| Original caption: “Housing in a Japanese Relocation camp.” Jerome Relocation Center under construction circa early October 1942. The blocks do not have windows installed yet. Edward F. Neild (December 3, 1884 – July 6, 1955) also supervised the design of Rohwer Relocation Center 30 miles away. The A. J. Rife Construction Company of Dallas, Texas, working under the supervision of the Army Corps of Engineers, built the Jerome camp at a cost of $4,703,347. Jerome was divided into 50 blocks, which were surrounded by a barbed wire fence, a patrol road, and 7 watchtowers. Administrative and community spaces such as schools, offices and the hospital were separate from the 36 residential or barracks blocks. These consisted of 12 barracks divided into several “apartments,” in addition to communal dining and sanitary facilities. Approximately 250 to 300 individuals lived in each block. The only entrances were from the main highway on the west and at the back of the camp to the east. The camp was not finished when its 1st inmates began to arrive from California assembly centers. These early arrivals were forced to work on construction of their incarceration quarters. Given the short interval between the commencement of construction in August and the arrival of inmates in October, Jerome may have been even more unfinished in its early months than other War Reallocation Authority (WRA) camps. This led to a variety of problems. The 1st was a difficult and elongated induction process, as workers rushed to finish blocks as the inmates scheduled to occupy them arrived. Project Director Paul A. Taylor (January 20, 1908 – January 29, 1958) lamented that during the peak of inmate arrivals at the end of October, “[i]n no single instance was the block to be occupied made available to the WRA until after the train arrived.” This resulted in long waits by inmates after their multi-day train rides from California. In 1 case, inmates on a train that arrived at 0645 Hours weren’t allowed to enter their barracks until 1200. On another day, they were not situated until 1630 Hours. Once inmates arrived at their quarters, they found missing windows and beds, “[m]ud piled high in front of barracks,” and “[l]umber strewn all over from uncompleted barracks.” “You know, they moved us before the mess hall was ready or everything” recalled Yukiko Miyahara (November 29, 1919 – March 6, 2016) in a 2009 interview. In an early November report, Taylor noted that 9 of the 26 populated blocks had mess halls that were not functioning and that in some cases, inmates had to walk over a half mile “through mud and water ankle deep” to be fed. Toilets and hot water were also missing in some blocks. Stoves were among the last items to arrive, with the last not being installed until mid-December, well after the advent of cold weather. There were other unforeseen problems with the unfinished state of the camp. Perhaps due to the haste to complete the plumbing, workers improperly sealed water pipes leading to widespread dysentery lasting 1 to 3 days upon arrival at the camp. The presence of contractors at the site also resulted in conflict with the inmates as Taylor reported that “contract laborers in here have seemed to take every opportunity to abuse evacuees.” | |
| Image Filename | wwii1707.jpg |
| Image Size | 834.71 KB |
| Image Dimensions | 2932 x 2205 |
| Photographer | |
| Photographer Title | Franklin D. Roosevelt Library |
| Caption Author | Written or Adapted by Jason McDonald |
| Date Photographed | October 1, 1942 |
| Location | Jerome War Relocation Center |
| City | Jerome |
| State or Province | Drew County |
| Country | Arkansas |
| Archive | National Archives and Records Administration |
| Record Number | NLR-PHOCO-A-7420(406) |
| Status | Caption ©2026 MFA Productions LLC Please Do Not Duplicate or Distribute Without Permission; Image in the Public Domain |
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