The World War II Japanese American Internment Museum celebrated the 10 year reunion Thursday, May 4, 2023.
The Museum held a ceremony with speakers, a table for people to get books signed or a signature from George Takei, refreshments and to tour the museum.
McGehee Mayor Jeff Owyoung, chairperson of the Japanese American Museum, welcomed guests and families of the internees who attended the event. Owyoung said he is proud of the museum, that he had learned so much and met so many people that he would remember for a lifetime. He recognized an internee who is going to be inducted into the 2023 Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame for weight lifting.
“We are here to celebrate and honor all the families, friends, and former internees who had to experience this unfortunate part of American History,”Mayor Owyoung said. “Today, the guard towers and barbed wire fences at Rowher and Jerome Location Centers, which interned more than 16,000 Japanese American are no longer there, but our museum here tell the story of the Japanese American interned in Arkansas. This could not have happened without the Japanese American Confinement Site grant.”
The grants helped to renovate the abandoned train depot that now houses the Against Their Will, the Japanese American Experience in WWII display. The grants helped to restore the deteriorating train station. The Against Their Will exhibit was developed in part by the Rockefeller Foundation, which had a 10 years lease with Delta Cultural Center out of Helena.
The exhibit was donated to the museum in January 2023. Owyoung thanked the Division of Arkansas Heritage for their support in making that possible. He also thanked Arkansas State University's Dr. Adam Long and Ruth Hawkins for their continued support of the museum and Memorial Cemetery at Rowher. With their assistance, There is new signage at Rohwer with QR codes to access audio history provided by George Takei. In April of 2013, 10 years ago, nearly 500 people were on hand to dedicate the new museum and actor and former internee George Takei was the keynote speaker.
George Takei, actor and former internee, gave the keynote speech about the museum describing it as a former transportation hub formerly as a train station that now allows people to travel and learn from the past.
McGehee Mayor Jeff Owyoung introduced George Takei as the keynote speaker. Takei was born April 20, 1937 in Los Angeles, California. Following the attack on Pearl Harbor, Takei's family was relocated from Los Angeles to the Rohwer Relocation Center when he was five years old. Later his family was moved to the Camp Tule Lake Internment Camp in Northern California. Takei learned to recite the Pledge of Allegiance while surrounded by guard towers and barbed wire fences. His first hand knowledge of the unjust internment of the 120,000 Japanese Americans in WWII created a lifelong interest in politics and community affairs. He is best known for his role in television series Star Trek as Lt. Sulu in 1966.
“I can't tell you how happy and grateful I am to be here with all of you in this location. It was 10 years ago that I came here and spoke at this mike in front of this building. It was a very special occasion, because this building first of all was built as a building for transportation. It was a railway station, but there came a time when the trains didn't stop here anymore or soon the trains didn't come through here any more. So it lay empty, barren and unused,” Takai said. “And Mayor Owyoung leadership, the idea to put a museum in it came about and they choose to tell a little bit about Desha County history. Desha County both held Jerome and Rohwer and that story should be important for all people of Desha County. But not all people in Desha County knew about this history and it should be apart of Arkansas History,”
Takei talked about how many people didn't know what happened in Desha County over 80 years ago and still don't know today. He said that it is an important chapter and lesson from that chapter to learn for all Americans. He talked about how some former internees didn't talk about their experiences and how it has left a hole in the family histories of some Japanese Americans. He said this is a very important story for Japanese Americans.
“I am eternally grateful to the people of McGehee and Desha County for deciding to make this center of transportation a museum to tell Arkansas history. Because this building had served as a transportation center and with a museum that tells a story of Desha County and of Arkansas an important American story needs to be told right here. That is why I was here for the first time in 10 years, this very spot for the gala opening for the World War II Japanese Internment Camp Museum,” Takei said. “This museum tells an important story and today we celebrate a decade of telling that important story and as people from far away places came here and people from here went to far away places. Today, this building is still in the transportation business, it takes people back in time to history, to learn about what happened here 80 years ago and it inspires people to look to the future and with the lessons learned here to build a better future not only for Arkansas, but for America. Transporting ideas, information and inspiration. This building today is even more vital in the transportation business.”
He described coming back to Rohwer in 2004 and seeing the area changed from what he remembered as a child. He learned that things change. He said change happens and what this museum does is inform people. They understand history better and then if they are really inspired they move forward to make Desha County and Arkansas and the United States a better place. It is an important contribution to making America a better, more informed country and hopefully making better Americans.
Mike Smith, President of the McGehee Industrial Foundation, spoke about the number of visitors who have visited the museum and its economic impact. They have had almost 20,000 visitors since the museum opened with people visiting from all 50 United States and 56 foreign countries. He invited people to donate to help support the museum. The goal is to establish a perpetual care fund. They hope that the fund will help supplement their annual fundraiser to keep the museum going.
Duncan Williams, Professor of Religion at University of Southern California, gave the invocation blessing for the museum and everyone who interned at the two camps. He chanted a traditional Japanese prayer while ringing a bell. The prayer invoked the five traditional Japanese elements of earth, trees, metal, water and fire. The prayer asked that the museum help with the work of remembrance and repair and education and preservation. The tree symbolizes building roots and supporting inclusion over exclusion. Metal to overcome racial prejudices and discrimination of the past and into present time. Water invokes compassion to both purify and cleanse ourselves and the nation of things that divide us and fire that we burn off self-centeredness to allow people to see how the future and present are interlinked.
Erin Aoyama, a 4th generation descendant of Heart Mountain sang the National Anthem with the crowd singing along. . Kimoko Marr, Co-Founder, Japanese American Memorial Pilgrimages, presented the museum with Executive Order 9066 carved by former internee to the museum.
Rosalyn Tonai, Executive Director, National Japanese American Historical Society, praised the museum and the treasure of archives. She talked about her family history of grandparents and parent's life during and after the camps. She encouraged families to have conversations about their time in the camps.
David Meltzer, Ph.D and Publisher, described his visit as a moving experience when he visited the museum and camps. Growing up, he said he knew the internment camps had occurred, but didn't know information about that time in history. He spoke about collecting stories to be published to preserve the history from internees from Jerome and Rowher locations. A book is in the works to collect stories from the other camps.
Several families of former internees shared their story.
102-year-old George Teraoka was the oldest former internee to make the trip with his son, nephew and granddaughter. Teraoka came to Arkansas when he was 21 years old. He spent little time in the camps and found work on a work release program. He started sweeping floors and became head electrician fixing radios and other electrical equipment or operating a dry cleaning business. Teraoka, formerly from California, grew up on a farm. He met his wife, who was also on a work release permit. They later returned to California. His son recalled hearing his father talking about how kind people were to him in Missouri.
Bob Shimasaki and his sister Janet Yoshida along with their family members visited the museum. Shimasaki was five months old when his family was relocated to Jerome and Yoshida was born in the camps. Robert Yoshida, a descendant, spoke about how he learned about internment camps from family and would like to come back and bring his family for a visit.
Shimaski recalled Rohwer was a huge camp. He recalled that everything was taken away from them and how some internees have bitter experiences from that time period. His family left several years later, first staying in Utah, before returning to their farm in California. They were fortunate to return to their home with help of neighbors who paid property taxes until they returned. Many former internees lost everything when they returned home.
“I think that the fact we went through all these hardships.It showed the tenacity and the courage and the positive thinking of the Japanese American. How they came out of camp and were able to do great things,” Janet Yoshida said.
Judge Johnny Cepeda Gogo, of Superior Court of California Santa Clara County, honored former internees and their descendants who signed1 of 8 flags from the 48 Star Flag Signing Project. The project is to honor the internees, their family and their sacrifice. The flag represents the flag of the United States during World War II. It also represents the flags that were being raised every morning in the camps, when the children said the pledge of allegiance, in boy scout ceremonies and draped over the caskets of the returning soldiers and those who passed away in the camp.
“The 48 star flag was flying in the camps themselves so the irony was how could the United State Government incarcerate their own citizens with due process of law. So the project is to take this project around the United States to have the camp survivors put their name on the flag,” Judge Johnny Gogo said.
