Rohwer

The last American concentration camp to close was Rohwer, Arkansas, deep in the delta near the Arkansas Post. There’s an echo of history, since that site is part of the Trail of Tears, when another group of Americans were forcibly removed from their homes unconstitutionally and sent to live in government reservations. The vast camp soon returned to farmland, so little remains besides the cemetery above. Several of the graves mark infants and elderly inmates. The monument to the right is to the 442nd Regimental Combat team, the most highly decorated unit in US military history. They served in Europe, while their families were imprisoned. 

The neighboring town of McGehee maintains the excellent WWII Japanese American Internment Museum about both Rohwer and Jerome. The sculptor Ruth Asawa was imprisoned here. Another inmate at Rohwer was a 5 year old boy named George Takei, who later played Lt. Sulu on the original Star Trek. 

“And it became normal for me to go to school in a black tar-paper barrack
and begin the school day with a pledge of allegiance to the flag.
I could see the barbed wire fence and the sentry tower
right outside my schoolhouse window
as I recited the words,
‘with liberty and justice for all’.”

George Takei, speech at the museum on 16 April 2018

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