Netflix Comes to Life - It is a Hard Hit

As MeAsWe and Me meandered our way from Vicksburg heading for Arkansas Post this treasure chest popped up on the GPS. Treasure chests are the various National Landmarks that I had downloaded to the unit as part of the routes and waypoints for our trip. Not really knowing what this particular LM was, I hit the find button, found it in the list and routed ourselves to this spot via the shortest route.

We found ourselves out in the middle of no-where on the back country dirt roads of Arkansas. The roads were packed dirt road with some loose gravel on top; I kept saying (to myself of course) how much I prefer black topped roads. The views were mostly rural and low crops.

About 125 miles from Vicksburg, we find ourselves making a left off AR RT1. I stop because the unpaved road goes up and over a set of rail road tracks. We have come this far out of the way, I was not turning back. I release the clutch, apply some throttle and we climb up and over the tracks and down to the road leading to what seemed like the middle of a farm field. The road on the other side of the tracks is comprised of dusty dirt with larger size gravel mixed in. Not deep gravel, but deep enough that it gives me some concern. I even thought about turning back, but we were almost there, well at least I thought we were. The road was straight to a spot surrounded by trees about ½ miles away.

We arrive and dismount; I still don’t know what this site is all about. I push my thru the line of trees to …

A bit closer...

It hits me where we are and it hits hard. Just before we left we watched a movie from Netflix, American Pastime, about a American Japanese family who were dislodged (my words) from their home in Los Angeles to one of several internment camps in the US during WWII. It must have been fate to have watched that movie (and I didn't fall asleep during it either, a common thing for me ), otherwise I would not have know the significance of this site. That night in the hotel, one of the first things I did was log onto the pute and look up info about Rohwer.

Here are some more pictures followed by a brief history from Wikipedia

From Wikipedia

The Rohwer War Relocation Center was a World War II Japanese American internment camp located in rural southeastern Arkansas, in Desha County. It was in operation from September 18, 1942 until November 30, 1944, and held as many as 8,475 Japanese Americans forcibly evacuated from California.[citation needed] The Rohwer War Relocation Center Cemetery is located here, and was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1992.

Rohwer Relocation Camp was constructed in the late summer and early fall of 1942 as a result of Executive Order 9066 (February 19, 1942). Under this order, over 110,000 Japanese Americans and their immigrant parents were forcibly removed from the three Pacific Coast States—California, Oregon, and Washington. In all, ten camps were established in desolate sites, all chosen for their distance from the Pacific Coast. Over 10,000 evacuees passed through Rohwer during its existence, and over two thirds of these were American citizens. The monuments found within the camp's cemetery are perhaps the most poignant record of this time.

For a more complete description CLICK HERE