Jerome War Relocation Center

The Jerome War Relocation Center was a Japanese American internment camp located in southeastern Arkansas, near the town of Jerome in the Arkansas Delta. Open from October 6, 1942, until June 30, 1944, it was the last American concentration camp to open and the first to close. At one point it held as many as 8,497 detainees. After closing, it was converted into a holding camp for German prisoners of war. The PBS documentary film Time of Fear explores the history of these two American concentration camps in Arkansas.

After the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941 brought the United States into World War II, President Franklin D. Roosevelt was lobbied to sign Executive Order 9066, which authorized military leaders to declare the West Coast a military zone from which persons considered "a threat to security" could be excluded. Some military leaders opposed this action, and historians have concluded that the order was based largely on local exaggerated fears and xenophobia, plus economic competition. Officials classified most Japanese Americans as potential threats, including native born citizens. They forced the "evacuation" of 120,000 Japanese Americans; whole families were rounded up and deported to concentration camps newly constructed in isolated areas of the country's interior. The Jerome War Relocation Camp was located in Southeast Arkansas in Chicot and Drew counties. It was one of two American concentration camps in the Arkansas Delta, the other being at Rohwer, 27 mile (43 km) north of Jerome. The Jerome site was situated on of tax delinquent land in the marshy delta of the Mississippi River's flood plain, which had been purchased in the 1930s during Depression relief efforts by the Farm Security Administration. Despite initial resistance from Governor Homer Adkins – who agreed to allow the camps only after exacting a federal guarantee that the Japanese American inmates would be watched by armed white guards and removed from the state at the end of the war – the War Relocation Authority acquired the land in 1942. Jerome was divided into 50 blocks, which were surrounded by a barbed wire fence, a patrol road, and seven watchtowers. Administrative and community spaces such as schools, offices and the hospital were separate from the 36 residential or barracks blocks. These consisted of twelve barracks divided into several "apartments", in addition to communal dining and sanitary facilities. Approximately 250 to 300 individuals lived in each block. volunteered or were conscripted for the legendary 100th Infantry Battalion, the famed 442nd RCT, and the MIS. The so called "loyalty questionnaire" met with resistance in Jerome (and elsewhere) largely because of the last two questions. They were poorly worded, and made insulting assumptions. Some men whose English was more limited had trouble interpreting them; other understood enough to be offended. One question asked if US born men would be willing to serve in the military. The second asked all respondents if they "would disavow their allegiance to Japan", but most had no allegiance to that country. Many were confused by the questions' wording, unsure if an affirmative answer to the second would be taken as an admission of previous disloyalty and a threat to their families. Others, especially among the citizen Nisei, were offended by the implication that they were somehow un American yet ought to fight to risk their lives for a country that had imprisoned them and overridden their rights. Due to an earlier dispute with administration over working conditions in Jerome and the death of an inmate in an on the job accident, tensions in camp were already high. In separate incidents on March 6, 1943, two men seen as administration collaborators were beaten by inmates. Jerome inmates subsequently gave negative or qualified responses to the question regarding Japanese allegiance at a rate higher than at any other WRA camp. Today there are few remains of the camp standing, the most prominent being the smokestack from the hospital incinerator. A 10 foot high granite monument marks the camp location and gives details of its history. The Jerome Relocation Center operated for a total of 634 days, the least of any of the American concentration camps. Riots and isolated confrontations erupted in response to administration of the loyalty questionnaire. But the Denson Tribune reported on June 11, 1944 that the "camp was free from juvenile delinquency ( ) young girls and boys are well behaved, well disciplined, well trained, well taught, and well led. Rowdyism, pranks, swearing, petty theft and juvenile vices are practically nil." There were no reports of vandalism. This contrasts with poorer results in some of the other camps. Once the camp was closed, the remaining residents were transferred. Heart Mountain received 507 residents, Gila River received 2,055, Granada received 514, and Rohwer received 2,522.