Web Projects
To document and commemorate the Arkansas internment experience, web projects have been developed by different heritage organizations and provided to the world:
UA Little Rock Center for Arkansas History and Culture
The UA Little Rock Center for Arkansas History and Culture holds the collection for Life Interrupted: The Japanese American Experience in World War II Arkansas originally premiered in 2004 as part of a joint effort by the University of Arkansas at Little Rock Master's in Public History Program and the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles, California, with funding provided by the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation. Life Interrupted tells the story of the 17,000 Japanese Americans who were dispossessed of their homes and property and sent to two camps in southeastern Arkansas for the duration of World War II. The project sought to raise awareness of the two internment camps in Arkansas: the Rohwer Relocation Center (Desha County) and the Jerome Relocation Center (Drew and Chicot Counties).
The project also hosted a national conference in Little Rock, "Camp Connections: A Conversation about Civil Rights and Social Justice in Arkansas." Eight coordinated exhibitions around the city accompanied the conference, including "Against Their Will: The Japanese American Experience in World War II Arkansas," which is now permanently housed at the World War II Japanese American Internment Museum in McGehee, Arkansas. Additionally, the project produced the documentary, Time of Fear, which aired on PBS stations in 2005.
Interview clips from the Life Interrupted can be viewed on the Center's YouTube channel. Clips feature internee experiences, as well as those who worked in the camps, lived near the camps, and historians.
World War II Japanese American Internment Museum & Visitor Center
The World War II Japanese American Internment Museum is housed in a renovated southern building of the McGehee Railroad Depot in McGehee, Arkansas. Opened in 2013, the museum houses the exhibit Life Interrupted – Against Their Will. The exhibit explores the 1940s history of nearby Rohwer and Jerome, two Delta towns where U.S. Government internment camps housed more than 17,000 Japanese Americans during World War II. Also included in the museum are historical data, memorabilia, and artifacts. Admission is free.
Arkansas State University
On April 13, 2013, new interpretive exhibits were dedicated at the Rohwer Relocation Center in conjunction with the opening of the World War II Japanese American Internment Museum in McGehee, Arkansas. Visitors have access to eight interpretive panels and five audio kiosks situated along a designated walking route at the southern end of the former relocation center site. Today, the corn fields in Desha County cover the site of the original camp barracks, but Arkansas State University's Heritage Sites Program and Center for Digital Initiatives, funded by a grant from the National Park Service, created this interpretive tour with panoramic images that can also be viewed online.
Japanese American Relocation Digital Archive
The Japanese American Relocation Digital Archive (JARDA) is a collection of personal and official documents, transcribed oral histories, and works of art collected into a set by the University of California.
Densho Encyclopedia
The Densho Encyclopedia is a free on-line resources about the history of the Japanese American World War II exclusion and incarceration experience. This resource covers key concepts, people, events, and organizations that played a role in the forced removal and incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II.