Rohwer

This page is an update of the original Densho Encyclopedia article authored by Brian Niiya. See the shorter legacy version here .

US Gov Name Rohwer Relocation Center
Facility Type Concentration Camp
Administrative Agency War Relocation Authority
Location McGehee, Arkansas (33.7500 lat, -91.2667 lng)
Date Opened September 18, 1942
Date Closed November 30, 1945
Population Description Held people from Los Angeles and San Joaquin, California; incarcerees endured a three-day train ride to Arkansas.
General Description Located at 140 feet of elevation in Desha County in southeastern Arkansas, 110 miles southeast of Little Rock and 11 miles north of McGehee. The 10,161 acres of wooded swampland were in an impoverished area 27 miles north of the Jerome concentration camp. The Mississippi River is 5 miles to the east. Summers are hot and humid, with chiggers and mosquitoes adding to the discomfort. The site had severe drainage problems; about half of the site was under swampy water during the spring.
Peak Population 8,475 (1943-03-11)
National Park Service Info

One of two War Relocation Authority (WRA) concentration camps located in the state of Arkansas, Rohwer was among the last to open and was the last to close aside from Tule Lake. Its population came almost entirely from California, was predominantly rural, and was almost equally divided between those from the San Joaquin Valley, who came via the Stockton Assembly Center, and those from Los Angeles County, via the Santa Anita Assembly Center. Along with Jerome, Rohwer's location exposed inmates to the unique climate and racial politics of the South, and the camps' relative proximity to Camps Shelby and Robinson led to regular interactions between camp inmates and Nisei soldiers training at the two military facilities. While other WRA camps saw their populations gradually decline as inmates began leaving the camp as early as the fall of 1942, Rohwer's substantially increased in the summer of 1944 when nearly 2,500 inmates transferred over from Jerome after that camp's closure. Restored monuments and headstones at Rohwer's cemetery are among the only remnants of the camp that remain and serve as a place for gathering and memorialization at the site.

Pre-History and Geography

Rohwer was located in Desha County in southeastern Arkansas about twelve miles northeast of McGehee, 110 miles southeast of Little Rock, and 160 miles southwest of Memphis. It was also just twenty-seven miles from Jerome, the other WRA camp in Arkansas and about seven miles from both the Mississippi and Arkansas Rivers. The 10,161 acre site was on land owned by the Farm Security Administration, which had come into possession of it in the 1930s through a program to buy tax-delinquent land and make it available to low income farm families for development. But little progress had been made parceling out the heavily wooded swampland, and it was available when the WRA came calling. [1]

The land and climate of the two Arkansas camps were fundamentally different from the barren, desert-like settings of the other WRA sites, in that it had dense vegetation, boggy soil, and was surrounded by trees, some of which extended into the inmate sections of the camp. The weather was hot and sticky in the summer and mosquitoes swarmed. Calling the area "low and badly drained and ... typical malaria country," a Malaria Control Program had to be started in the spring of 1943 that resulted in the spraying of breeding areas inside and outside the camp. Winter and spring rains (and occasional snow) brought slippery conditions and sticky mud. A 1990 Rohwer Reunion Booklet recalled how the "soil of the area turned to dust in the summer and into a gooey stick muddy mess during the winter." In a 2011 interview, Takeshi Nakayama recalled mud that "was almost like quicksand" in which one of his brothers "got stuck and he couldn't get out." In reaction to the mud, wooden walkways were built, which addressed the mud, but exacerbated the slipperiness. Yoshie Ogata wrote in her diary in December 1942, "[t]he wood slate for walks are very dangerous—slippery when wet." A diarist writing in January 1944 noted that "today was by far the most slippery on record" and reported seeing women "crossing narrow bridges on hands and knees" while others "tied pieces of rope or sacks around their shoes as 'skid chains,' and many women wore socks over their shoes." [2]

The site was purchased in June 1942 and construction started in early July under the supervision of the Vicksburg Area Office of the U.S. Army Engineers. The main contractor was Linebarger-Senne Construction Company of Little Rock, augmented by Newton and Glenn Contractors of Hattiesburg, Mississippi, which built the hospital and part of the blocks, and Valz Construction Company of Ripley, Tennessee, which did the plumbing. As was the case at other WRA camps, construction was far from finished when the first inmates arrived in mid-September, and would not be completed until December. Even with that, it was left to inmate laborers to compete construction, including the building of staff housing, remodeling of residential barracks, and the conversion of barracks to school buildings among many other projects. [3]

Layout and Physical Characteristics

Rohwer consisted of thirty-three residential blocks, each with twelve barracks, a mess hall, a recreation hall (often referred to as "Public Service Halls" or just "PS"), and an H-shaped building that included bathroom and laundry facilities. The administration area, motor pool, warehouses, and a seventeen-building hospital complex were north of the inmate area and separated by a large open space. Open areas in the middle of the inmate area were used as recreational areas and as the site of an auditorium/gymnasium building and a library. Inmate workers converted regular residential blocks 31 and 35 into an elementary/junior high school and senior high school respectively. A barbed wire fence surrounded the entire complex and guard towers marked each corner and middle of each side. A military police compound was located outside the fence just east of the fence. Arkansas State Highway 1 and Missouri Pacific Railroad tracks ran just east of the camp. [4]

While the general layout of Rohwer was similar to most other WRA camps, the unique conditions at the Arkansas camps led to some interesting aspects of the physical setting. While most of Rohwer had been cleared of trees and other vegetation, nine or ten blocks in the southwest portion of the camp were built on a forested area and thus included numerous shade trees, something not found at the non-Arkansas WRA camps. The swampy conditions also required that special attention be paid to drainage. Thus, drainage ditches ran between barracks and along the roads that separated each block. These ditches drained to the southwest corner of the camp, where they extended 1½ miles to empty into Coon Bayou. Waste water from the camp sewage system also drained there. Being the lower end of the camp, the forested southwest corner of the camp was also prone to flooding. Sandbags were deployed to keep the entrances to the mess hall and latrine buildings from flooding. Other unique environmental hazards included numerous flies and mosquitoes, as well as biting insects known as "chiggers" that bored into the skin. The camp's water supply was also contaminated into the spring of 1943; inmates had to boil water before drinking it. [5]

Unfinished

Upon arrival of the first inmates, much of the camp was incomplete. Though preparing the living quarters was prioritized, important elements were missing. "None of the blocks were completely finished when occupied," wrote Project Director Ray D. Johnston in a September 30 report. "All plumbing fixtures were not in and hot water was not available," he added. Inmate Sadami Hamamoto recalled that the "window panes weren't put in yet" when she arrived in a 2011 interview. Johnston estimated that as of September 30—two weeks after the arrival of the first inmates—the hospital was 70% completed and "shelter" 79%, but that mess halls stood at just 9% and laundry facilities at 12%. [6]

Inmates ended up doing much of the finishing of the camp to make it as livable as possible. Tsugio Kubota, a member of the "advance crew" that arrived at Rohwer on September 18, told Charles Kikuchi in a 1944 interview that they had to install the beds, mattresses, stoves and light bulbs for the incoming inmates. "We cleaned up the place as much as possible," he added. In addition to completing large construction projects as noted above, inmate laborers finished living spaces by installing gypsum wall boards on the inside of the barracks as well as baseboards, screens and window locks. To combat the summer heat, many inmates cut vent holes in the back of the barrack rooms and covered them with screens to provide cross ventilation. As at other camps, they also made furniture and art objects and built porches and overhangs, to personalize living spaces. Most blocks—especially the ones with more rural populations—featured numerous vegetable and flower gardens between and around barracks. [7]

Blocks/Barracks

Blocks were about five hundred feet square. The twelve barracks in each block were arranged six to a side with the mess hall and bathroom/laundry building in between. The barracks were numbered up one side and down the other, with number one being the first on the left when facing the kitchen end of the mess hall and number twelve being the first on the right. The three pairs of barracks on each side faced each other, with about a twenty-foot gap between them and a gravel path running down the middle. Each pair was separated by about thirty feet. The public service hall, which was slightly smaller than a barrack building, was in one corner of the block. Because inmates from the same locales in California tended to be transferred to Rohwer together, blocks tended to have somewhat homogeneous populations, something that was reinforced through later inmate movement over the succeeding months and years. (More on this in the "Population Characteristics" section below.) [8]

Barracks at Rohwer were similar in size to those at other WRA camps: 120 feet long by 20 feet wide. Most were divided into six units, A and F units that were 24 feet wide, C and D units that were 20 feet wide, and B and E units that were 16 feet wide. There was one steel cot per person, each with two army blankets. Lighting was provided by a single 60-watt bulb that was screwed into an electrical outlet in the ceiling. Eight-paneled windows were 40 x 45 inches and were set high on the walls on the theory that they would provide more cooling. The windows were initially unscreened. "We would roast if we kept the windows closed and the mosquitoes would bite us to pieces if we opened them," recalled Tsugio Kubota in a 1944 interview. Screens were installed later. A fire extinguisher was installed in the "C" unit of each barrack, which disturbed occupants of that unit who had to allow access to the extinguisher to all their neighbors. Two elements to the units that may have been unique to the Arkansas camps were raised cement bases measuring about seven by five feet for the heating stoves and a rudimentary closet in the corner of the room. Contemporaneous observers noted that the rods in the closet were extremely low; in her diary upon arriving at Rohwer on October 31, 1942, Yoshie Ogata wrote, "They must think we are midgets." [9]

The Arkansas camps were the only WRA camps whose stoves burned wood to keep the barrack units heated. The rationale for this was that the surrounding woods provided a near infinite source of fuel that saved the WRA from having to purchase coal or other fuels. However, the necessary lumberjack work required to gather the wood was enervating and dangerous, and inmate workers were slow to volunteer for the task, especially at the paltry WRA wage scale. As a result, WRA administrators had to coerce inmates to do the woodcutting work effectively drafting workers from other jobs. As wood supplies drew low in January 1944, all workers except mess hall workers were ordered to cut wood for a week. Later, even male mess workers were sent to the woods, as women took over mess duties. But at the end of 1944, administrators finally gave in and switched to buying coal for the stoves. [10]

Latrines

Each residential block had a centrally located bathroom and laundry complex. The H-shaped building had two wings that were 90 feet long by 20 feet wide that were connected by a 20-foot section. One of the wings had the men's and women's toilets and showers, while the other housed the laundry room. The connecting section had the boiler room that housed the coal burning hot water heater. Neither the flush toilets nor the showers were partitioned at first, though partitions—but no doors—were later added to the women's side. The laundry room had double sinks, tubs, and ironing boards. In the Engineering Section final report, James R. Rhyne, wrote that the ironing board were "unsatisfactory" and that they "proved to be more popular with the children on which to do their acrobatic stunts than with the adults for ironing purposes." Due to nationwide coal shortages at the end of 1943, there was a period where hot showers had to be limited to every other night. [11]

Mess Halls

Each of the mess halls was a 40 x 100 building with concrete floors that was located centrally in each residential block and that included a kitchen, storeroom, and dishwashing area in addition to the eating area. Each mess hall could seat about 275 people, more or less the entire block population. As the largest building in the block, the mess halls were also used for mass meetings, exhibitions, and other gatherings. Meals were served cafeteria style, with inmates lining up, taking a plate, being served the food, then finding a place to sit on the picnic bench style tables. According to a Reports Office release in 1943, the average daily food cost per capita was 41.2¢. In a December 1942 diary entry, Yoshie Ogata wrote that the meals were "predominantly starch" and that pork was "the only kind of meat." By the spring of 1943, the menus were being augmented by produce and pork produced by the camp's agricultural operation. In the final report of the Health Section, Harry K. Marks wrote that flies and roaches were an ongoing problem in the mess halls as were rats and mice in the food storage areas. [12]

Population Characteristics

Rohwer's population was almost equally divided between Los Angeles area people who came from the Santa Anita Assembly Center and those from the San Joaquin Valley who came through the Stockton Assembly Center. Of the 8,232 people who arrived at Rohwer between September 18 and October 21, 1942, 4,419 (53.7%) came from Santa Anita and 3,813 (46.3%) came from Stockton. The two groups clashed initially, but such disagreements faded over time. Later, a sizable group transferred to Rohwer from Jerome when the latter camp closed in June 1944 leading to an increase in population at Rohwer at a time when the populations at other camps were declining.

Initial Arrivals from Assembly Centers
Assembly Center Arrival Date Number
Stockton September 18 249
Santa Anita September 24 503
Santa Anita September 26 522
Santa Anita September 27 496
Santa Anita September 30 494
Santa Anita October 1 492
Santa Anita October 3 453
Santa Anita October 6 480
Santa Anita October 7 417
Santa Anita October 10 389
Stockton October 7 512
Stockton October 9 515
Stockton October 11 426
Stockton October 13 423
Stockton October 15 417
Stockton October 17 432
Stockton October 19 414
Stockton October 21 425
Santa Anita October 31 173

Source: John L. Dewitt, Final Report: Japanese Evacuation from the West Coast, 1942 (Washington D.C.: U.S. Army, Western Defense Command), 282–84.


After an initial advance group of "volunteers" from the Stockton Assembly Center arrived on September 18 to help set up the camp, groups of about 500 from Santa Anita began arriving on September 24. After most of the Santa Anita group had arrived, additional groups from Stockton began arriving on October 7. All but a last small group of 173 had arrived at Rohwer by October 21. The trip by train from both Santa Anita and Stockton took four days. [13]

The Santa Anita group including 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 including communities such as Lawndale, Gardena, and Whittier. Essentially the entire population of the Stockton Assembly Center came to Rohwer and included residents of Stockton proper along with farmers from what Rohwer Community Analyst Margaret Lantis described as coming "from the western half of a circle drawn around Stockton." These included three main communities: French Camp, south of Stockton; the Delta of the San Joaquin River to the west and northeast, and Lodi to the north. There was also a small population from the San Francisco Bay Area, as well as a substantial population of elderly bachelors who had been farm laborers in the Stockton area. A small "Hawaiian" group made up of merchant seamen and other workers caught in California when the war broke out gained a reputation for being troublemakers, to the point that "Hawaiian" became a synonym for "rowdy" or "irresponsible," according to Community Analyst Charles Wisdom. [14]

Blocks tended to have strong regional identities that became reinforced over time through inmate movement between blocks. In general, the Southern Californians tended to live in the southern parts of the camp, while the Central Californians occupied the central and northern blocks. According to Wisdom, the regional identities of each block was as follows:

1–7: Los Angeles
8–9: Lodi
10: Fresno
11–14: Los Angeles
15–16: Gardena
17: Norwalk
19: Los Angeles
20: Norwalk and Los Angeles
23–26: Stockton and nearby towns
27: Mixed Central California
28: Stockton and Los Angeles
29: San Francisco
32: Stockton and Los Angeles
33: Mixed Central California
34: Stockton and nearby towns
38: Los Angeles and nearby communities
39–41: Stockton and nearby towns [15]

As one might expect, initial encounters between the Stockton and Santa Anita groups resulted in a mixture of curiosity and conflict. "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. A pair of Nisei from Stockton, a twenty-four year old Tsugio Kubota and twenty year old Isao Buddy Sato elaborated on the relationship in 1944 interviews with Charles Kikuchi. The Santa Anita Nisei "sort of felt superior to the Stockton people as they thought we were just hicks," said Kubota. "We sort of looked up to them in awe I guess because they were from L.A. and they really acted like they had been around." "At first I didn't want to meet too many of the Santa Anita bunch as I didn't want to be taken for a sucker," Sato added. But the fear and fascination soon turned to mimicry. "The Stockton bunch were influenced quite a bit by the Santa Anita fellows and they were getting pretty wild," said Kubota. "Most of the fellows started to wear drapes and let their hair grow long like the L.A. guys." Once they started acting the part, Sato said, "we started to meet a lot of the L.A. fellows and girls. We were known as the Sharpies from Stockton and they thought we weren't so 'square' when they saw how we were dressed. We always went out all draped out in style like the L.A. fellows so that we got along good." An April 1944 report stemming from Rohwer's Reports Office, claims that over time, "the early jealousies of the Stockton and Santa Anita groups vanished." [16]

When the neighboring Jerome camp closed in the summer of 1944, much of the remaining population of that camp opted to come to Rohwer. Between June 6 and 23, 2,489 people transferred from Jerome, traveling in busses (women and children) and trucks (most men). According to the first Rohwer Reunion Booklet, the arrival of the Rohwer group brought the camp population back to full capacity "and camp activities were jumping again." [17]

Relationship to Local Community

As the only camps set in the Jim Crow south, inmates at Rohwer and Jerome faced a number of unique circumstances. Granted honorary "white" status, inmates grappled with segregated bus rides and bathrooms when they visited local towns. Both locals and the WRA made sure any interactions with locals were with white stores, churches or organizations, so as to limit contact with African Americans, who made up the majority of the local population. The influx of Japanese Americans also inspired a particularly virulent reaction from state officials led by Governor Homer Adkins, a KKK member, who instructed Arkansas colleges to not allow Japanese Americans to enroll and limited their work on local farms. Five anti-Japanese bills and two Senate resolutions were introduced, with an alien land law type measure that would have targeted Nisei as well as Issei passing both houses with 28–1 and 76–1 margins before being signed into law by Adkins on Feb. 13, 1943. It was later found unconstitutional. A bill that would have prohibited "members of the Mongolian race" from attending white schools failed to pass. Adkins successor as governor, Benjamin Travis Laney Jr., was less obstinate in opposing settlement in Arkansas after taking office in January 1945, and a handful of inmates did remain in Arkansas after the war. [18]

In the towns surrounding Rohwer, reaction was more nuanced, as nativist responses were balanced by the recognition of economic benefits brought about by the camp's construction and the influx of thousands of potential customers for local businesses. Though the pass system for inmates was initially thought to be "extremely stringent" by inmates, it was also easily defeated as many left to shop without permission. In most cases, the rogue shoppers went to two stores in the village of Rohwer, located just a few hundred yards from the southern border of the camp; a third store in the village refused to allow inmates into the store. Inmates liked McGehee—the largest of the nearby towns with a population of about 4,500—the best, and merchants mostly welcomed Rohwer inmates and even worked with camp administrators to organize twice daily bus trips from Rohwer during December 1943 to facilitate Christmas shopping. Nonetheless, some shoppers inspired complaints. A January 1943 letter from a white Arkansan to Adkins noted that "... for the past month there have been as many Japanese on the streets of McGehee as there have been our citizens," conveniently ignoring the citizenship status of Nisei. The letter writer went on to complain of Rohwer inmates speaking Japanese, "laughing loudly," and "having a picnic on our city streets." The pass system was later liberalized, and by mid-1944, a limited number of passes were available that allowed inmates to travel as far as Little Rock or Memphis. [19]

There were also more explicitly negative interactions between inmates and the local populace. On November 10, 1942, a local resident fired a shotgun at Private Louis Furushiro in a Dermott café; the private, who had been stationed at Camp Robinson, was on his way to visit his sister in Rohwer. He was uninjured except for powder burns. Later that month, a local tenant farmer shot at three Rohwer inmates who were working in the woods outside the camp with a white supervisor. Claiming that he thought they were trying to escape, he injured two of them, hitting them with buckshot. In July of 1944, two inmate truck drivers who were assisting with the transfer of material from Jerome upon its closing were allegedly harassed and physically attacked by a Desha County sheriff just outside the Rohwer gates and subsequently jailed. This incident inspired much anger among inmate leaders at Rohwer. [20]

Personnel

The project director of Rohwer for its entire life was Ray D. Johnston. Born in 1898 in Cushman, Arkansas, he lived most of his life in the state and went to the University of Arkansas and Iowa State College, emerging with an M.S. in administrative agriculture from the latter. He worked as a county agent in Stone and Searcy Counties, then for the Farm Security Administration in Dyess prior to joining the WRA. He was married to the former Willie Bloomer and had three young children during his time at Rohwer. His family eventually moved to the camp, living in the administrative area, and his children attended school at Rohwer with inmate children. [21]

After a July 1, 1943 staff reorganization, Johnston had three assistant directors. The first was James F. Rains, who had been the lone assistant director prior to that. Born in Jonesboro, Arkansas, in 1906, he had graduated from the University of Arkansas with a degree in agriculture and had been working for the Farm Security Administration before becoming one of the first hires at Rohwer in July 1942, serving initially as the chief of the agriculture division. As one of the assistant directors, Rains was in charge of the Division of Operations. [22]

The second assistant director was Head of Administrative Management Francis R. Mangham, who was born in Louisiana in 1911 and had graduated from Louisiana Tech before going to North Texas School of Law and joining the Texas Bar. After playing professional baseball and basketball, he worked for the Department of Agriculture before joining the WRA. He left Rohwer in September 1944 to join the armed forces. [23]

The third was Joseph Boone Hunter, the chief of community management. Hunter had an unusual background. Born in Allen, Texas, in 1886, he had been an army chaplain in France in World War. After gaining an M.A. degree from Vanderbilt University in 1920, he went to Japan as a missionary for the Disciples of Christ and taught there as well. He met his wife, fellow missionary Mary Cleary, there, and their two children had been born in Japan. Returning to the U.S. in 1926, he began doctoral studies at Yale, but ended up moving to Little Rock to become the founding pastor of Pulaski Heights Christian Church, remaining there until 1940. After another trip to Japan in 1941, he aided Japanese Americans incarcerated at Santa Anita and Manzanar before being hired at Rohwer. In his position as chief of community management, he oversaw many of the areas that involved interaction with the inmates including education, recreation, and religion. Given his experience in Japan, he was the staff "expert" on Japanese culture and psychology. He left Rohwer at the end of September 1944 and was succeeded by E. Moulton, formerly the head of employment and housing. [24]

The majority of the administrative staff were Southerners, both locals from southeast Arkansas and those from other parts of the South. 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." Wisdom observed that the Community Management staff under Hunter were the most friendly to the inmates and that Hunter himself "was considered excessively pre-evacuee and even pro-Japan by many of the staff." He wrote that the "Engineering and Finance Sections were no doubt the most generally disliked…" by the inmates. After a visit to the camp in the spring of 1943, Frank Sweetser, the assistant director of the Community Analysis Section office in Washington, D.C. also noted the impact of "the Southern background of most of the appointed staff," noting that "there are individuals on the appointed staff who are quite thoroughly disliked." [25]

Most of the white staff came from other government agencies. Johnston wrote that since salaries were relatively high, the WRA attracted "people who were well qualified for the respective jobs." The average number of WRA staff was about 150 in 1943. The white staff who lived at Rohwer lived in an administrative housing area north of the inmate section, between the motor pool and the hospital. This area was dubbed Block 48. Married couples and those with children lived in one, two and three-bedroom units, while men lived in in dormitories. Older unmarried women lived in apartments in Block 42, in the inmate area; younger women lived in dormitories in Block 48. Some workers lived in neighboring towns and drove in daily. About half were single or lived on site away from their families. Children of the staff who lived on site went to school with inmate children. Other than occasional short-term laborers (for instance, to help unload trains), there is no mention of African American staff at Rohwer. [26]

Other key staff at Rohwer:

C. B. Price, director of community activities until May 1943; succeeded by Nat R. Griswold, who held the position until the camp's closing. [27]

J. A. Trice, superintendent of education; formerly the school superintendent of Springdale, Arkansas. After Trice joined the armed forces, he was succeeded by Amon Thompson, who had held the same position at Jerome and had transferred over when Jerome closed. [28]

William M. Beasley, high school principal; had worked for sixteen years at Little Rock schools. [29]

Jack Steel Curtis, project attorney. Born in 1912 in Hartville, Missouri, and a graduate of Missouri Law School; had been in private practice in Springfield, Illinois, prior to joining WRA. Joined the navy in June 1944 and was succeeded by L. S. Forrest. [30]

James R. Rhyne, head of engineering and public works, formerly director of the Arkansas Highway Department. [31]

Austin Smith, Jr., reports officer. [32]

Charles Wisdom, community analyst. Born in Arkansas—though he had lived there for only a short time—Wisdom did graduate work in anthropology at the University of Chicago, but never finished his Ph.D and did fieldwork in Guatemala and with Native Americans. He had been with the Census Bureau in Arizona prior to joining the WRA. [33]

The 334th Military Police Company handled external security at Rohwer. In 1942, they included some 140 men who guarded the gate, patrolled the camp perimeter on bicycles, and manned the guard towers. As it became apparent that the security needs were minimal, their ranks dwindled. By the spring of 1943, there were about seventy, and after the opening of the West Coast at the beginning of 1945, there were less than ten. There were withdrawn completely in September 1945. Most of the men were non-Southerners, and some were recuperating from injuries suffered from overseas duty. Various accounts suggest that they were largely friendly to inmates, and they assembled a softball team that played against inmate teams. [34]

Institutions/Camp Life

Community Government

As at most other WRA camps, there was a limited amount of "self-government" in the form of an elected Community Council (CC) that included one member from each of the thirty-three residential blocks. Camp administrators arranged election of a Temporary Community Council (TCC) soon after the inmates arrived, and the group first met on November 18, 1942. Due a decision made at the national WRA level, office holders could only be U.S. citizens, which limited the group's legitimacy in the eyes of much of the inmate population. To address this, TCC members appointed one Issei from each block to a Board of Non-Citizen Representatives to act in an advisory capacity. According to the Community Analyst Charles Wisdom, the TCC "accomplished little beyond preparing a Constitution" due to fear of Issei censure. [35]

At about the same time the TCC was being organized, Rohwer administrators also named block managers for each block. The block managers served as the administrative heads of each block who handled such things as distributing supplies, handling mail, and serving as a liaison to the administration. For this, they were paid a WRA wage. Though they were technically appointed, Project Director Ray Johnston had each block elect their manager whom he would then appoint. Most of the block managers were older Nisei men, and they initially were rivals to the members of the TCC and later CC. They met weekly at an office in Block 42. As time went on, more Nisei became block managers, but as Nisei left the camp, the ranks of block managers became more Issei in the last year. A few women were elected block managers in 1944–45. [36]

Recognizing its error, the WRA changed its rules and allowed Issei to hold elected office in 1943. The first CC elected in June 1943 was about two-thirds Issei; only four members of the TCC were elected to the new council while eleven members of Issei advisory group were elected. Issei dominance was such that the group's deliberations largely were in Japanese, making it difficult for Nisei members. Nisei journalist and gadfly Bean Takeda reported that by 1945, meetings were conducted almost entirely in Japanese "with total disregard for the Nisei." [37]

Despite being dominated by Issei, the CC did not take on an anti-administration bent. In fact, according to Wisdom, the first CC chairman, an Issei from Los Angeles, was widely viewed an "inu" by the camp population due to his pro-administration views. His successor, another Issei took a more adversarial stance, though he too was liked by the administration. Regardless, the CC at Rohwer, as at other WRA camps had limited actual power that diminished over time. By 1945, Wisdom wrote, the council was "known to the staff and many of the Nisei as an evacuee group devoted mainly to organizing memorial services and to setting up monuments." [38]

Unrest

Rohwer was, as historian John Howard wrote, "often remembered as a quiet camp with little if any outward signs of protest." There was indeed no signature event such as the Mananar Riot/Uprising or Poston Strike at Rohwer. But inevitably, in a community of over 8,000 people held behind barbed wire, some conflict between jailer and jailed emerged. [39]

As at other WRA camps the meager WRA wage scale led to both overt and subtle labor protests. Operations Director James F. Rains wrote that while inmate workers "made excellent progress" when building school buildings or other types of construction that would benefit the inmates, they "had a tendency to loaf on the job" when building housing for white administrators. In a 1943 report on labor unrest stemming from the Reports Office, the office noted resistance against a stricter timekeeping policy meant to curb the "inclination to start to work late, to quit early, and to kill time while on the job." The report notes an incident in which tractor drivers walked off the job for day when questioned as to why the tractors were only running part-time and another in which warehouse workers walked off the job when a man was fired for protesting orders to speed up the unloading of a truck. As noted above, inmates also resisted attempts to coerce them into difficult and dangerous lumberjack work. Given the limited incentives inmates had to do undesirable work, many other similar incidents no doubt occurred. [40]

A more overt dispute ocurred in April 1943 when a brawl broke out between a group of "Hawaiian" seamen and the mess hall staff of Block 27 that left several hospitalized and eleven of the seamen arrested. The "Hawaiian" group were Nisei ship crew members from Hawai'i who were stranded in California after December 7 and subsequently caught up in the mass removal. Viewed by the administration as "the cause of trouble of one type or another for some time," the outburst seemed to have been viewed as inevitable. Rather than prosecuting them, the administration instead arranged for them to leave Rohwer to take railroad jobs on the outside. [41]

Registration/Segregation/Military Service

Registration at Rohwer took place in two phases. The initial plan was to conduct registration on a voluntary basis, taking a visiting army team from block to block. Voluntary registration began on February 10, 1943. Predictably, this plan failed. Project Director Ray Johnston wrote that block leadership heavily influenced whether block residents registered, with most leaders choosing not to register. By the end of February, only 600 had registered. Johnston then switched to a compulsory system beginning in the first week of March. Schools were closed down, and the school blocks were used for registration, with school personnel conducting the registration. A schedule was issued whereby inmates whose last names began with particular letters were to report at a specific time. Using this system, registration was completed in two weeks, with no reported resistance. [42]

While the overall percentage of Rohwer inmates who answered "no" to or gave qualified answers to Question 28 (5.1%) was lower than the overall average for all the camps (8.9%), there was a dramatic difference among Nisei men who registered during the voluntary period and those who volunteered after. While only one of the 372 who registered "voluntarily" answered no, about 30% of Nisei men who registered in the compulsory period gave negative or qualified answers. Only thirty-nine Rohwer Nisei volunteered for the army, a rate that tied with Jerome for lowest among all the WRA camps. A total of 1,430 Rohwer inmates ended up being transferred to Tule Lake, about 17% of the peak population of Rohwer; this figure was higher than the overall rate of 13% for all the WRA camps. A little over 800 of the transfers to Tule Lake took place in September and October of 1943; the rest transferred in May 1944. [43]

While relatively few from Rohwer gave "no" answers, even fewer volunteered for the armed forces. Prior to January 1944, only fifteen from Rohwer volunteered, by far the lowest total for any of the WRA camps. When Nisei eligibility to the draft was reinstated at that time, many Issei and Nisei objected. However, there was minimal overt resistance to the draft. Three Nisei who were called up for their physicals in March refused to report. They were eventually convicted and sentenced to three years in prison. A fourth inmate at Rohwer who had first been arrested at Jerome was also given a three-year sentence for refusing to report for his physical. According to Community Analysis Section report, attitudes at Rohwer turned more positive towards Nisei military service over time, as reports of the exploits of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team began coming in. Later, center-wide memorial services were held for soldiers from Rohwer who had been killed in battle. [44]

Education

Rohwer's K–12 schools were located in Blocks 31 and 35. The initial use of these blocks—which had the same layout and number of buildings as regular residential blocks—was supposed to be temporary, with new school buildings to be constructed in vacant Blocks 18, 21, and 36. But when little in the way of construction had been started by the summer of 1943, camp administrators decided to make the temporary locations permanent. The junior high school was located in the northern half of Block 31 and the high school in the northern half of Block 35; east and west elementary schools used the southern halves of these two blocks. Eventually, an auditorium and community library were built in Block 21, and new home economics and shop facilities were built near the high school. [45]

When school started on November 9, 1942, facilities were makeshift at best. Barracks were partitioned into classrooms and, according to the final report of the Education Section, "classes were begun with no equipment whatsoever. The rooms were bare and original roll calls were established with students standing, or sitting on the floor." Inmate carpenters built benches to serve as rudimentary seating, and folding chairs arrived in December. However, "the basic essential equipment and supplies for a full school program" were not ready until the second school year that began in the fall of 1943. Mess halls were used as assembly halls, but since they could only hold a portion of the student bodies, important assemblies had to be held twice. The laundry room was used as a science lab. The harsh weather conditions added to the students' difficulties. In a 2011 interview, Michiko Frances Chikahisa recalled that " all that humidity, .... You'd get up and you stick to the desk because you're all wet with sweat." Additional openings were cut into the walls in an attempt to improve ventilation. [46]

School Enrollment
Elementary Jr./Sr. High Graduates
Fall 1942 878 1,131 52
Spring 1943 851 1,022 154
Fall 1943 831 995 41
Spring 1944 727 944 151
Fall 1944 868 1,014 103
Spring 1945 774 826 106

Note: The uptick in enrollment in the fall of 1944 was due to the influx of inmates from Jerome after its closing. [47]

The teachers were a mixture of white hires who mostly came from Arkansas and inmate "assistant" teachers. Because the WRA paid civil service wages that were much higher than local wages, local school districts expressed fear that their teachers would flock to Rohwer and Jerome, and the WRA took measures to try to prevent this. But despite the high wages, the year-round schedule and difficult working conditions instead led to persistent teacher shortages. According to a Community Analysis Section report, most white teachers took to their jobs with enthusiasm, but about a third "were incompetent and not sufficiently well-trained to meet the demands of relocation center teaching." Inmate teachers mostly lacked education and experience as well, and many left Rohwer after short stints. Conditions for all teachers were difficult. Yoshie Ogata, who taught in the Rohwer High School, wrote with frustration in her diary in February 1943 that "[t]eaching is certainly fruitless when you have no textbooks or equipment to work with." She added that the classrooms were "terribly crowded, light is inadequate—no blinds and noise of band practicing is enough to drive a teacher to drink." Two months later, Ogata had left Rohwer to resettle in Ohio. [48]

In February 1943, nursery schools for four-year-olds opened in the school blocks, Blocks 31 and 35. Enrollment that first year was 118. As more space opened up, the nursery school program expanded to additional blocks and began to take three-year-olds. The peak enrollment was about 200 in September 1944, after the arrival of the group from Jerome. Adult night school classes focused on English language instruction and on popular courses in such topics as sewing, tailoring, and various types of arts and crafts. Enrollment was over 1,000 much of the time, and teachers were almost entirely drawn from the inmate population. [49]

Beyond WRA initiated schooling, there were inmate organized efforts. There were many private Japanese language schools that operated underground in individual barracks. A community analysis report claimed that, "It was the opinion of many Nisei here that Japanese language schooling increased at Rohwer over what it had been prior to evacuation." After the closing of the WRA run schools with the end of the 1944–45 school year, the Community Council sought to organize inmate run schools for the fall of 1945. Though the WRA opposed such schools, feeling they would retard efforts to close the camp, the did allow them as a vehicle to keep children occupied in the last days of the camp. [50]

Recreation

As at other camps, Rohwer had a range of organized and informal recreational activities for the inmates including sports, youth activities, movies and inmate performances, and arts and crafts. But due to its relative proximity to Camps Robinson and Shelby, where Nisei soldiers were stationed, there were a variety of activities geared to the soldiers that were unique to Rohwer and Jerome.

Recreational activities at Rohwer were organized and supervised by the Community Activities Division, which was headed by C. B. Price. He supervised an inmate staff of over one hundred at its peak. George "Pop" Suzuki was the inmate athletic department director who oversaw the maintenance of fields in Blocks 18 and 21 and organized softball, baseball, and football leagues, as well as sumo tournaments, basketball, and many other sports. In the summer of 1943, there were fifty-nine men's and women's softball teams that played in seven different leagues, which drew hundreds of spectators to their games. An all-star softball team played the MPs in February 1944 and also played games against teams from Jerome and from Camps Robinson and Shelby. An early highlight was a football game between teams representing the Santa Anita and Stockton Assembly Centers in November 1942 that drew some 4,000 fans. There were also active Boy and Girl Scout programs, some of which took overnight camping trips outside of the camp. [51]

Movies and talent shows featuring inmate performers served as popular entertainment for all ages. Movie screenings of 16mm prints began in January 1943 in Public Service Halls 10, 15, and 33. Admission was 10¢ for adults, 5¢ for children, and inmates had to bring their own seating. After initially being run by the Community Activities Division, the movies were transferred to the co-op which ran the screenings as a business. But the PS halls were poor venues for screenings—"Imagine being in an oven-like barrack with people all about you, perspiring and panting but patiently watching the show—and every window in the building closed air tight [so as to darken the room]," read a Reports Office report—leading to spotty attendance, and the need to screen movies in multiple locations required many workers. As a result, the movie screenings lost money even as prices were raised. When the auditorium was finally finished, movie screenings—now using 35 mm prints—moved there starting in January 1945. One popular alternative to movies were talent shows that began in block mess halls and grew to camp-wide shows of traditional Japanese plays. One of the most popular performers was the traditional Japanese dance group led by legendary instructor Fujima Kansuma from Los Angeles. A 1990 reunion booklet recalled that she produced shows "with such impeccable costumes, precision and staging that the viewers were virtually transported into another world and relieved for a few hours of the deplorable and futile life in a concentration camp." [52]

Over time, the barbed wire fence around Rohwer proved to be relatively easy for inmates to cross and many took the opportunity to explore the woods and streams. "Went for walk into woods—kept on going on and on," wrote Yoshie Ogata in her diary. "MP's whistled at us but we paid no heed—gave us satisfaction. Forest is lovely." In a later diary entry, Ogata wrote that the men "have gone fishing-mad. They come back with small black perch." In a 2011 interview, Mits Yamasaki recalled how he and his friends "would sneak out, we'd go swimming in a couple swimming holes." For many older inmates, the main purpose in exploring the wood was to gather art objects, in particular cypress knees dubbed " kobu " by Rohwer and Jerome inmates. "They’d go out into the muddy water to collect the kobu ," recalled Sadami Hamamoto in a 2011 interview, "and they made beautiful woodcrafts." Kobu collecting became a sanctioned activity as noted in a 1943 dispatch from the Reports Office: "Each weekend several truckloads of older men go out of the project under proper supervision to obtain the cypress knees and this has proved very popular." Other inmates gathered various unusual flora for use in flower arranging ( ikebana ) and others looked for stones suitable for polishing. [53]

On May 1, 1943, a group of ninety-five young women from Rohwer—most apparently from Santa Anita—traveled the 270 miles to Camp Shelby to visit and dance with the men of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team who were training there. These dance visits became regular events from both Rohwer and Jerome. But despite pressures on young women to attend these dances, the inmate women responded lukewarmly as reports of rough behavior by the soldiers circulated, and the numbers who participated declined over time. In addition to these visits, visits going the other direction began in 1944 as a Rohwer USO formed in Block 42. Organized groups would arrive in the wee hours of Saturday morning after an all-night bus ride to be entertained by seventy-five to one hundred "girls" along with some male hosts. After dancing, informal entertainment and refreshments, and a Sunday dinner prepared by Issei women, the men would return by bus. Many men would also come on their own both from Camp Shelby and Camp Robinson. The Rohwer USO remained busy into the early months of 1945. [54]

Medical Facilities

Rohwer had a seventeen-building hospital complex located north of the inmate area, adjacent to the administration area. Unfinished when the camp opened, the hospital opened gradually over several months and was beset with staffing problems throughout its existence.

Arriving with the first advance group from the Stockton Assembly Center on September 18, 1942, were Drs. George Sasaki and Kenji Oshidari and Nurse Chitose Aihara, who were charged with establishing the camp hospital. With the hospital complex not yet ready, a temporary clinic was set up in Block 27. The hospital opened on October 10 and received its first patients on October 15. Various wings of the hospital opened over the next three months: the outpatient department on October 27, one chair of the dental clinic on November 10, the tuberculosis ward on November 19, the obstetric ward on January 5. The surgical ward opened in early January when steam heat finally became available; before that inmates had to be taken to outside hospitals for surgery. A white chief medical officer oversaw inmate doctors, nurses, and other staff. The completed hospital had 175 beds and had access to two ambulances. The Health Department had as many as 274 staff—the vast majority coming from the ranks of the inmates—by March of 1943. [55]

The hospital struggled with staffing throughout its existence from the top down. There was a succession of chief medical officers, and inmate doctors and nurses were quick to leave Rohwer to resettle in the area away from the West Coast. Even after the surgical ward opened, there were no dedicated surgeons among the doctors at Rohwer, so only basic surgeries could be performed in camp; more specialized surgeries required continued trips to outside facilities.

There was no optometrist initially. The visit of an outside optometrist from Little Rock in October of 1942 resulted in long lines to see him. In a mid-1943 report, it was noted that inmates had to "wait several hours before they are able to see a doctor" and that " [a]ppointments for dental cases must be made several months in advance." Inmate nurses lasted an average of five months, so there was a constant search for new ones. Staffers for the TB ward were particularly difficult to find. Even after family members of TB patients were recruited, administrators had to require all nurse's aides to work there in turn, which resulted in several quitting. [56]

Despite these and other issues, there was no major medical crisis at Rohwer. The hospital began shutting down in 1945 and began accepting only emergency cases after July 1. [57]

Newspaper

The official camp newspaper was the Rohwer Outpost . It debuted on October 24, 1942, having been preceded by an irregularly issued Bulletin that mainly consisted of announcements from the project director. A Japanese section called the Jiho began in with the December 24, 1942 issue. For most of its life, the Outpost appeared twice a week, on Wednesday and Saturdays, and ran six pages in English and two to four in Japanese. It was delivered free of charge to center inmates via block managers and had an in-camp circulation of about 3,000, with 150 to 250 issues being distributed outside the camp. The newspaper staff had an office in Block 42, and the paper was mimeographed there. The initial English language staff numbered nineteen with six staffers on the Japanese language side. While there was substantial turnover of the English language staff due to relocation, the Japanese section staff remained largely stable. The final issue of the Outpost appeared on July 21, 1945. It was succeeded by the Rohwer Relocator , which focused on issues tied to the camp's closing. [58]

The newspaper originated in the Community Activities Section, which recruited inmates who had worked on assembly center newspapers at Santa Anita and Stockton. One such inmate from each assembly center—Bean Takeda and Barry Saiki, respectively—were named co-editors, and each would also serve a stint editor-in-chief. While Saiki left Rohwer in January 1944, Takeda remained until May of 1945 and wrote a column through nearly the entire run of the paper. When Reports Officer Austin Smith, Jr. joined the Rohwer staff in April 1943, the newspaper came under his supervision. He wrote that he tried to grant the staff editorial freedom, and noted that the only instance of censorship was when a writer in the Japanese section wrote material that was deemed "anti-relocation." A Community Analysis Section report noted that the "newspaper was read assiduously, and as this became evident the administrative staff depended more and more upon it as a means of informing the community." One of the most remembered features of the paper was a cartoon titled "Li'l Dan'l" by George Akimoto, cited in a 1990 reunion booklet as "by far, the most popular item in the Outpost." The Outpost staff produced The Pen on November 6, 1943, an 82-page 1st anniversary issue. [59]

Store/Co-op

As at other WRA camps, an inmate-led cooperative ran retail stores and a variety of service enterprises at Rohwer. Prior to the establishment of co-op, Project Director Johnston and WRA Regional Director E. B. Whitaker and others arranged for a $150 credit line with the McGehee Bank and established a canteen in Block 20 that bought goods in town and resold them. The canteen opened on October 2, 1942, in the middle of the migration of inmates into Rohwer from the Stockton and Santa Anita Assembly Centers. Items such as tools, laundry supplies, and writing materials sold out as quickly as they could be brought in. The canteen outgrew its Block 20 location within two weeks and moved to a building in the administration area. A mail order department was also set up. By November 1, cash and inventory and grown to $1,730. [60]

Recognizing the need for a much larger business operation, inmates and WRA staff put together a cooperative board that would run business enterprises in Rohwer. Johnston selected a six-person board of trustees made up of members of the Temporary Community Council and an Issei advisory group; Hideo Muto was elected chairman and general manager. This group took over operation of business enterprises on December 15, and over the next few months, worked towards establishment of a co-op drafting a constitution and by-laws. Rohwer Cooperative Enterprises, Inc. was eventually incorporated in May of 1943. Membership was open to any inmate eighteen or older for a $1 fee. There were about 3,500 members at the time of incorporation. With incorporation came a change in governance. An elected Congress of Delegates would govern the organization, with a Board of Directors elected by the congress managing it. Board members would have six month terms. [61]

In the meantime, the scope of enterprise grew dramatically. A shoe store opened in January 1943 with some 1,500 pairs of shoes, and a shoe repair shop opened in March 1943, both in PS 42. In April 1943, a dry goods store opened in PS 13, along with a beauty shop in Block 42. A barber shop followed, debuting in November 1943 in the Block 40 laundry room. In May 1943, a photo studio opened in Block 35, and a check cashing department opened in PS 33 in February 1944. A second canteen opened in Block 21 in November 1944. As noted in the "Recreation" section above, the co-op also took over the movie screenings in January 1943. By the time of incorporation, the various ventures had gross receipts of $84,098.63 with profits of $22,623.33. There were 108 employees at the time of incorporation. [62]

Despite the growth and profitability, there were inevitably problems. Inmates complained about pricing and the lack of selection and also about the lack of patronage refunds. Though the by-laws called for quarterly refunds, some were deferred by the board to increase cash reserves. A Community Analysis Section report cites widespread inmate distrust of co-op leadership due to these issues, but claims that "[m]ost of these objections had become pretty well forgotten" by 1945 as improvement were made. Board members feuded with the WRA administration and also amongst themselves. In the fall of 1943, conflict at the board level led to General Manager Muto's departure and the resignation of the entire board of directors. The Business Enterprises Section final report attributes this strife to "conflicting personalities, general pent-up feelings of frustration, drive for status, pre-evacuation social cleavages, [and] general and specific ignorance...." Perhaps as a partial result of this unrest and dissatisfaction, underground business activity that competed with the co-op flourished, including door-to-door sales, hair cutting, and teaching of special skills such as sewing. [63]

Contemporaneous accounts give a mixed picture of the co-op at Rohwer. In his personal narrative, Johnston wrote that the co-op "was operated in a rather slip-shod manner and was not nearly as efficient as I feel it could have been." Similarly, a Community Analysis Section final report concluded that the co-op's managers "earned for Rohwer's co-op the 'cellar' rating among all those of the centers." While noting that "the attitude of the residents of the center toward the coop were unfavorable," the Business Enterprise final report argued that the co-op did turn a profit while it "furnished goods at prices to the Center residents that compared favorably with those anywhere." [64]

Industry

There was little in the way of industry at Rohwer for the production of goods aimed at markets outside the inmate population. Besides the wood cutting operation described earlier, there were a number of food production related enterprises geared for internal consumption. The most notable was a tofu factory that was set up in the Block 42 mess hall that became operational in December 1943. Set up by an inmate who had run a tofu factory in Stockton before the war, the factory produced about four hundred pounds a day and 12,000 pounds a month at a cost of about 4¢ a pound. The factory used soy beans grown at Jerome initially until Rohwer farms could produce the beans. The factory made deliveries to the each mess hall weekly. Other similar endeavors included a miso factory (also in Block 42) and a cannery for the canning of excess vegetables produced by the camp farm. [60]

Agriculture

Rohwer's agricultural program—called "one of the most successful enterprises of the Rohwer camp" in a 1990 reunion booklet—produced a large proportion of vegetables consumed in the camp as well as surplus crops sent elsewhere. Given the high percentage of the Rohwer population that came from farming backgrounds, WRA staffers largely let the inmates manage the agricultural program. A Community Analysis Section report calls the program "a pretty successful example of democracy and local evacuee control in WRA." [65]

Because of the late arrival of inmates and the lack of cleared agricultural land, there was minimal agricultural production in 1942, though inmate workers had cleared hundreds of acres of land by the end of the year. Two developments led to subsequent agricultural production: (a) the WRA leased 663 acres of previously tilled land, some adjoining the camp but most about a mile-and-a-half away. Though substantial work was needed to prepare the land and provide adequate drainage, this land proved to be fertile. (b) At the behest of inmate farmers who had had experience using irrigation in the San Joaquin Valley, a system of pumping water from a nearly bayou was devised; this system allowed for a second planting of fall crops. [66]

Over the next two years, the farming operation produced over three million pounds of fruits and vegetables, most of it for camp consumption. Among the crops produced in the largest quantities were Chinese cabbage, cucumbers, daikon, radish, sweet potato, tomato, and watermelon. Several Asian vegetables that would otherwise be difficult to obtain were also produced; these included gobo, takana, and togan in addition to daikon. Though total agricultural production at Rohwer was double that of Jerome, it still trailed all the other WRA camps with the exception of Jerome and Topaz. A hog farm was begun in July of 1943 and began producing by October of that year, providing all the pork consumed at the camp subsequently. A poultry farm was also started in late 1943, but a lack of experienced staff and the warm weather led to its ultimate demise. Substantial quantities of excess crops grown at Rohwer were sold to Camp Robinson and other army installations. With the imminent closing of the camp, the administration shut down the agricultural program at the end of 1944, subleasing much of the acreage to a local farmer. By the spring of 1945, only the hog program was still active. [67]

As at other camps, some Rohwer inmates went out on short term agricultural leave to pick sugar beets and other crops. But the relative numbers seemed to be lower than in other camps, since the Arkansas state government prohibited farmers from utilizing inmate labor in the state, resulting in longer journeys for such workers. [68]

Religion

Rohwer's population was mostly Buddhist. An October 1943 survey by the Community Analysis Section concluded that 77% of the population was non-Christian, the vast majority being Buddhist. A higher percentage of Issei were Buddhist than Nisei, and a higher percentage of the rural population were Buddhist than the urban one. [69]

Two Issei Buddhist priests, Rev. Enyo Unno and Rev. Seikaku Mizutani, conducted regular Buddhist services at Rohwer. Both were from the Stockton area and both arrived at Rohwer in mid-October 1942. Prior to their arrival, a married couple from Stockton in the first group had begun a Buddhist Sunday School and young people's group. The Rohwer Buddhist Church officially opened on December 20 in Public Service Halls 23 and 28, and a Young Buddhist Association (YBA) group began in November. The church conducted separate Sunday services in Japanese and in English and offered a Sunday school for children. YBA activities included sports tournaments, a speech contest, and a choir. The church and YBA also had special commemorations and activities for New Year's hana matsuri, and obon. According to an August 1943 report from the Reports Office, about 1,200 attended weekly Buddhist services. Contributions from the community paid the salaries of the priests. [70]

The Christian group included as many as twelve denominations and eventually organized as a the Rohwer Federated Christian Church (RFCC) in December 1942. The RFCC church and office were in PS 20, and, like the Buddhists, they held Sunday services in both Japanese and English and offered Sunday schools in Blocks 2, 6, and 20. The Seventh Day Adventist group was originally a part of the RFCC, but broke out as a separate group in 1943 (over the objections of the other groups), with their own quarters in Block 26. A small Catholic group of about 100 held Sunday mass in PS 11. A Seicho no iye group met in Block 4. [71]

In March 1943, a Rohwer Inter-Faith Ministerial Council formed to address issues of interest to both Christians and Buddhists, including such topics as juvenile delinquency and the care of elders. [72]

Library

Rohwer had a general community library as well as school libraries in the junior and senior high schools. Though popular with the inmates, the libraries were under resourced even by the standards of other WRA camps. The community library was organized under the Community Activities Section, but had no budget for books or equipment. The library received temporary space in the Block 19 public service hall. The initial stock of about 2,000 books came with the inmates from the Stockton Assembly Center library. Other books came through donations from a Victory Book Drive, and from the small budget the Education Department had allotted for books and would eventually grow to nearly 11,000 books. The library opened to the public on December 7, 1942 in "a room without tables or chairs where books and magazines were arranged along the wall on the floor." It was staffed by a white librarian and three inmate workers. It eventually was furnished with spare mess hall tables and home built shelves. Average circulation was nearly 7,000 items per month in 1943 and remained over 6,000 per month for the duration. There were nearly 2,500 registered borrowers by June 1943 and nearly 5,000 by June 1945. Junior and senior high school libraries were located in the mess halls of the school blocks. There was no elementary school library, with the organizers deciding to place children's books into a section of the community library instead. [73]

In the meantime, construction continued on the new library building in Block 21 adjacent to the auditorium, but it was not completed until late 1944, and the library did not move in until November of 1944. The move to the new facility boosted library usage in the early months of 1945. But at the same time, preparations for the closing of the camp—and of the libraries—would commence. "How much more could have been accomplished if this building had been ready sooner can only be conjectured," lamented the Education Section final report. The community library closed on August 31, 1945. [74]

Closing

By the end of January 1944, 1,441 had left Rohwer, about 211 per 1,000 population, a rate slightly higher than the average of 194 for all camps. Of those that had left, 83% were Nisei and 64% men. Almost a third of these early resettlers went to Illinois and three-quarters went to either Illinois, Michigan, Ohio, Utah, or Colorado. Chicago proved to be a particularly popular destination. When one member of the Royal Dukes club of Block 11 got a job with the H. P. Smith Paper Company in Chicago, other members of the club followed until fifteen worked there. A total of twenty-five from Rohwer eventually would work for Smith. [75]

With the December 1944 end to mass exclusion from the West Coast and the announcement that the camps would be closed by the end of 1945, various operations at Rohwer began to be shut down. The farming operation began shutting down in December 1944, and the closing of the schools with the spring semester was announced in early 1945. Mess halls began gradually shutting down in the summer and fall of 1945, with fifteen closed by the end of August. (Remaining inmates had to walk to adjoining blocks to eat.) After July 1, the camp hospital began accepting only emergency cases. [76]

There were still 6,747 left in Rohwer as of January 1, 1945; this figure was somewhat artificially high due to the influx of inmates from Jerome in the summer of 1944. The WRA arranged for a series of "special coaches"—these were train cars that would be reserved only for Rohwer inmates—to Sacramento and other parts of California starting in March. A May special coach departed for Philadelphia, where most of the passengers were headed for jobs in Seabrook Farms, New Jersey. "Special trains" to California left with hundreds of passengers starting in July. Nonetheless, there were still 3,332 at Rohwer on September 1 and 1,804 on November 1. The last 360 inmates left on November 30, 1945. [77]

Timeline

September 18, 1942
The first advance group of 249 people arrives from the Stockton Assembly Center.

October 29, 1942
Block managers are elected throughout the camp.

October 31, 1942
Last trainload of inmates arrives from the assembly centers, a group of 173 from Santa Anita. The total camp population after their arrival stands at 8,261.

November 8, 1942
Yoriko Watanabe, the first to leave Rohwer to attend college, leaves for Spring Arbor Seminar Junior College in Michigan.

November 9, 1942
Rohwer's schools open.

November 10, 1942
W. M. Wood, a 72-year-old local resident, fires a shotgun at Private Louis Furushiro in a Dermott café. Furushiro managed to avoid injury beyond powder burns even though he had been less than feet away from the shooter. Furushiro, who was stationed at Camp Robinson, had been on his way to visit his sister in Rohwer.

November 13, 1942
M. C. Brown, a local tenant farmer, shoots at three Japanese Americans from Rohwer who were working outside the camp, wounding two of them. Brown claimed that he thought they had been trying to escape.

December 7, 1942
The camp library opens in Block 19 with 2,124 books.

December 27, 1942
The lower sections of the camp flood due to heavy rains and "inadequate and clogged draining systems"

January 8, 1943
The first movie night at the camp, with screenings in four different blocks.

January 19, 1943
Seizo Imai, 60, is killed doing lumber work when a felled tree lands on him.

February 10, 1943
Voluntary registration begins.

March 1, 1943
Compulsory registration begins after voluntary registration fails.

March 20, 1943
Graduation ceremonies for 53 students from Rohwer High School are held in the school auditorium. Matt D. Ellis, president of Henderson State Teachers College is the speaker.

May 1, 1943
Ninety-five young women from Rohwer visit Camp Shelby to entertain Nisei soldiers training there. Such visits would continue for the next two years.

August 29, 1943
Sixty-three leave Rohwer to sail on the Gripsholm exchange ship.

September 14, 1943
The first large group of 433 people depart for Tule Lake. On October 7, 373 more from Rohwer leave for Tule Lake.

February 26, 1944
Fifty-five Nisei leave for Little Rock for pre-induction physicals, the first such group to leave Rohwer. All who were called reported.

May 9, 1944
The third large group consisting of 498 people depart Rohwer for Tule Lake. Eight days later, another trainload of 145 people leave for Tule Lake.

May 19, 1944
Graduation exercises for 154 seniors are held.

June 6, 1944
The first groups from Jerome arrive at Rohwer upon that camp's closing. A total of 2,489 from Jerome arrive in the next two-and-a-half weeks.

September 30, 1944
Memorial service for five Nisei servicemen from Rohwer who were killed in action in Italy is held outside the auditorium. The event was sponsored by the Community Council, which was almost entirely Issei.

January 30, 1945
Dillon Myer begins a two-day visit to Rohwer to encourage inmates to leave the camp and to emphasize its closing by the end of the year.

March 2, 1945
A two-day "Nisei conference" titled "Nisei Action, Today and Tomorrow," is held in the auditorium featuring discussions on political, economic, and social action. Three outside speakers are invited: James Sugioka, Bill Hosokawa, and Sherwood Eddy.

March 15, 1945
Four Chinese officials visit Rohwer "to obtain information about the mass care of dislocated people." E. B. Moulton, assistant project director in charge of community management receives the group.

June 23, 1945
Monument to war dead dedicated at Rohwer Cemetery.

November 30, 1945
Last special train leaves Rohwer carrying 360 passengers. The last five inmates leave the camp at 6 pm.

Quotes

"It seemed to rain all spring, be stifling all summer, have those sand flinging winds in autumn, and have the audacity to snow in winter."
Eiichi Kamiya, 1979 [78]

"Rohwer. In my reminiscences, soft, mushy, clay in spring, baked as hard as rock in summer, and in the fall, the same earth, overlain with leaves of rusted orange, turned soft and cold in the winter. People, tall, short, fat, skinny, light and tanned, spoke English and Japanese in broken phrases with varying inflections and dialects. We were a family"
George Omi, 2011 [79]

"It is my understanding you have a statute in California that prevents certain races, including Japanese, from owning land in your state. If this is not too lengthy, I would appreciate having a copy of this statute and if there are any charges, please let me know and I will be glad to send check for same."
Arkansas Governor Homer Adkins, 1942 [80]

"Well, we'd sneak out, but I remember we used to go... about four of us would sneak out, we'd go swimming in a couple swimming holes. And we found out that there were snakes and stuff in there and then we said, "Oh, that's it," and we never went again. [Laughs] But we used to go out once in a while. Just sneak out when we had a chance."
Mits Yamasaki, 2011 [81]

Aftermath

After the closing of Rohwer, both buildings and land were auctioned off mostly to local farmers. Land went for just $5 to $10 per acre, much less than its actual value. The land generally became private farmland on which cotton, soybeans, corn, and other crops were grown. [82]

Over the ensuing years, two elements of the former Rohwer site remained at least somewhat intact: the smokestack from the former hospital complex and the cemetery. The latter, with its two inmate constructed monuments, has largely become the focus of preservation efforts and a symbol of the camp. Let by former Rohwer inmates and Joseph B. Hunter, the former head of community management at Rohwer who remained in the area after the war, the cemetery was dedicated as an Arkansas State Historical Park on 1961. Through Hunter's efforts, the Desha County American Legion began to care for the site, and memorial services were held there in 1961, 1966 and 1969. The site was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1974. Later, Sam Yada, a former Rohwer inmate who settled in Arkansas after the war, led an effort to build a new monument at the cemetery, which was dedicated on Memorial Day in 1982. The cemetery became a National Historic Landmark in July of 1992, and a new granite monument with bronze plaques was dedicated. That same year, a stabilization project for the bases of the original monuments was completed. In 2011, a coalition led by the University of Arkansas Little Rock received a Japanese American Confinement Sites Grant to restore the monuments and another in 2014 to restore the headstones. [83]

The first Rohwer reunion took place in Los Angeles in July 1990. A second Rohwer reunion took place in Torrance, California, in 1999. In 2004, the Japanese American National Museum and the University of Arkansas at Little Rock put on a project titled "Life Interrupted: The Japanese American Experience in WWII Arkansas" that featured a conference, a variety of museum exhibitions, and other events. [84]

Current Status of Site and Commemoration

The cemetery remains the only part of the Rohwer site that is readily accessible to visitors. It includes the two monuments that were dedicated in 1945 and twenty-four headstones, all of which have been restored recently, along with the more recent monuments. A small replica guard tower serves as an informational kiosk, and there is a self-guided walking tour along the southern boundary of the camp that include interpretive panels and audio stations featuring actor George Takei, who was incarcerated at Rohwer as a child. [85]

The World War II Japanese American Internment Museum is located in McGehee, Arkansas, and tells the story of the Rohwer and Jerome camps. It opened to the public in 2013. Former McGehee Mayor Rosalie Gould welcomed many former inmates who returned to the site and amassed a collection related to the camp. She also received the collection of student art from Rose Jamison "Jamie" Vogel, who was art teacher at Rohwer. Gould's collection was eventually donated to the Arkansas Studies Institute as the "Rosalie Santine Gould-Mabel Jamison Vogel Collection"; it can be accessed online at the Butler Center for Arkansas Studies website.

Authored by Brian Niiya , Densho

For More Information

Books, articles, and dissertations

Anderson, William C. "Early Reaction in Arkansas to the Relocation of Japanese in the State." Arkansas Historical Quarterly 23 (Autumn 1964): 195-211.

Bearden, Russell. "The False Rumor of Tuesday: Arkansas's Internment of Japanese-Americans." Arkansas Historical Quarterly 41.4 (1982): 327-39.

———. "Life Inside Arkansas's Japanese-American Relocation Centers." Arkansas Historical Quarterly 68 (Summer 1989): 169-96. [Overview of life at Rohwer and Jerome.]

Friedlander, Jay. "Journalism Behind Barbed Wire, 1942-1944: An Arkansas Relocation Center Newspaper." Journalism Quarterly 62.2 (Summer 1985): 243-46.

Howard, John. Concentration Camps on the Home Front: Japanese Americans in the House of Jim Crow . Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2008.

Moss, Dori Felice. "Strangers in their Own Land: A Cultural History of Japanese American Internment Camps in Arkansas 1942–1945." M.A. Thesis, Georgia State University, 2007. Accessible at http://digitalarchive.gsu.edu/communication_theses/32/ .

Smith, C. Calvin. War and Wartime Changes: The Transformation of Arkansas, 1940-1945 . Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press, 1986.

Vickers, Ruth P. "Japanese-American Relocation." Arkansas Historical Quarterly 10 (Summer 1951): 168-76.

Ward, Jason Morgan. "'No Jap Crow': Japanese Americans Encounter the World War II South." The Journal of Southern History 73.1 (Feb. 2007): 75–104.

Yumiba, Carole Katsuko. "An Educational History of the War Relocation Centers at Jerome and Rohwer, Arkansas, 1942-1945." Diss., University of Southern California, 1979.

Ziegler, Jan Fielder. The Schooling of Japanese American Children at Relocation Centers during World War II: Miss Mabel Jamison and Her Teaching of Art at Rohwer, Arkansas . Studies in American History Vol. 57. Lewiston, New York: The Edwin Mellen Press, 2005.

Websites

Bearden, Russell. " Rohwer Relocation Center " in The Encyclopedia of Arkansas History & Culture .

Butler Center for Arkansas Studies Rohwer Collections, https://www.butlercenter.org/rohwer/ . [Includes information on exhibitions about Rohwer the Rosalie Santine Gould/Mabel Jamison Vogel Collection of art and craft objects from Rohwer, and other resources.]

Rohwer Heritage Site, http://rohwer.astate.edu/ . [Arkansas State University site that includes information on the Rohwer site today and on the WWII Japanese American Internment Museum.]

Rohwer Reconstructed, https://risingabove.cast.uark.edu/ . [Incudes a 3D walk through of the Rohwer site, a timeline, and digitized archival material on Rohwer. A collaboration involving the Center for Advanced Spatial Technologies, Fay Jones School of Architecture + Design, and Special Collections at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville; the Butler Center for Arkansas Studies, the University of Arkansas Little Rock – Center for Arkansas History and Culture, and the Arkansas State Archives in Little Rock; and Arkansas State University in Jonesboro.]

Rohwer Relocation Center Memorial Cemetery, Rohwer, Arkansas, National Park Service, https://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/asian_american_and_pacific_islander_heritage/Rohwer-Relocation-Center-Memorial-Cemetery.htm . [On the history of the cemetery and its restoration.]

Rohwer Restored: Documenting the Restoration of the Cemetery at Rohwer Relocation Center, University of Arkansas Little Rock Center for Arkansas History and Culture, https://ualrexhibits.org/rohwer/ . [Virtual exhibit on the project to restore the monuments and headstones at the Rohwer Cemetery.]

Literary works/Memoirs

Arakawa, Jeanette S. The Little Exile . Berkeley: Stone Bridge Press, 2017.

Matsumoto, Yoshiko Susan Kawaguchi with Pamela Varma Brown. My Name is Yoshiko . Kapaa, Hawai'i: Write Path Publishing, 2015.

Morrill, Jan. The Red Kimono . Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press, 2013.

Omi, George. American Yellow . First Edition Design Publishing, 2011.

Ramsdell, Mataileen Larkin. "A Star Is Something to Steer By." Antioch Review 6.1 (Mar. 1946): 78-98. Reprinted in Gidra , Nov. 1971, 16–20.

Schiffer, Vivienne. Camp Nine . Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press, 2011.

Takei, George. To the Stars: The Autobiography of George Takei Star Trek’s Mr. Sulu . New York: Pocket Books, 1994.

Film and video

Citizen Tanouye . Produced and directed by Robert Horsing and Craig Yahata. Hashi Pictures, 2005. 58 minutes.

Harsh Canvas: The Art and Life of Henry Sugimoto . Directed by John Esaki. Japanese American National Museum, 2001. 30 minutes.

Japanese American National Museum. Life Interrupted: Reunion and Remembrance in Arkansas , 2006. [DVD compilation of short videos produced for the 2004 conference in Little Rock.]

Only the Brave . Directed by Lane Nishikawa. Mission from Buddha Productions, 2006. 100 minutes.

Relocation, Arkansas: Aftermath of Incarceration . Directed by Vivienne Schiffer and Johanna Demetrakas. Rescue Film, 2016. 79/56 minutes.

Time of Fear . Directed by Sue Williams. Ambrica Productions in association with the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, 2004. 56 minutes.

To Be Takei . Directed by Jennifer M. Kroot and Bill Weber. Rainbow Shooting Star Pictures LLC, 2014. 94 minutes.

Archival Material Online

Japanese American Evacuation and Resettlement Records, 1930–1974 . The Bancroft Library, University of California at Berkeley. [This collection includes records of the War Relocation Authority pertaining to Rohwer. Rohwer WRA records have call numbers that begin with the letter "Q."]

Footnotes

  1. A note on sources: many of the WRA documents noted below come from the Japanese American Evacuation and Resettlement Records collection at the Bancroft Library at the University of California at Berkeley. The first set of these records went online in August 2018 in a project funded by the Japanese American Confinement Sites Grant Program. They are cited below as "JAERR" along with the Bancroft call number and web link. Russell Bearden, "Life Inside Arkansas's Japanese-American Relocation Centers," Arkansas Historical Quarterly 68 (Summer 1989), 170; Kango Kunitsugu, ed., Rohwer Reunion Booklet (Gardena, Calif.: First Rohwer Reunion Committee, 1990), 17, California State University, Dominguez Hills, Archives and Special Collections, CSU Japanese American Digitization Project, https://calisphere.org/item/fe7f04541439b72d9894c2871a91002e/ ; Jason Morgan Ward, "'No Jap Crow': Japanese Americans Encounter the World War II South," The Journal of Southern History 73.1 (Feb. 2007), 80.
  2. Ward, "'No Jap Crow,'" 80; Frank Sweetser, "Impressions of Rohwer," April 3, 1943, p. 1, Community Analysis Reports and Community Analysis Trend Reports of the War Relocation Authority, 1942-1946, Reel 3. Washington, [D.C.]: National Archives, National Archives and Records Service, General Services Administration, 1984; Russell Bearden, "The False Rumor of Tuesday: Arkansas's Internment of Japanese-Americans" Arkansas Historical Quarterly 41.4 (1982), 332; "Malaria Control Program," [Rohwer Reports Office], April 14, 1944, JAERR BANC MSS 67/14 c, folder Q1.25, https://oac.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/k69k4jdk/?brand=oac4 ; Kango Kunitsugu, ed., Rohwer Reunion Booklet , 17; Takeshi Nakayama interview by Martha Nakagawa, Segment 6, Los Angeles, Sept. 20, 2011, Densho Visual History Collection, Densho Digital Repository ddr-densho-1000-369, https://ddr.densho.org/media/ddr-densho-1000/ddr-densho-1000-369-transcript-90c677a215.htm ; Yoshie Ogata diary, Dec. 18, 1942, JAERR BANC MSS 67/14 c, folder Q1.87, https://oac.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/k67m0g5t/?brand=oac4 ; Anonymous diary, Jan. 14, 1944, JAERR BANC MSS 67/14 c, folder Q1.87, https://oac.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/k67m0g5t/?brand=oac4 .
  3. James R. Rhyne, "Historical – Functional Report of Engineering Section," pp. 3, 10–14, JAERR BANC MSS 67/14 c, folder Q4.00:11, https://oac.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/k6dv1s30/?brand=oac4 ; Ray D. Johnston, Rohwer Relocation Project Report for Period Ending September 30, 1942, JAERR BANC MSS 67/14 c, folder Q1.10, https://oac.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/k6s1826f/?brand=oac4 .
  4. Rhyne, "Historical – Functional Report of Engineering Section," 2–3, 10–15; Sweetser, "Impressions of Rohwer," 1; Kunitsugu, ed., Rohwer Reunion Booklet , 17; Rohwer Relocation Center Community Analysis Section, "Final Report on Rohwer Relocation Center," p. 15, JAERR BANC MSS 67/14 c, folder Q4.00:4, https://oac.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/k6b282hs/?brand=oac4 . Different sources give differing numbers of residential blocks. Rhyne's report along with most secondary sources cite the figure as thirty-six, while the reunion booklet and CAS Final Report say thirty-three. The thirty-six figure likely counts two blocks that were used for schools, as well as Block 42, which seems to have been used to house WRA staff and for inmate enterprises including the USO, the camp newspaper office, and a tofu and miso factory. There is no indication that inmates lived in Block 42, thus the thirty-three figure.
  5. Sweetser, "Impressions of Rohwer," 1, 3; Rhyne, "Historical – Functional Report of Engineering Section," 3; CAS "Final Report on Rohwer Relocation Center," 15; Kunitsugu, ed., Rohwer Reunion Booklet , 16, 36; Letter, Kenji Sayama to Bill Rockwell, May 31, 1943, Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley BANC MSS 2016/138, https://oac.cdlib.org/ark:/28722/bk001732774/?brand=oac4 ; Yooichi Wakamiya interview by Richard Potashin, Segment 19, Los Angeles, Feb. 4, 2010, Manzanar National Historic Site Collection, Densho Digital Archive denshovh-wyooichi-01, https://ddr.densho.org/media/ddr-manz-1/ddr-manz-1-87-transcript-d6c77fcb9c.htm ; Anonymous diary, Feb. 20, 1943 and Apr. 3, 1943, JAERR BANC MSS 67/14 c, folder Q1.87, https://oac.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/k67m0g5t/?brand=oac4 ; Harry K. Marks, "Historical Statistical Functional Report of [Rohwer] Health Section," p. 23, JAERR BANC MSS 67/14 c, folder Q4.00:1, https://oac.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/k6qc09r9/?brand=oac4 .
  6. Ray D. Johnston, Rohwer Relocation Project Report for Period Ending September 30, 1942, JAERR BANC MSS 67/14 c, folder Q1.10, https://oac.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/k6s1826f/?brand=oac4 ; Sadami Hamamoto, interviewed by Warren Nishimoto and Michi Kodama-Nishimoto, Hilo, Hawai'i, Sept. 27, 2011, p. 286, Center for Oral History, University of Hawai'i at Manoa, https://scholarspace.manoa.hawaii.edu/bitstream/10125/23309/captive_6_hamamoto.pdf .
  7. Tsugio Kubota interview by Charles Kikuchi, 1944, p. 51, The Japanese American Evacuation and Resettlement: A Digital Archive, Bancroft Library, UC Berkeley, BANC MSS 67/14 c, folder T1.974, http://digitalassets.lib.berkeley.edu/jarda/ucb/text/cubanc6714_b282t01_0974.pdf ; Isao Buddy Sato interview by Charles Kikuchi, 1944, p. 32, The Japanese American Evacuation and Resettlement: A Digital Archive, Bancroft Library, UC Berkeley, BANC MSS 67/14 c, folder T1.975, http://digitalassets.lib.berkeley.edu/jarda/ucb/text/cubanc6714_b282t01_0975.pdf ; "Special Report: Living Quarters," [Reports Office], Mar. 23, 1944, pp. 4–5, JAERR BANC MSS 67/14 c, folder Q1.25, https://oac.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/k69k4jdk/?brand=oac4 ; John Howard, Concentration Camps on the Home Front: Japanese Americans in the House of Jim Crow (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2008), 73; Rohwer Relocation Center Community Analysis Section [CAS], "Final Report on Rohwer Relocation Center," p. 98, JAERR BANC MSS 67/14 c, folder Q4.00:4, https://oac.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/k6b282hs/?brand=oac4 .
  8. [CAS], "Final Report on Rohwer Relocation Center," 104, 108.
  9. "Special Report: Living Quarters," 1–3; Sadami Hamamoto interview, 286; Tsugio Kubota interview, 51; Yoshie Ogata diary, Oct. 31, 1942. After the arrival of many small families from Jerome in June 1944, many of the large A and F units were split into two smaller units, which became known as "split units." [CAS], "Final Report on Rohwer Relocation Center," 97.
  10. Anonymous diary, Jan. 3, Jan. 5, Jan. 7, Jan. 11, and Sept. 30, 1944, JAERR BANC MSS 67/14 c, folder Q1.87, https://oac.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/k67m0g5t/?brand=oac4 ; Kunitsugu, ed., Rohwer Reunion Booklet , 17, 44. John Howard writes in detail about the coercive efforts to make inmate workers at Jerome cut wood for heating and their resistance to such efforts in Concentration Camps on the Home Front , 188–95.
  11. Rhyne, "Historical – Functional Report of Engineering Section," 2; Jeanette S. Arakawa, The Little Exile (Berkeley: Stone Bridge Press, 2017), 146–47; Yooichi Wakamiya interview by Richard Potashin, Los Angeles, Feb. 4, 2010, Segment 15, Manzanar National Historic Site Collection, Densho Digital ddr-densho-1000-369 denshovh-wyooichi-01, https://ddr.densho.org/media/ddr-manz-1/ddr-manz-1-87-transcript-d6c77fcb9c.htm ; Anonymous diary, Dec. 13 and 14, 1943, JAERR BANC MSS 67/14 c, folder Q1.87, https://oac.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/k67m0g5t/?brand=oac4 .
  12. Rhyne, "Historical – Functional Report of Engineering Section," 1; Kunitsugu, ed., Rohwer Reunion Booklet , 21; [CAS], "Final Report on Rohwer Relocation Center," 147; "Basic Facts About Rohwer Relocation Center as of June 26, 1943," [Reports Office], JAERR BANC MSS 67/14 c, folder Q1.25, https://oac.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/k69k4jdk/?brand=oac4 ; Yoshie Ogata diary, Dec. 14, 1942, JAERR BANC MSS 67/14 c, folder Q1.87, https://oac.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/k67m0g5t/?brand=oac4 ; Ray D. Johnston, Rohwer Relocation Project Report for Quarter Comprising Period April 1 to June 30, 1943, JAERR BANC MSS 67/14 c, folder Q1.10, https://oac.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/k6s1826f/?brand=oac4 ; Marks, "Historical Statistical Functional Report of [Rohwer] Health Section," 25.
  13. John L. Dewitt, Final Report: Japanese Evacuation from the West Coast , 1942 (Washington D.C.: U.S. Army, Western Defense Command), 282–84.
  14. Margaret Lantis, "Relocation at Rohwer Center, Part III: Background for the Resettlement of Rohwer Farmers," Project Analysis Series No. 20, Feb. 7, 1945, 3; Margaret L. Lantis, "Relocation at Rohwer Center, Part I: The Relocated Population," Project Analysis Series No. 17, July 24, 1944, 3; "Final Accountability Rosters of Evacuees at Relocation Centers, 1944–46," Roll 9, "Rohwer, November 1945," National Archives and Records Administration Microfilm Publications, Washington, D.C., 2001; [CAS], "Final Report on Rohwer Relocation Center," 39, 44.
  15. [CAS], "Final Report on Rohwer Relocation Center," 41.
  16. Ed Marks [Community Activities Supervisor, WRA DC office], "Rohwer (Visit October 19–21, 1942)," p. 4, The Japanese American Evacuation and Resettlement: A Digital Archive, Bancroft Library, UC Berkeley, BANC MSS 67/14 c, folder Q 1.05, http://content.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/k61j99gn/ ; Tsugio Kubota interview, 52, 54; Isao Buddy Sato interview, 32–34; "Social Life of Issei," [Reports Office], April 17, 1944, p. 6, JAERR BANC MSS 67/14 c, folder Q1.25, https://oac.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/k69k4jdk/?brand=oac4 .
  17. Summary of Monthly Reports [Rohwer], Month Ending June 30, 1944, BANC MSS 67/14 c, folder Q1.12:2, https://oac.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/k6hh6jsf/?brand=oac4 ; Kango Kunitsugu, ed., Rohwer Reunion Booklet , 36.
  18. Howard, Concentration Camps on the Home Front , 128, 130; Ward, "'No Jap Crow,'" 77, 84, 87–89; "Special Report, Anti-Japanese Legislation," [Reports Office], Apr. 29, 1943, JAERR BANC MSS 67/14 c, folder Q1.25, https://oac.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/k69k4jdk/?brand=oac4 .
  19. Ward, "'No Jap Crow,'" 82–83; Sweetser, "Impressions of Rohwer," 13; [CAS], "Final Report on Rohwer Relocation Center," 89–90, 109; Howard, Concentration Camps on the Home Front , 127–28; Letter, I. C. Oxner to Homer M. Adkins, Jan. 9, 1943, Homer Adkins Papers (MS.000404) Box 4, Folder 112, Item 59, Arkansas State Archives, https://risingabove.cast.uark.edu/archive/item/756 ; Summary of Monthly Reports, Month ending December 31, 1943, JAERR BANC MSS 67/14 c, folder Q1.12:1, https://oac.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/k6n879gq/?brand=oac4 ; Summary of Monthly Reports, Month Ending June 30, 1944, BANC MSS 67/14 c, folder Q1.12:2, https://oac.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/k6hh6jsf/?brand=oac4 ; Ray D. Johnston, Personal Narrative, p. 12, JAERR BANC MSS 67/14 c, folder Q4.00:17, https://oac.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/k6nc67c6/?brand=oac4 .
  20. Denson Tribune , Nov. 17, 1943, 4; Howard, Concentration Camps on the Home Front , 132–33; Kunitsugu, ed., Rohwer Reunion Booklet , 18; L. S. Forrest, Project Attorney Report, July 15 to 22, 1944, JAERR BANC MSS 67/14 c, folder Q1.75:2, https://oac.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/k6mw2qcb/?brand=oac4 .
  21. Rohwer Outpost , Nov. 25, 1942, 3; James T. Johnson, William R. Johnston, and Dorothy J. Whitlock interview by Kristen Luetkemeier, Sedona, Arizona, Apr. 16, 2002, Segments 1, 2, 3, and 6, Manzanar National Historic Site Collection, Densho Digital Repository denshovh-jjames_g-01, https://ddr.densho.org/media/ddr-manz-1/ddr-manz-1-142-transcript-e2572f9375.htm .
  22. James F. Rains, Personal Narrative, p. 1, JAERR BANC MSS 67/14 c, folder Q4.00:17, https://oac.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/k6nc67c6/?brand=oac4 ; Rohwer Outpost , Nov. 28, 1942, 3.
  23. Rohwer Outpost , Dec 12, 1942, 3; Bearden, "Life Inside Arkansas's Japanese-American Relocation Centers," 173; Summary of Monthly Reports, Month Ending August 31, 1944, p. 3, BANC MSS 67/14 c, folder Q1.12:2, https://oac.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/k6hh6jsf/?brand=oac4 .
  24. Betty Adams, "Joseph Boone Hunter (1886–1987), The Encyclopedia of Arkansas History & Culture , http://www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net/encyclopedia/entry-detail.aspx?entryID=2723 ; Bearden, "Life Inside Arkansas's Japanese-American Relocation Centers," 173; Rohwer Outpost , Dec. 16, 1942, 3; Summary of Monthly Reports, Month Ending September 30, 1944, p. 4, BANC MSS 67/14 c, folder Q1.12:2, https://oac.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/k6hh6jsf/?brand=oac4 .
  25. [CAS], "Final Report on Rohwer Relocation Center," 66–67, 87; Sweetser, "Impressions of Rohwer," 7.
  26. Johnston, "Personal Narrative," 2; [CAS], "Final Report on Rohwer Relocation Center," 14–15, 65–66.
  27. Anonymous diary, May 20, 1943, JAERR BANC MSS 67/14 c, folder Q1.87, https://oac.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/k67m0g5t/?brand=oac4 ; Nat R. Griswold, et al., "Historical Statistical – Functional Report of Business Enterprises Section," JAERR BANC MSS 67/14 c, folder Q4.00:1, https://oac.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/k6qc09r9/?brand=oac4 .
  28. Rohwer Outpost Education Supplement, Nov. 7, 1942, 3; Colburn Cox Stuart, compiler, Inside View Japanese American Evacuee Center at Rohwer Arkansas, 1941–1945 (McGehee, Ark.: Desha County Historical Society, 1979), 6.
  29. Rohwer Outpost Education Supplement, Nov. 7, 1942, 3.
  30. Rohwer Outpost , Jan. 9, 1943, 1; Summary of Monthly Reports, Month Ending May 31, 1944 and Month Ending June 30, 1944, BANC MSS 67/14 c, folder Q1.12:2, https://oac.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/k6hh6jsf/?brand=oac4 .
  31. Rohwer Outpost , Dec. 19, 1942, 3.
  32. Bearden, "Life Inside Arkansas's Japanese-American Relocation Centers," 173.
  33. Charles Wisdom, "Personal Narrative," pp. 1, 6, JAERR BANC MSS 67/14 c, folder Q4.00:5, https://oac.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/k66d615b/?brand=oac4 ; Melville J. Herskovits, editor, International Directory of Anthropologists, Third Edition (Washington, D.C.: American Anthropological Association, 1950), 198.
  34. Bearden, "Life Inside Arkansas's Japanese-American Relocation Centers," 179; Kunitsugu, ed., Rohwer Reunion Booklet , 17, 32; [CAS], "Final Report on Rohwer Relocation Center," 75.
  35. [Reports Office], "Special Report: Evacuee Community Government at Rohwer Relocation Center," June 9, 1943, pp. 3–5, JAERR BANC MSS 67/14 c, folder Q1.25, https://oac.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/k69k4jdk/?brand=oac4 ; [CAS], "Final Report on Rohwer Relocation Center," 138.
  36. [Reports Office], "Special Report: Evacuee Community Government at Rohwer Relocation Center," June 9, 1943, pp. 3–5, JAERR BANC MSS 67/14 c, folder Q1.25, https://oac.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/k69k4jdk/?brand=oac4 ; [CAS], "Final Report on Rohwer Relocation Center," 138; Ray D. Johnston, Rohwer Relocation Project Report for Second Quarter Comprising Period October 1 to December 31, 1942, p. 21, JAERR BANC MSS 67/14 c, folder Q1.10, https://oac.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/k6s1826f/?brand=oac4 .
  37. "Special Report: Evacuee Community Government at Rohwer Relocation Center," 8–9; Ray D. Johnston, Rohwer Relocation Project Report for Quarter Comprising Period April 1 to June 30, 1943, JAERR BANC MSS 67/14 c, folder Q1.10, https://oac.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/k6s1826f/?brand=oac4 ; Bean Takeda, "Special Report: Nisei Conference at Rohwer, March 2, 3 & 4, 1945," [Reports Office], April 2, 1945, JAERR BANC MSS 67/14 c, folder Q1.25, https://oac.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/k69k4jdk/?brand=oac4 .
  38. [CAS], "Final Report on Rohwer Relocation Center," 137–39.
  39. Howard, Concentration Camps on the Home Front , 236.
  40. Rains, Personal Narrative, 6; "Special Report: Labor Disturbances," [Reports Office], Apr. 22, 1943, JAERR BANC MSS 67/14 c, folder Q1.25, https://oac.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/k69k4jdk/?brand=oac4 .
  41. Jack S. Curtis, Rohwer Project Attorney report, Apr. 22, 1943 and Apr. 30, 1943, JAERR BANC MSS 67/14 c, folder Q1.75:1, https://oac.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/k6rn3g2m/?brand=oac4 ; Anonymous diary, Apr. 15, 1943, JAERR BANC MSS 67/14 c, folder Q1.87, https://oac.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/k67m0g5t/?brand=oac4 .
  42. Johnston, Personal Narrative, 9; Anonymous diary, Feb. 6, 1943 and Mar. 1, 1943, JAERR BANC MSS 67/14 c, folder Q1.87, https://oac.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/k67m0g5t/?brand=oac4 ; Ray D. Johnston "Registration Information," [Feb. 27, 1943], JAERR BANC MSS 67/14 c, folder Q1.25, https://oac.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/k69k4jdk/?brand=oac4 ; Ray D. Johnston, Rohwer Relocation Project Report for Quarter Comprising Period January 1 to March 31, 1943, p. 2, JAERR BANC MSS 67/14 c, folder Q1.10, https://oac.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/k6s1826f/?brand=oac4 .
  43. The Evacuated People: A Quantitative Description (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of the Interior, [1946]), 115–23, 165; "Negative Answers to Question 28 by Male Citizens," Feb. 4, 1943, JAERR BANC MSS 67/14 c, folder Q1.25, https://oac.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/k69k4jdk/?brand=oac4 ; Johnston, Rohwer Relocation Project Report for Quarter Comprising Period January 1 to March 31, 1943, 2; Summary of Monthly Reports, Month ending September 30, 1943 and Month Ending October 31, 1943 JAERR BANC MSS 67/14 c, folder Q1.12:1, https://oac.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/k6n879gq/?brand=oac4 ; Summary of Monthly Reports, Month Ending May 31, 1944, BANC MSS 67/14 c, folder Q1.12:2, https://oac.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/k6hh6jsf/?brand=oac4 .
  44. The Evacuated People , 128; [CAS], "Final Report on Rohwer Relocation Center," 32–33; "Special Report: Evacuee Attitude Toward Selective Service," [Reports Office], Mar. 24, 1944, p. 3, JAERR BANC MSS 67/14 c, folder Q1.25, https://oac.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/k69k4jdk/?brand=oac4 ; Summary of Monthly Reports, Month Ending April 30, 1944, Month Ending June 30, 1944, Month Ending October 31, and Month Ending December 31, 1944, BANC MSS 67/14 c, folder Q1.12:2, https://oac.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/k6hh6jsf/?brand=oac4 .
  45. A. G. Thompson, "Rohwer Center Schools: Final Report for the Education Section," pp. 2, 14–16, JAERR, BANC MSS 67/14 c, folder Q4.00:7, https://oac.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/k6xw4s17/?brand=oac4
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Last updated July 24, 2021, 1:25 a.m..