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Rohwer - Senator Inouye visits

To view video, Click Here. During World War II, most Hawaiians of Japanese ancestry were unaware of the mass incarceration of mainland Japanese Americans. Japanese American soldiers from Hawaii who came to the mainland for training were shocked to discover the existence of incarceration camps. In this video segment, Senator Daniel Inouye reflects on visiting Rohwer while training in Mississippi as a young soldier and the impact felt by all the Hawaiian soldiers of Japanese ancestry upon learning of the mass incarceration.

"Then I remember when we turned the corner, the bend of the road, and the valley came into view, and what we saw was row after row of barracks. Now, we thought this was a military camp and that we're going to pass that to go someplace else. But no, we came up to this camp and stopped. High barbed wire fences and there are machine gun towers all around the camp with men there with machine guns. And greeting us at the camp, at the gate, were men in uniform with rifles and bayonets. We are in uniform and I thought, "What in the world is happening?" Then you look into the camp and there they were. And we tried our best to be happy and sociable, but it's not easy realizing what was happening there. And when we left, the atmosphere was totally different. Because when we arrived, we were all singing and playing ukuleles and having a great time, and when we left, it was absolute silence all the way to Mississippi. No one talked. And I can imagine what was going through their minds, and I think almost all of us must have asked ourselves -- would we have volunteered?"

Daniel Inouye Interview - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.

Rohwer was located at 140 feet of elevation in Desha County in southeastern Arkansas, 110 miles southeast of Little Rock and 11 miles north of McGehee. The 10,161 acres of wooded swampland were in an impoverished area 27 miles north of the Jerome incarceration camp. The Mississippi River is 5 miles to the east. Summers are hot and humid, with chiggers and mosquitoes adding to the discomfort. The site had severe drainage problems; about half of the site was under swampy water during the spring.

Population Description: Held people from Los Angeles and San Joaquin, California; incarcerees endured a three-day train ride to Arkansas.

To view facts and photos of Rohwer, Click Here to view Densho's interactive Sites of Shame map. Then click on the red dot corresponding to Rohwer. Courtesy of Densho: The Japanese American Legacy Project