Mon Jan 1, 0001

Japanese American Internment via Census Data

Executive Order 9066

Signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, February 19, 1942. Authorized forced relocation of Japanese Americans from West Coast. ~120,000 Japanese Americans interned, majority US citizens.

Second War Powers Act (March 27, 1942)

Suspended confidentiality protections of the Census Act, granting other federal agencies access to individual census records.

Census Bureau Cooperation

In 1943, Census Bureau provided War Department with tabulations of Japanese Americans by geographic area. These were neighborhood-level tabulations — not individual names — but at sufficiently fine granularity (city blocks in some cases) to enable targeted roundups.

Decades of Denial

Census Bureau denied involvement for decades. Confirmed by:

  • Margo Anderson (University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee) and William Seltzer (Fordham University), 2000: “Census Confidentiality under the Second War Powers Act,” presented at Population Association of America (March 2000)
  • Anderson and Seltzer, 2007: “Challenges to the Confidentiality of U.S. Federal Statistics, 1910-1965,” Population and Development Review

Research used newly declassified records to document Bureau’s cooperation with wartime agencies.

Sources

  • Executive Order 9066 (February 19, 1942)
  • Second War Powers Act (March 27, 1942)
  • Anderson & Seltzer (2000, 2007)