Valentine’s Day in Jerome Relocation Center, 1944

Seventy years ago, these fourth graders set up a cooperative valentine store in the Jerome Relocation Center in Arkansas.

The original caption states: “Jerome Relocation Center, Dermott, Arkansas. Fourth grade children at Jerome, with the help of their teacher, Miss Era Nixon and the Communtity Cooperative Association, planned and operated a cooperative valentine store. There were many details to attend to – purchasing the valentines, decorating the store, assigning salespeople, advertising. Business boomed and over 8,000 valentines were sold enabling each child to realize a profit of 40 cents on his original investment of 63 cents.”

Jerome was one of ten facilities where people of Japanese ancestry, predominantly American citizens were imprisoned during WWII.

Courtesy of the National Archives

The National WWII Museum will host a new special exhibit From Barbed Wire to Battlefields: Japanese American Experiences in WWII opening 15 March 2014.

Post by Curator Kimberly Guise.