Construction Company, constructing Norfork Dam, requested the use of 34 Japanese Americans to work on the dam's construction due to labor shortfall. Williams states that he will pay for housing and food at $.50 an hour during a 48-hour work week. Williams has been looking for laborers within a 50 mile radius and is still short of men.
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Letter, from L.V. Twyford, to Governor Homer Adkins
L.V. Twyford, Secretary of the United States Senate Committee on Banking and Currency, is writing to Governor Homer Adkins about a project designed to bring in 5,000 Japanese Americans to Otwell in Craighead County, Arkansas.
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Letter from Oren Harris, M.C., U.S. House of Representatives, 4th District of Arkansas, to Homer M. Adkins, Governor of Arkansas
In this letter, Oren Harris requests anything Governor Adkins has from the War Relocation Authority in regards to their promises about the treatment of Japanese Americans in the camps.
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Letter, Governor Homer Adkins to California's Secretary of State
Letter from Governor Adkins to California's Secretary of State requesting a copy of the California Alien Land Law, which prevents individuals with Asian ancestry from owning land in that state.
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Letter, Governor Homer Adkins to John L. DeWitt, Lieutenant General, United States Army
This letter is an acknowledgement of a phone call and a letter about the relocation of Japanese Americans to Arkansas.
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Letter, Governor Homer M. Adkins to Arkansas Representative Oren Harris
Letter from Governor Adkins to Arkansas Representative Oren Harris explaining that the War Relocation Authority promised Governor Adkins that Arkansas's interned Japanese Americans would remain in the camps under guard at all time, would not enter the workforce, would not be able to purchase land in Arkansas, and would be removed at the end of the war.
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Letter, Governor Homer M. Adkins to Colonel Karl R. Bendetsen
Letter from Governor Homer M. Adkins to Colonel Karl Bendetsen, Assistant Chief of Staff Civil Affairs Division Western Defense Command and 4th Army, asking that the Colonel keep Adkins informed about any action that would declare the Japanese camps military areas. Adkins also asks about a State patrolman named Carl Miller. He wants to know if Miller will be promoted to 1st Lieutenant in the Provost Marshal's department.
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Letter, Governor Homer M. Adkins to Dillon S. Myer, Director of the War Relocation Authority
This letter is an acknowledgement of a letter Adkins received from Dillon S. Myer, director of the War Relocation Authority on July 2, 1942 and references who should name the new post offices.
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Letter, Governor Homer M. Adkins to John H. Tolan, Chairman of the House Committee on Investigating National Defense Migration
Governor Homer Adkins tells Tolan that Arkansas would not be a good relocation center for any Japanese Americans.
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Letter, John J. McCloy, Assistant Secretary of War to Clarence Pickett, American Friends Service Committee
This correspondence discusses the idea of a university program that would allow Japanese Americans, incarcerated in camps, the ability to continue their educational pursuits.