Jerome Rohwer Committee
Support Our Journey of Connection,
Education, and Healing
Welcome to the Jerome Rohwer Committee Fund Donation Page. We appreciate your generosity.
Our goal is to share with the general public and local communities the experiences of the violation of civil rights suffered by US Americans of Japanese descent and Japanese in the USA during WWII and to preserve and protect the locations of the Concentration Camps for future generations. The committee embraces protection of civil rights and efforts to prevent and stop loss of civil liberties by other groups.
The Committee organizes an annual Jerome Rohwer Pilgrimage that honors the thousands of non-convicted prisoners, initiates healing and communication between survivors and descendants of inmates, and provides learning opportunities for participating Pilgrims. We are currently raising funds for our annual pilgrimage in Little Rock, AR, to be held May 21-24, 2025.
Thank you for your generosity.
More about Jerome Rohwer Committee
Jerome and Rohwer Concentrations Camps. On February 19, 1942, President Franklin Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, that called for the forced removal of all Japanese and Japanese Americans from the west coast of the US. Soon after EO9066 was signed, prisons, called “Assembly Centers”, were constructed up and down the west coast to house the innocent Japanese and Japanese Americans. The actions were unlawful, as not a single person imprisoned had been convicted of a real crime. Their crime, according to the government, was their race. The act is considered one of the worst mistakes made by the US during WWII.
The day after Pearl Harbor, the FBI began rounding up leaders of the Japanese community and took them to both local and unknown prisons. Those who had the means and a place to work and reside out of the evacuation zone fled the west coast to escape imprisonment. The remaining innocents were forced into the primitive Assembly Centers. The prisoners were then transferred to 10 concentration camps constructed in desolate regions of the country, including the swamps of AR, that had two, the Jerome and Rohwer Concentration Camps.
The Jerome Rohwer Pilgrimage allows survivors, descendants, and interested parties to learn about and discuss the continuing legacy and aftermath of US America’s concentration camps. One day of the Pilgrimage is a trip from Little Rock, AR to the concentration camp sites, with a program in McGehee, AR, that includes taiko drummers, and a short obon festival to honor the spirits of our ancestors. Learning and open conversation lead to understanding and healing.
The Jerome Rohwer Committee is an all volunteer organization of survivors of the unjust imprisonment in the Jerome and Rohwer concentration camps during WWII and their descendants. We thank you for visiting our fundraising site and for your generosity.
Never Forget. The photo above is the Jerome Concentration Camp, WWII.
--National Archive Photo
The image below is of the 100th and 442nd Combat Units Memorial at the Rohwer Concentration Camp Memorial Cemetery. While their parents and families were imprisoned, young Americans of Japanese descent served in segregated units during WWII, and the 442nd became the most decorated military unit of its size in the history of the US. The memorial is inscribed, "In memory of our sons who sacrificed their lives in the service of their country. They fought for freedom. They died that the world might have peace. Edward B. Voulton, Assistant Project Director. October 20, 1945"
