Rohwer Japanese American Relocation Center
The Rohwer internment camp included a 500-acre area for internee living quarters and more than 10,000 acres of surrounding land for farming and timber harvesting.
Officially labeled a relocation center, the internment camps for Japanese Americans during World War II were commonly referred to as concentration camps. A concentration camp is broadly defined as a place where people are imprisoned because of who they are, not because they are guilty of any crime. Built as military-style camps, the centers were surrounded by barbed wire and armed guards in watch towers. Today these camps are referred to as American concentration camps, internment camps, or incarceration camps.
"The first thing one sees as he approaches the Relocation center will be squat rows of army barracks stretching in endles rows, and looking like toy houses that someone forgot and left out all night"
Colburn Cox Stuart,
Superintendent of Schools at McGehee,
Desha County, Arkansas, 1941.
Erected by Japanese American Confinement Sites Grant, National Park Service, Department of Interior and Arkansas State University.
Topics. This historical marker is listed in these topic lists: Asian Americans • Civil Rights
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Location. 33° 45.977′ N, 91° 16.551′ W. Marker is in Rohwer, Arkansas, in Desha County. Marker can be reached from State Highway 1 north of Rohwer Road, on the left when traveling north. Touch for map. Marker is in this post office area: Rohwer AR 71666, United States of America. Touch for directions.
Other nearby markers. At least 8 other markers are within walking distance of this marker. Why Us? Why Here? (here, next to this marker); Taken Away (here, next to this marker); I Am An American (here, next to this marker); We Lived & Died Here (approx. 0.2 miles away); Rohwer Relocation Center Memorial Cemetery (approx. ¼ mile away); Rohwer Internment Camp Veterans Memorial (approx. ¼ mile away); Making A Living (approx. 0.3 miles away); Trying To Make A Home (approx. 0.3 miles away). Touch for a list and map of all markers in Rohwer.
Also see . . . Rohwer. Densho Encyclopedia entry (Submitted on March 1, 2021.)
Credits. This page was last revised on March 26, 2021. It was originally submitted on February 28, 2021, by Cajun Scrambler of Assumption, Louisiana. This page has been viewed 198 times since then and 20 times this year. Photos: 1. submitted on February 28, 2021, by Cajun Scrambler of Assumption, Louisiana. 2. submitted on March 1, 2021, by Larry Gertner of New York, New York. 3. submitted on February 28, 2021, by Cajun Scrambler of Assumption, Louisiana.
