Confinement and Ethnicity: An Overview of World War II Japanese American Relocation Sites

Chapter 11: Rohwer Relocation Center, Arkansas

Chapter 11 Rohwer Relocation Center The Rohwer Relocation Center was located in Desha County, Arkansas, 11 miles north of McGehee and 110 miles southeast of Little Rock. It was one of two relocation centers in Arkansas - 27 miles south was the Jerome Relocation Center. The relocation center was named after the community ofRohwer, which was located one-half mile south. Five miles west ofthe Mississippi River and at an elevation of 140 feet, the relocation center area is intertwined with canals, bayous, creeks, and swampy areas. The forests that once covered the area are now gone, replaced with rice, soybean, and cotton fields and dispersed housing. About 1 mile south of the relocation center, on the east side of State Highway 1, there are Indian mounds, one with a residence on it (Figure 11.1). Several sources indicate the relocation center reserve encompassed 10,161 acres, but a boundary map for the entire reserve could not be 243 Figure 11.1. Residence south ofRohwer on top ofa suspected Indian mound (another Indian mound is to the left of the house). Relocation Center Central Area Sewage Plant i.. • ....··.4 FiIh Farm MemoriaICemetery 1II~~pr~o~~e~~~~~t~rn~R~e~~~E~OOL-"~~:-;-~-~-ow-N-Ec-R-E-N-T-E-R--~----------t-~~--------~~ t N I Figure 11.2. Rohwer Relocation Center. 244 located for this report. However, the central area layout plan includes a vicinity map which may provide clues to the boundary. Twenty full sections and four partial sections around the central area are numbered on the map, whereas the other sections depicted on the map are not numbered. While the total area of these sections exceeds the reported 10,161 acre figure, the relocation center reserve was likely limited to lands within the numbered sections (Figure 11.2). According to Bearden (1989), halfof the relocation center reserve remained under swampy bayou water during the spring. The reserve was mostly on public land meant for subsistence homesteads under the Farm Security Administration; the balance was purchased from local farmers. The roughly SOO-acre central area of the relocation center was along the west side ofState Highway 1 and the adjacent Missouri Pacific Railroad. Construction by the LinebargerSenne Construction Company of Little Rock, Arkansas, began July 1, 1942, and the center was ready for use on September 18, 1942 (Figure Figure 11.3. Construction underway at the Rohwer Relocation Center (WRA photograph, National Archives). 11.3). The maximum population, reached in November 1942, was 8,475. Evacuees were from California, who endured a three-day train ride from the assembly centers to reach Arkansas. The center closed November 30, 1944. Rosalie Gould, the former Mayor of McGehee, grew up in the area, and recounts that the Arkansas relocation centers were located in very poverty-stricken areas, probably, she believes, at the insistence ofsome influential Arkansas senator. In spite oflocal expectations, the centers did not bring prosperity. Hence, as difficult as conditions were within the relocation center, some local residents envied the evacuees' access to regular meals and health care. The relocation center at Rohwer was divided into 51 blocks surrounded by a barbed wire fence, a patrol road, and eight watch towers (Figures 11.4 and 11.5). All of the blocks were on a north-south grid. The southern two-thirds of the central area were residential blocks; 245 Figure 11.4. Watch tower at Rohwer (from Rohwer Reunion Committee 1990). warehouses were located in the northeast corner just north of the main entrance, which was along the east side. The administration and hospital areas lay to the west of the warehouses, and the military police compound was along the east boundary just south of the main entrance. East-west roads were designated by letters; north-south roads by numbers . "I" Street (also known as "Eye") was the main entrance road, extending west from the entrance and perpendicular to State Highway 1 and the Missouri Pacific Railroad. There was also an entrance along the west side of the central area near the southwest corner, and the warehouse area had two openings through the fence for access to a railroad siding (Figures 11.6 and 11.7). There were over 620 buildings at the center. The military police compound (designated Block 30), included 12 buildings. Across the road from the military police compound was the receiving building at the main entrance. The administration area (Block 44) also had 12...