I enjoy driving the rural roads of southeast Arkansas, a historic region that has been losing population for decades. It's quiet here, and I find solace on these flat highways. There are small restaurants in which to eat, plaques to read, and bayous and levees to explore.
For decades, Arkansans ignored the two Japanese American internment camps that were in this corner of the state during World War II. In recent years, however, there has been a flood of papers, books and seminars about camps at Jerome and Rohwer. There's even a museum at McGehee.
The latest contribution to our understanding of that era is "Jerome and Rohwer: Memories of Japanese American Internment in World War II Arkansas," which was released last year by the University of Arkansas Press. The book is a collection of brief memories written by former internees at the Arkansas camps and their family members. Most were in their 80s and 90s when they wrote about their experiences.
The book was edited by Walter Imahara and David Meltzer. Imahara was born in California. His parents were prominent members of a Japanese American farming community before World War II. After being interned at Jerome and Rohwer, Imahara became a U.S. Army officer, owner of a nursery business, and champion weightlifter. Meltzer is an associate professor at Arizona State University in Mesa.
"I was one who never knew about internment," says Susan Gallion. "It wasn't taught when I was in school in Arkansas, and I learned about this part of our history only when I started at the World War II Japanese American Internment Museum in McGehee, where I was curator from 2013-21. ... At one of the reunions of former internees a few years ago, Walter spoke. I found his story to be amazing."
Jeff Owyoung has served as both mayor of McGehee and chairman of the museum board.
"The museum opened in April 2013, and to date we've had more than 16,000 visitors come through," he says. "The grand opening, which was taped by CBS, had George Takei as our special guest. He told a touching story about his time at Rohwer. The city of McGehee's support has been overwhelming. We've had people from across the country call us to donate items of interest from that period in the hopes that we might showcase them.
"This new book illuminates and intensifies the emotional, personal stories that often get lost in the standard historical presentation. It's a story that needs to be told. The Japanese American internment experience is an important chapter in American history."
Meltzer calls the book "an extraordinary, practically unique document."
"It is to our knowledge the only work composed of autobiographical remembrances, solely related to life in the Jerome and Rohwer relocation centers, written by former internees and their immediate families," he writes. "It is one of the very few collections of postwar reminiscences devoted to a single one or two of the 10 wartime relocation camps, and it is one of the very few books to collect in a single volume the firsthand experiences of former internees in their own writing.
"Most similar books comprise oral histories or excerpts from oral histories. As it is now more than 75 years since the camps were closed down, it may be assumed that the present volume is one of the last of its kind. ... It is, in many ways, a unique document of the wartime years in Arkansas and, indeed, the entire United States."
I usually stop at Jerome and Rohwer when I'm driving those southeast Arkansas roads. I park the car and walk the grounds. Almost always, I'm the only one there. It's difficult as I look out over the soybean fields to imagine the thousands who were at these remote spots during the 1940s.
"After we had spent about 18 months at Camp Jerome, we were transferred to Camp Rohwer, another internment camp that had been constructed at a site about 25 miles away," Imahara writes. "Soon after, Camp Jerome was converted to housing for German POWs. Camp Rohwer was built in the same style as Camp Jerome, near a railroad track, with barbed wire, sentry towers and the same barracks construction.
"Because of the length of time we spent in the camps--about three years--I saw families build gardens, as the internees constructed large vegetable gardens to supplement the bad food that was available in the mess hall. I do remember that my father was a block manager and was paid the highest wage, the same as the doctors and other professionals, a wage of $19 a month. My father told me that the internees complained about the food. Soon the potatoes were replaced with rice."
Imahara has vivid memories of waiting for homemade ice cream at the mess hall. Those are good recollections. Then, there are the bad ones.
"The worst experience that I still remember is going to the latrine," he writes. "There was a long line of holes with no division, and in a trough under the wooden seats there was running water. That was scary, but the worst thing was that the latrine was a long distance from the barracks. To make the trip in the middle of the night was frightening to me.
"Many times, I just let nature take its course. My mother and sisters said the worst thing for them was to have to use the latrine and take a shower with no privacy."
The book is filled with similar passages of daily life in these swampy flatlands of southeast Arkansas. "Jerome and Rohwer" is a worthy addition to the growing collection of books covering this era in Arkansas history.
Senior Editor Rex Nelson's column appears regularly in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. He's also the author of the Southern Fried blog at rexnelsonsouthernfried.com.