Location: Drew and Chicot Counties, southeastern Arkansas
Land: Farm Security Administration land
Size: 10,000 acres
Climate: Swamp land; green and tropical; humid
Origin of camp population: Mostly from Los Angeles (3,147), Fresno (2,013), Sacramento (993), and Honolulu (445) counties
Via "assembly centers": Most came from Fresno (4,743) and Santa Anita (2,931) "assembly centers"; another 811 came from Hawaii
Rural/Urban: Roughly equal split
Peak population: 8,497
Date of peak: February 11, 1943
Opening date: October 6, 1942
Closing date: June 30, 1944; Jerome was in operation only 634 days, the shortest of any camp
Project director(s): Paul Taylor and W. O. "Doc" Melton
Community analysts: Edgar C. McVoy and Rachel R. Sady
JERS fieldworkers: None
Newspaper(s): Communique (October 23, 1942-February 26, 1943); Denson Tribune (March 2, 1943June 6, 1944)
Percent who answered question 28 of the loyalty questionnaire positively: 75.0; Jerome had the highest percentage of persons answering negatively, giving a qualified answer or refusing to answer
Number and percentage of eligible male citizens inducted directly into armed forces: 52 (0.9%); Jerome had the lowest percentage of eligible male citizens inducted into the armed forces besides Tule Lake
Industry: Jerome had a sawmill that produced goods for internal consumption
Miscellaneous characteristics: There were no guard towers at Jerome and the fences were low; this was because the camp was surrounded by swamps inhabited by four species of the most deadly snakes in America. Farming here was difficult, but the completion in November 1942 of a canal that drained off excess water resulted in some agricultural success.
Image credit: War Relocation Authority Photograph, Courtesy of Dr. Toshio Yatsushiro and Lily Koyama, Japanese American National Museum (93.99.76)
Camp Related Materials from the Japanese American National Museum
America's Concentration Concentration Camps sites on the Internet
Bibliography of Japanese Americans and America's Concentration Camps