Description
This collection contains one Senior Class Yearbook or booklet from Rohwer High School inside Rohwer Incarceration Center.
This yearbook from 1943 features images from each of the homerooms of students, and includes their names, their location of
where they lived in the incarceration center, any clubs or groups they belonged to at school, and the name of their high school
prior to being relocated to Rohwer.
Background
On February 19, 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 which gave the military the authority to
exclude any citizen who posed a threat to national security. As a result, approximately 120,000 Japanese-Americans living
on the West Coast were removed and incarcerated in concentration camps. One of these camps was Rohwer Incarceration Center
located in Desha County in southeastern Arkansas- a heavily wooded and swampy area with high humidity. Most of the incarcerees
imprisoned at Rohwer came from Los Angeles and San Joaquin counties in California. The living quarters in the main residential
area was approximately 500 acres and was surrounded by barbed wire fences and eight guard towers that were staffed by military
police. All incarcerees were housed within partitioned sections of 20’ by 120’ barracks which were arranged in groups of 12
blocks. Each block housed approximately 200-300 individuals. Rohwer officially closed on November 30, 1945 making it the last
WRA camp to close, except for the Tule Lake Segregation Center.
Extent
1 box
.20 linear ft.
Restrictions
All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Director of Archives
and Special Collections. Permission for publication is given on behalf of Special Collections as the owner of the physical
materials and not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained.
Availability
There are no access restrictions on this collection.