Cover Page

Table of Contents

Abstract

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Essay

Brief History

Gila River

Granada

Heart Mountain

Jerome

Manzanar

Minidoka

Poston

Rohwer

Topaz

Tule Lake

Isolation Centers

Add'l Facilities

Assembly Centers

DoJ and US Army Facilities

Prisons

References

Appendix A

Appendix B

Appendix C

Confinement and Ethnicity: An Overview of World War II Japanese American Relocation Sites by J. Burton, M. Farrell, F. Lord, and R. Lord

Chapter 11 (continued)
Rohwer Relocation Center

Central (Fenced) Area
Residential Area

Figure 11.23. Former residential area at Rohwer, now a rice field. Dark vegegation patch is rubble where concrete foundations from the mess hall and bathroom/laundry buildings have been consolidated.

From "D" Street south, the former residential is under active rice cultivation; from "D" Street north there is currently scrub growth in fallow fields. The concrete slab latrine and mess hall foundations have been broken up and consolidated within each block to increase the area available for crops (Figure 11.23). The consolidated rubble areas are present at all blocks except 9, 10, 24, and 25, and the few remaining relocation center roads help demarcate the location of blocks within the fields. Each rubble area, roughly 100 feet by 300 feet in size, appears to include at least a portion of an intact slab, as well as fragments of cast iron pipe and bricks. All are overgrown by nearly impenetrable brush, trees, and thorny vines. On a few of the slabs are toppled concrete boxes, whose original use is not evident (Figure 11.24).

At Block 21, the rubble mound includes slab foundation debris possibly from the relocation center school auditorium and library. Block 22 is marked by the concrete water reservoir, which is still standing. Measuring 75 feet in diameter by 15 feet tall, it is almost completely hidden by vegetation (Figure 11.25). Just east of the reservoir, at the former location of the relocation center fire station, there is a dense growth of vegetation covering a concrete slab and rubble.

Near the water reservoir, within what was Block 38, there is a well house in the same location as one depicted on WRA blueprints (Figure 11.26). Made of concrete block rather than wood, the building likely rests on the original relocation-center-era concrete slab. According to a local resident, the relocation center water system is still used to supply water for area homes.

Other portions of the relocation center's subsurface utilities remain buried but are currently unused, such as a sewer line exposed by an irrigation ditch (Figure 11.27). The only artifacts seen in the fields were some brick and concrete fragments. No domestic trash dump, or even scattered domestic trash, was observed.

Photo Album

Continued

Last Modified: Fri, Sep 1 2000 07:08:48 pm PDT
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