Jerome Rohwer Committee

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 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 and descendants of those who were unjustly imprisoned in the Jerome and Rohwer concentration camps during WWII.  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 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"