Use and Misuse of the United States Census

Census officials mobilized the substantial administrative and technical resources of the 1940 census, to map the neighbourhoods where Japanese-Americans lived, and planned their systematic removal. The officials then built "census-like" data systems to track the "evacuees" for the duration of the war, monitor their lives in the camps, and certify which "loyal" evacuees might be released from the camps for military or civilian service. After the war, census officials drafted an official history of their activities, but did not publish it. This book has lessons for policy makers and ordinary Americans alike, as we confront the new digital world in which we live. And it speaks to two of the great issues of our time: distrust in the institutions ofgovernment and the victimization of minorities.