Jerome was the last American concentration camp to open and the first to close, as it was converted into a POW camp for Germans. The military acquired the land as a result of a tax default, and over 8,000 Americans of Japanese descent were incarcerated here in the southeast corner of Arkansas, deep in the Mississippi Bayou. The Governor of Arkansas insisted that none of the prisoners be allowed to remain in his legally segregated state after the war and that all of the guards be white. When it closed, the prisoners here were mostly transferred to the other camp in Arkansas, with some sent to Amache, Gila River and Heart Mountain; ‘trouble makers’ who protested had already been sent to Tule Lake. Besides the monument above, there is a deteriorating old smokestack from the infirmary visible in the distance to the right. Nothing else remains, and the land is now a working farm. 

Nothing except a shameful unconstitutional history, a duty to be better Americans, and memories. Below is detail from a painting by Henry Sugimoto showing how he remembered his time at Jerome. The painting is on display with many other exhibits at the WWII Japanese American Internment Museum in McGehee about 20 miles north. The museum is excellent, open Thursday to Saturday, and is the result of talented, caring and dedicated townspeople working to preserve this important history without federal funding.