World War II Japanese American Incarceration: Property and Census Records
Farm Service Agency (Record Group 145)
Records document confiscated property held by Japanese and Japanese American farmers.
In Los Angeles County, CA:
- Administrative Files Relating to the Requisition of Idle Farm Machinery, 1941–1946 (National Archives Identifier: 1487736)
- Records Relating to the Purchase of Idle Farm Machinery, 1942–1943 (National Archives Identifier: 1487759)
- Case Files for the Requisition of Equipment Owned by Farmers of Japanese Ancestry, ca. 1943–ca. 1946 (National Archives Identifier: 1487711)
In Orange County, CA:
- Case Files for the Requisition of Idle Farm Machinery, 1943–1945 (National Archives Identifier: 1433333)
- Subject Files Relating to the Requisition of Idle Farm Machinery, 1941–1947 (National Archives Identifier: 1432929)
War Relocation Authority (WRA) (Record Group 210)
Subject-Classified General Files, 1942–1945 (National Archives Identifier: 1544843): WRA’s management and disposal of properties.
List of property owned by Japanese Americans prior to mass removal.
- Evacuee Real Property Inventory Cards, 1942–1946 (National Archives Identifier: 1544846)
- Evacuee Contraband Property Inventories, 1944–1944 (National Archives Identifier: 1544852)
- Lists of Evacuee Properties in California Counties, March 1, 1942–April 14, 1945 (National Archives Identifier: 5607299)
Records document the management and disposal of properties overseen by the Federal Reserve Bank’s Evacuee Property Department. View the recorded Public Program on “Locating the Relocated” from the WWII Incarceration main page with useful tips on accessing these records.
- Portland Branch Evacuee Property Files, March 18, 1942–June 30, 1946 (National Archives Identifier: 40143322)
- San Francisco Branch Evacuee Property Files, March 18, 1942–June 30, 1946 (National Archives Identifier: 38221779)
Office of Defense Transportation (Record Group 219)
Subject Files, 1944 (National Archives Identifier: 7585254): Includes documents related to trucks seized from incarcerated Japanese American farmers for sale to actively producing farmers.
Office of Foreign Funds Control (Record Group 265)
Property reports filed by enemy alien nationals residing in Hawai’i.
- Internee Reports, 1942–1945 (National Archives Identifier: 57362847) and Index (National Archives Identifier: 57362848)
- Individual Financial Asset Reports, 1941–1945 (National Archives Identifier: 57362835) and Index (National Archives Identifier: 57362836)
U.S. Army Forces in the Middle Pacific (World War II) (Record Group 494)
Office of the Property Comptroller, Military Government of the Territory of Hawai’i.
- General Records, 1943–1947 (National Archives Identifier: 1116867)
- Records Relating to Funds Belonging to Internees, 1943–1947 (National Archives Identifier: 1113881)
- Correspondence and Receipts Relating to Japanese Mission Property, 1943–1945 (National Archives Identifier: 1113025)
- Records Concerning the Signal Office Relating to Surrendered or Impounded Radio Equipment, 1943–1945 (National Archives Identifier: 1112602)
- Records Related to Claims for Surrendered Radios, Camera Equipment, and Other Personal Property, 1943–1945 (National Archives Identifier: 1112582)
- Records Pertaining to the Release of Surrendered or Impounded Firearms and Ammunition, 1943–1946 (National Archives Identifier: 1112493)
- Internee Property Case Files, 1943–1945 (National Archives Identifier: 1112476)
Census Records
Bureau of the Census (Record Group 29)
Records Relating to the War History Project, March 1946–September 1946 (National Archives Identifier: 2990053)
Subject Files, ca. 1899–1950 (National Archives Identifier: 2990148)
- [14] Agriculture-1945 Census-POW Camps and Relocation Centers (file unit National Archives Identifier: 25496737)
Records Relating to the War History Project, March 1946–September 1946 (National Archives Identifier: 2990053):
- Includes records related to statistics collected between February 26–June 7, 1942, on Japanese Americans who were removed from the Pacific Coast States.
Department of Commerce (Record Group 40)
General Correspondence, 1903–1950 (National Archives Identifier: 564429)
Franklin D. Roosevelt Library (LP-FDR)
Henry Morgenthau, Jr. Papers, 1866–1960 (National Archives Identifier: 589184)
- General Correspondence 1933–1945 (National Archives Identifier: 921956)
- Diaries of Henry Morgenthau, Jr., April 27, 1933–July 21, 1945 (National Archives Identifier: 7497644)
- Morgenthau, Henry Jr. 1943b. Letter from the Treasury Secretary to Jesse Jones, August 4, 1943. [Book 655, August 10–12, 1943, Microfilm reel 190, frame 198.]