Related Information:
Information About Electronic Records in NARA from the Era of World War II
Electronic and Special Media Records Services Division Reference Report
Note that the following are descriptions of electronic records series. Therefore,
all records described are computerized data files. Those that can be accessed
online through the Access to
Archival Databases (AAD) resource have an AAD 
logo next to them.
Record Group 29: Records of the Bureau of the Census
- Census of Population and Housing, 1940, Public Use Sample
- County and City Data Book Consolidated File City Data, 1944-1977
- County and City Data Book Consolidated File County Data, 1947-1977
- War Relocation Authority Form 26: Evacuee Summary Data ("Locator Index")
.
- The American Soldier in World War II Series, 1942-1945
- World War II Prisoners of War Punchcards .
- [Bureau of Health Manpower] Area Resources Files
- Census Tract Data, 1940: Elizabeth Mullen Bogue File
Introduction
In the early 1990's, PROLOGUE: QUARTERLY OF THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES, featured articles about World War II in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor and subsequent U.S. involvement in the war. In these articles, specific record series in the custody of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) are highlighted. In the Fall 1994 issue of that journal (pages 166-169), Theodore J. Hull published an article on "Electronic Records in the National Archives for World War II Research." This reference report includes the information about electronic records series described in that article, as well as information about World War II-era electronic series accessioned by NARA since 1994.
Record Group 29: Records of the Bureau of the Census
- Census of Population and Housing, 1940, Public Use Sample
The Census of Population and Housing, 1940, Public Use Sample microdata files contain a stratified 1% sample of households, with separate records for each household, for each "sample line" respondent, and for each person in the household. These "public use" records are an extract of individual and household responses to the 1940 Census of Population and Housing in which all names and specific personal identifiers have been removed.
This data collection was assembled through a collaborative effort between the U.S. Bureau of the Census and the Center for Demography and Ecology of the University of Wisconsin. The project was supported by National Science Foundation Grant SES-7704135. These data are also available to member institutions through the Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR).
The 1940 collection consists of 20 subsample data files with a total of 2,133,800 records: 391,034 household records, 391,034 "sample line" records, and 1,351,732 person records._1_ Household records include information about the location and composition of the household. "Sample line" records contain demographic characteristics of persons from the household sample identifying nativity, marital status, number of children, veterans status, wage deductions for social security, and occupation. Person records contain such demographic characteristics as nativity, marital status, family membership, education, employment status, income, and occupation.
- County and City Data Book Consolidated File City Data, 1944-1977
- County and City Data Book Consolidated File County Data, 1947-1977
These two files are compendia of data gathered from both governmental and private agencies. Detailed data are provided for the following general areas: population, employment, vital statistics, school enrollment, health, income, public assistance and social security, banking, housing, government employment and finance, elections, crime, manufacturing, retail and wholesale trade, selected services, mineral industries, farm population, agriculture, and weather. The original sources for the World War II era data include the Cities Supplement Statistical Abstract of the United States, 1944 and County Data Book, 1947, published by the Bureau of the Census. The Bureau of the Census selected Summary data from a number of programs, including the Census of Population and Housing, 1940 and various censuses and surveys of the economy and government expenditures conducted prior to, during, and immediately after World War II._2_
Record Group 210: Records of the War Relocation Authority
- War Relocation Authority Form 26: Evacuee Summary Data ("Locator
Index") .
The Evacuee Summary Data data file contains information about Japanese-Americans interned in 10 camps during World War II by the War Relocation Authority (WRA). The original information was collected on WRA Form 26, coded by employees of the WRA, and keypunched by the agency. Apparently, two sets of punchcards were created: one set is in the custody of NARA and the second was deposited at the Bancroft Library of the University of California at Berkeley following the termination of the WRA._3_ The punchcards in the possession of NARA are apparently the original set produced by the WRA._4_ The punchcards in NARA were manually annotated by the WRA during the period of the camps, with information about internees aliases, date of departure and place of destination, and other uncoded information. The punchcards deposited at the Bancroft Library did not contain such additional information and were a basic machine copy of the "original" punch cards that remain in the custody of the U.S. Government at NARA._5_
The punchcards at the Bancroft Library, i.e. the second set, were "read" to tape during the 1960's._6_ Following Congressional enactment in the 1980's of a program to distribute reparations to former WRA internees, the Civil Rights Division, Department of Justice acquired a copy of the data file from U.C. Berkeley. The Department of Justice subsequently transferred its copy to NARA. NARA's set of punchcards have not been "read" to tape. Therefore, persons wishing to compare the NARA punchcards to the electronic data file should be aware of potential inconsistencies and/or gaps in the information.
There are 109,400 records in the electronic file._7_ Information about individual internees includes: name; relocation project; assembly center; previous address (city, state codes); birthplace of parents; father's occupation in United States and abroad; education; educational degrees; residence outside of the United States; sex and marital status; race of individual and race of spouse; birthdate; age; birthplace; a code to indicate holding of an alien registration number and/or Social Security number, and whether the individual attended Japanese language school; highest grade completed; language; occupation; and other data.
Record Group 330: Records of the Office of the Secretary of Defense
- The American Soldier in World War II Series, 1942-1945
Textual records and electronic records from "The American Soldier" Surveys are described in National Archives Reference Information Paper 78. _8_
"The American Soldier in World War II" is a large set of surveys of opinion conducted among U.S. Army personnel during the war by the Army Research Branch (ARB) of the Army Service Forces. The range of subjects studied via these surveys is impressive. They include race relations; the enemy; training; the U.S. Army's own publications, broadcasts, and films; U.S. allies; combat experience; the role of women in the military; and the quality of the "demobilization experience." As a large-scale sociological survey of opinion, "The American Soldier in World War II" occupies a special place in the history of such activities and also represents a rather remarkable and timely change in the manner in which the U.S. military establishment approached some of its personnel management issues.
The raw data from the surveys initially were stored on the dominant medium for automation in the 1940's, computer punchcards. Samuel Stouffer, a civilian employee of the ARB, upon leaving in 1946 for Harvard University, obtained a duplicate set of punchcards for 84 unclassified surveys. The data he copied formed the basis of his publication "Studies on Social Psychology in World War II." The data he did not copy dealt with experimental research, in-house operations and special problems, psychoneurotic and medical problems, and attitudes toward allies and subgroups within the military forces and American society.
A duplicate set of the data Stouffer had used was deposited with the Roper Center, following his death in 1960. In 1978, the Army Research Institute (ARI) contracted with the Roper Center to copy the punch cards to tape and to produce machine readable documentation. At ARI's request, the Roper Center provided a copy of the data and documentation to NARA.
The 84 studies for which electronic data are available from NARA are listed in Appendix A of Reference Information Paper 78. There 275 electronic files (137 of electronic documentation and 138 of electronic survey data)._9_ A list of the files is also included in the "Title List: A Preliminary and Partial Listing of the Data Files in the National Archives and Records Administration" under Record Group 330.
Record Group 389: Records of the Office of the Provost Marshal General
- World War II Prisoners of War Punchcards American Military POWs
Returned Alive from the European Theater, A-V (85,541 records)
American Military POWs Returned Alive from the Pacific Theater (19,202 records)
American Military POWs Returned Alive from the European Theater, Vititoe-Zywot (6952 records)
American Civilian POWs (Released and Dead) Interned by the Japanese (13,750 records)
Deceased American [Military] POWs (Japanese) (7041 records)
Deceased American [Military] POWs (Japanese) - Died in Ship Sinkings, 1944 (3299 records)
Neutral Internees (U.S. Military Personnel Interned in a Neutral Country)(2164 records)
Deceased American POWs (Germany) (2523 records)
Escapees/ KIA (Japan) (21 records)
Never POWs (Japan) (92 records)
Missing in Action - Returned to Military Control (1554 records)
Civilians A-Z [Worldwide] (Non U.S. Citizens)(488 records)
Civilians, Unofficial, A-Z [Japan] (747 records)
During the Second World War, the Prisoner of War Information Bureau, Office of the Provost Marshal General, U.S. Army, produced a series of IBM punchcard records on U.S. military and civilian prisoners of war and internees, as well as for some Allied internees. The information on the punchcards came from Red Cross cables, other international messages concerning the status of POWs, and other records, many of which are in the POW Information Bureau General Subject File, in the textual records of Record Group 389. A full description of these records can be found in Records Relating to Personal Participation in World War II: American Prisoners of War and Civilian Internees, compiled by Ben DeWhitt and Jennifer Davis Heaps, Reference Information Paper 80, National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D.C., 1992.
The punchcard records were maintained over the course of the war. Complete data are frequently not available for an individual. The U.S. Army transferred the punchcards to the National Archives as part of the 1959 transfer of all of the U.S. Army's Departmental Archives. The punchcards came to NARA sorted by type of prisoner (whether U.S. or Allied), whether military or civilian, the theater of war in which held, and whether repatriated, deceased, or an escapee.
In the late 1970s, the Veterans Administration borrowed some of the punchcards for its Study of Former Prisoners of War, and converted them to an electronic format.
The Veterans Administration did not use the punchcards for prisoners of war (military and civilian) who died in camp, escaped, civilians or non-U.S. citizens, for some who were returned after having been missing, and other categories of persons for whom the Prisoner of War Information Bureau had created a punchcard record (AGO Form No. 326, 15 April 1944). In addition, a review of the records of the European Theater electronic data file indicates that some records for former POWs whose last name began with the letters V, W, X, Y, and Z (and perhaps others) were not successfully read to tape and are also excluded in this data file. These punchcards were later converted by NARA to an electronic form in 1998. In June 2002, NARA preserved all of the electronic records on World War II POWs as one file.
The punchcards, and hence the records in the composite electronic data file, include the following data elements: serial number, name, grade, grade code, service code, arm of service, arm of service code, date reported, race, state of residence, type of organization, parent unit number, parent unit type, area, latest report date, source of report, status, detaining power, place of detention (camp code), repatriation status, and whether the POW was on a Japanese ship that sank, or if he died during transport from the Philippine Islands to Japan.
Record Group 512: Records of the Health Resources and Services Administration
- [Bureau of Health Manpower] Area Resources Files
In general, the Area Resources Files (ARF) have data at the county or county equivalent level with general socioeconomic and specific health related information. General statistical information includes population characteristics, economic factors, environmental conditions, and summary figures for natality, mortality, crime, income, and employment. Specific information is provided on medical personnel, size and services of hospitals and nursing homes, health care expenditures, medicare enrollment and reimbursements, and medical training in various health professions. Two files in particular, the ARF, ca. 1940-1978 and ARF ca. 1940-1982, have a few data elements containing 1940 statistics including population statistics and number of active medical doctors (non-Federal). _10_
Donated Historical Materials
- Census Tract Data, 1940: Elizabeth Mullen Bogue File
Dr. Donald Bogue of The Community and Family Study Center, University of Chicago deposited with NARA by a deed of gift, sixty data files known as the Census Tract Data, 1940: Elizabeth Mullen Bogue File._11_ The 1940 Census Tract files were originally created by keypunching the data from the printed census tract publications prepared by the Bureau of the Census. Record copies of these publications can be found in the Publications of the U.S. Government (Record Group 287). The Community and Family Study Center, under the direction of Dr. Bogue, manually keypunched the 1940 census tract data reported in those publications. Much of this work was accomplished by Elizabeth Mullen Bogue, the wife of the principle investigator, Ms. Maggie Gibson, and a number of other staff and students. The National Science Foundation, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, U.S. Agency for International Development, and the Social Science Division of the University of Chicago provided related funding for this project (for analysis and student training).
Data are presented at the "census tract" level of geography, for each city as a whole, and for those cities with associated suburban tracts. Data are for a range of population and housing variables. The 60 tracted cities for which data files are available include: Akron, OH, Atlanta, GA, Atlantic City, NJ, Augusta, GA, Austin, TX, Baltimore, MD, Berkeley, CA, Birmingham, AL, Boston, MA, Buffalo, NY, Cambridge, MA, Camden, NJ, Chicago, IL, Cincinnati, OH, Cleveland, OH, Columbus, OH, Dallas, TX, Dayton, OH, Denver, CO, Des Moines, IA, Detroit, MI, Duluth, MN, Elizabeth, NJ, Flint, MI, Hartford, CT, Houston, TX, Indianapolis, IN, Jersey City, NJ, Kansas City, MO, Long Beach, CA, Los Angeles, CA, Louisville, KY, Macon, GA, Memphis, TN, Milwaukee, WI, Minneapolis, MN, Nashville, TN, New Orleans, LA, New York, NY, New Haven, CT, Newark, NJ, Oakland, CA, Oklahoma City, OK, Paterson, NJ, Philadelphia, PA, Pittsburgh, PA, Portland, OR, Providence, RI, Richmond, VA, Rochester, NY, San Francisco, CA, Savannah, GA, Seattle, WA, St. Louis, MO, St. Paul, MN, Syracuse, NY, Toledo, OH, Trenton, NJ, Washington, D.C., and Yonkers, NY.
Contact Information
For more information, please contact Reference Services, Electronic and Special Media Records Services Division (NWME), The National Archives at College Park, 8601 Adelphi Road, Room 5320, College Park, MD 20740-6001. The telephone number is 301-837-0470. Our e-mail address is cer@nara.gov
THEODORE J. HULL
Archives Specialist
Electronic and Special Media Records Services Division
Revised 1/03
Endnotes
1. Associated documentation consists of 413 pages.
2. Complete documentation for both data files consists of 462 pages.
3. See WRA Preliminary Inventory #77, Entry #23 (National Archives: Washington, DC, 1955) and Japanese American Evacuation and Resettlement: Catalog of Material in the General Library (University of California: Berkeley, CA, 1958).
4. This statement is based on the opinion of Dr. John Modell of Carnegie Mellon University, Department of History
5. For information about NARA's set of punchcards, contact the Textual Archives Services Division (NWCTB), National Archives Building, Washington, D.C. 20408. The telephone number is (202) 501-5395, e-mail: http://www.archives.gov/contact/inquire-form.html.
6. This project was conducted under the direction of Dr. Modell.
7. Associated documentation consists of 91 pages.
8. See "Records Relating to Personal Participation in World War II: 'The American Soldier' Surveys." (Reference Information Paper 78, rev. 1997). A copy of the paper is available from Product Development and Distribution (NWCP), National Archives Building, Washington, D.C. 20408. The telephone number is 1-800-234-8861.
9. Additional documentation, in the form of codebooks, explanations of sampling techniques, and methods of measurement, field notes, marginalia, original questionnaires, statements of purpose, and related reports, is among the textual holdings of the National Archives. Contact the Textual Archives Services Division (NWCTM), National Archives at College Park, 8601 Adelphi Road, College Park, MD 20740-6001 for information about these holdings. The telephone number is (301) 837-3510, e-mail: http://www.archives.gov/contact/inquire-form.html. Selected pages from these textual records have also been incorporated as supplementary documentation for the electronic record version.
10. Associated documentation for the ARF, ca. 1940-1978 consists of 157 pages and associated documentation for the ARF ca. 1940-1982 consists of 307 pages.
11. Associated documentation consists of 62 pages.
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