Before 1942, the Japanese American or Nikkei population lived primarily on the West Coast, with deep roots in both urban centers and rural agricultural areas. In cities such as Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Seattle, self-contained neighborhoods known as Nihonmachis, or Japantowns, developed. These vibrant urban communities served as importance commercial and cultural centers with markets, hotels, professional offices, and religious centers concentrated in tightly grouped city blocks. Here, Japanese American merchants and laborers carved out livelihoods largely insulated from mainstream anti-Asian discrimination.

Simultaneously, many Japanese Americans also lived and worked in rural farming communities throughout California's Central Valley, the Pacific Northwest, and along the coast. Discriminatory land laws often prevent Issei (first-generation immigrants) from owning property. In response, families found other ways to farm, such as leasing property in their American-born children's (Nisei) names. They became known for intensive, small-acreage truck farming, producing specialized, high-value crops such as berries, fruits, and vegetables. They also established growers’ cooperatives to support the production and marketing of their crops. Whether they lived in cities or rural areas, Japanese Americans before WWII formed close-knit, multigenerational communities with strong family, social, and cultural ties.

The newly formed War Relocation Authority (WRA) directed the site selection and creation of the ten camps. Jerome and Rohwer fit the WRA's description of ideal sites. Each had a large amount of federally owned land that was remote yet accessible by rail. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and private firms designed and built the camps during the summer and fall of 1942. They followed standard U.S. military base camp development guidelines with modifications to meet the needs of a civilian population. While the official camp boundaries included thousands of acres, the "core" of each camp was approximately 500 acres surrounded by barbed-wire fence. The WRA divided the core into use-based zones as shown on the map. Incarcerees began arriving in the fall of 1942, before construction was finished, and many were hired by the WRA to help complete the initial construction effort. The WRA also established design and construction crews with skilled incarcerees to continue modifications and additions throughout the duration of both camps. Most of the changes and improvements made during the period of occupation, however, were self-directed efforts made by resourceful incarcerees struggling to make their living conditions tolerable.

Both Germany and the United States imprisoned large civilian ethnic populations during World War II. Both nations were in the wrong, but the American concentration camps had little in common with the Axis-controlled death camps, established to exterminate Jewish and other European minority groups. To maintain order at Rohwer and Jerome the WRA worked to create an environment that resembled normal American life. As demanded by the state of Arkansas, Japanese American incarcerees could not work outside the camps. Ironically, this stipulation did not apply to the many Italian and German prisoners of war that were also held in the state. Instead, the WRA created its own employment program, along with a complete school system and an extensive set of community activities that respected both American and Japanese cultural traditions.

Many demonstrations of "rising above" the challenges at Jerome and Rohwer took place in daily acts in the barracks, mess halls, and neighborhoods of the residential blocks, or ku. Although block populations changed throughout occupation, each block housed an average of 225 people in twelve barracks, or baraku, each containing six apartments. The residential block formed the foundation of camp social structure and was the basic organizational unit for WRA-sponsored self-governance. The WRA attempted to group families with similar compositions and interests, especially upon request. Blocks gained reputations based on physical and societal characteristics, such as the farmers, Buddhists, "sit tight" (incarcerees resistant to relocation), Okinawans, and the "mosquito nest." Please visit the 3D Recreation of Block 12 at Rohwer for a more detailed and interactive 3D experience and walkthrough of a camp residential block.

NOTE: Many incarcerees spoke Japanese and preferred terms for camp features were often Japanese or a slang mix with English.

The underlying goal of Japanese American forced evacuation, incarceration, and relocation was to break up tightknit communities living on the West Coast and force a diaspora. The WRA allowed, and even encouraged, incarcerees to leave the camps, but only if specific conditions were met. Incarcerees could gain permission for temporary leave for field trips, work assignments, shopping, short-term employment in other states, and other similar situations. The WRA allowed transfers to one of nine other incarceration camps upon request and sometimes forced incarcerees to move to another camp. The WRA strongly encouraged permanent relocation to other states and granted indefinite leave to incarcerees who found long-term employment or enrolled in a college or university. In the end, however, of the nearly 12,000 incarcerees held at Rohwer between 1942 and 1945, one third resisted relocation efforts until California's exclusion order was lifted and incarcerees were allowed to return in early 1945. The last group of incarcerees left the Rohwer War Relocation Center on a train bound for California on November 30, 1945.

The landscapes of the Jerome and Rohwer concentration camps today contain only a few scattered remnants of the shameful period of incarceration. This erasure was not the product of a deliberate intent to bury the past. However, the failure of the federal and state governments, and by extension the public majority, to admit that what was done to Japanese Americans during World War II was wrong until decades later had the same damaging effect. The systematic dismantling of the former concentration camps that began in 1946 was typical of temporary U.S. military installations, but it also began the process of erasing this period of American history. By 1947, most of the buildings had been removed and repurposed elsewhere or auctioned to the public, although the auditorium at Rohwer remained on a 125-acre tract that became a public school. The rest of the land was gradually sold to the public, mostly to farmers who benefited from and continued the clearing and draining efforts carried out by incarcerees. Road traces and brick and concrete structures and slabs lasted the longest, but today few of these elements remain.

The process of remembrance centered on the Rohwer cemetery, which was the most intact remnant of the former camps. Beginning in the early 1960s, former incarcerees and WRA staff renewed their interest in maintaining the cemetery and held periodic pilgrimages. Their work attracted the attention of local and state press and politicians. In 1974, the Rohwer War Relocation Center site was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The Rohwer Memorial Cemetery became a National Historic Landmark in 1992. Neither designation came with funding for the preservation of the sites, so former incarcerees, WRA staff, and other concerned individuals fundraised in the 1980s and 1990s to construct monuments at both former camps and to stabilize the Rohwer cemetery. Finally, in 2009, after most former incarcerees had passed away, federal funding became available for the preservation of incarceration experience memories through the Japanese American Confinement Sites (JACS) grant program. Through JACS, a consortium of Arkansas institutions has restabilized the Rohwer cemetery, installed interpretive elements, opened a museum in nearby McGehee, Arkansas, and created this Rising Above in Arkansas website.

Resettlement began long before the war ended. As early as 1943, Japanese Americans left the camps for education and employment while the West Coast remained a restricted exclusion zone. Government resettlement programs encouraged people to move eastward to midwestern and eastern cities where job opportunities in manufacturing and service sectors were available. However, severe housing shortages and policies that prohibited the creation of new Japantowns forced families to settle throughout larger metropolitan areas rather than in concentrated neighborhoods. Communities that developed lasting Japanese American communities include Chicago, Denver, Minneapolis, New York, Cleveland, and the Seabrook area near Bridgeton, New Jersey.

While many Japanese Americans eventually found their way back to the West Coast, they returned to a fractured world. Having lost their homes, farms, and businesses during the forced removal, many had to rebuild from scratch while facing housing shortages and continued racial hostility. The Nihonmachis they attempted to reconstruct were fundamentally altered and much smaller. Many former Japanese American properties had been repurposed by other populations or targeted for urban renewal. As a result, returning families increasingly settled in surrounding neighborhoods and suburbs rather than rebuilding the same densely concentrated communities.

The population of the remaining Nihonmachis also changed. Older Issei and newer immigrants were more likely to remain near these traditional communities, where they could rely on local businesses and social networks for support. Conversely, younger, more educated, English-speaking Nisei settled in suburban neighborhoods, and many pursued professional careers. Living farther from traditional Japantowns, this younger generation relied on social organizations, churches, and civic clubs to maintain their community ties.