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.
-
Rohwer Federated Christian Church program
Rohwer Federated Christian Church program, or order of worship, for Sunday, March 18, 1945.
-
Rohwer Federated Christian Church program
Program from the Rohwer Federated Christian Church, June 17th, 1945.
-
Rohwer Federated Christian Church service program
Program from the Rohwer Federated Christian Church, June 24th, 1945.
-
Rohwer Relocation Center closing roster
This roster compiles the names of internees at Rohwer Relocation Center, where they lived before relocation, where they lived while in Rohwer, and where they are departing to go upon the closing of the internment camp.
-
Special report concerning general registration
Special report concerning general registration at Rohwer Relocation Center, February 20, 1945.
-
Special report from Rohwer Relocation Center on evacuee reaction to Japanese surrender
Special report describing the evacuee reaction to the announcement of Japanese surrender, August 30, 1945.
-
"The Evacuation and Relocation of Japanese Americans" by Joseph Boone Hunter
This speech was written by Joseph Hunter for the Regional Conference of Church Social Workers held in St. Louis, Missouri. The speech, "The Evacuation and Relocation of Japanese Americans" is a four-page document about the individuals placed in the camps. Dr. Hunter also gives his opinion about why people of Japanese heritage are being placed in relocation camps.
-
Transmittal Letter, Dillon S. Myer to Chief of Reports Division for the War Relocation Authority
Transmittal letter from Dillon S. Myer to the chief of the reports division for the War Relocation Authority.
-
Weekly general comment by project director
Weekly General Comment by project director from Rohwer Relocation Center project director Austin Smith on March 17, 1945.
-
Weekly general comment by project director
Weekly General Comment by project director from Rohwer Relocation Center project director Austin Smith on March 3, 1945.
-
Weekly general comment by project director
Weekly General Comment by project director from Rohwer Relocation Center project director Austin Smith on Feb. 10, 1945.
-
Weekly general comment by project director
Weekly General Comment by project director from Rohwer Relocation Center project director Austin Smith on March 24, 1945.
-
Weekly general comment by project director
Weekly general comment from Rohwer Relocation Center project director Austin Smith on Jan. 20, 1945.
-
Weekly general comment by project director
Weekly General Comment by project director from Rohwer Relocation Center project director Austin Smith on March 10, 1945.
-
Weekly general comment by project director
Weekly general comment from Rohwer Relocation Center project director Austin Smith on Jan. 13, 1945.
-
Weekly general comment by project director
Weekly General Comment by project director from Rohwer Relocation Center project director Austin Smith on Feb. 24, 1945.
-
Weekly general comment by project director
Weekly general comment by project director from Rohwer Relocation Center project director Austin Smith on Feb. 3, 1945.
-
Weekly general comment by project director
Weekly General Comment by project director from Rohwer Relocation Center project director Austin Smith on Feb. 17, 1945.
-
Weekly general comment by project director
Weekly general comment from Rohwer Relocation Center project director Austin Smith on Jan. 6, 1945.
-
Weekly report by project director
Weekly report from Rohwer Relocation Center project director Austin Smith on July 21, 1945.
-
Weekly report by project director
Weekly report from Rohwer Relocation Center project director Austin Smith on July 14, 1945.
-
Weekly report by project director
Weekly report from Rohwer Relocation Center project director Austin Smith on May 5, 1945.
-
Weekly report by project director
Weekly report from Rohwer Relocation Center project director Austin Smith on Oct. 6, 1945.
-
Weekly report by project director
Weekly report from Rohwer Relocation Center project director Austin Smith on Sept. 15, 1945.