From TIF@CU.NIH.GOV Tue Mar 17 08:42:34 1992 The following describes records in the custody of the Center for Electronic Records relating to World War II. Note that the following are descriptions of records in the custody of the Center for Electronic Records. Therefore, all records described are computerized data files. For information about military textual records contact the Military Reference Branch (NNRM), National Archives, Washington, DC 20408. The telephone number is (202) 501- 5385. For information about civilian agency textual records contact the Civil Reference Branch (NNRC), National Archives, Washington, DC 20408. The telephone number is (202) 501-5395. For information about textual records from the legislative branch of government, contact the Legislative Reference Branch (NNLR), National Archives, Washington, DC 20408. The telephone number is (202) 501-5350. For information about photographic records contact the Still Pictures Branch (NNSP), National Archives, Washington, DC 20408. The telephone number is (202) 501- 5455. For information about motion pictures, newsreels, and sound recordings contact the Motion Picture, Sound, & Video Branch (NNSM), National Archives, Washington, DC 20408. The telephone number is (202) 501-5449. For information about cartographic records, military installations, and ship plans contact the Cartographic & Architectural Branch (NNSC), National Archives, Washington, DC 20408. The telephone number is (703) 756-6700. In addition, the last few issues of PROLOGUE: QUARTERLY OF THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES, have featured articles about WWII. In many articles, specific records in the custody of the National Archives are highlighted. To review copies of this publication, contact your local reference library. To obtain a copy of the current volume (Spring 1992, Volume 24, #1), send a check or money order for $3.00 payable to the National Archives Trust Fund and send to Cashier, National Archives, Washington, DC 20408. Back issues are available from the National Archives and from Kraus Reprint Co., Millwood, NY 10546. RECORD GROUP 29: RECORDS OF THE BUREAU OF THE CENSUS While not directly records relating to the war, the Census of Population and Housing, 1940, Public Use Sample microdata files (20 subsample data files on two reels of magnetic tape) 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. The 1940 collection consists of a total of 2,133,800 records: 391,034 household records, 391,034 "sample line" records, and 1,351,732 person records. Household records include information about the location and composition of the household. "Sample line" records contain demographic characteristics 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. 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 through the Interuniversity Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) at the University of Michigan. RECORD GROUP 210: RECORDS OF THE WAR RELOCATION AUTHORITY Data from 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 punch cards were created: one set is in the custody of the National Archives, and the second was deposited at the Bancroft Library of the University of California at Berkeley following the termination of the WRA. (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_ (1958, University of California)). The punch cards in the possession of the National Archives are apparently the original set produced by the WRA, based on the opinion of Dr. John Modell of Carnegie Mellon University, Department of History. In addition, the punch cards in the National Archives 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. According to Dr. Modell, the punch cards deposited at Berkeley did not contain such additional information and were a copy of the "original" punch cards that remain in the custody of the U.S. Government at the National Archives. For information about the National Archives set of punch cards, contact the Civil Reference Branch (NNRC), National Archives, Washington, DC 20408. The telephone number is (202) 501-5395. The punch cards at Berkeley, i.e. the second set, were "read" to tape during the 1960's under the direction of Dr. Modell. 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 dataset from U.C. Berkeley. The Justice Department subsequently transferred its copy to the National Archives. This is the data file currently in the custody of the Center for Electronic Records of the National Archives. The National Archives set of punch cards were apparently never "read" to tape. Therefore, persons wishing to compare the National Archives punch cards 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. RECORD GROUP 330: RECORDS OF THE OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY OF DEFENSE Textual records and electronic records from "The American Soldier" Surveys are described in National Archives Reference Information Paper 78. A copy of the paper is available from the Center for Electronic Records (NNX), ATTN: Reference Staff, National Archives, Washington, DC 20408. The staff can be reached at (202) 501-5579 or via bitnet at TIF@NIHCU.BITNET. "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; our 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 punch cards. Samuel Stouffer, a civilian employee of the ARB, upon leaving in 1946 for Harvard University, obtained a duplicate set of punch cards 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 the National Archives. The computer tape on which the raw data from the surveys is stored also contains documentation data files, arranged sequentially by survey number. All of these documentation data files are together at the beginning of the tape and are followed by the raw data, also arranged by survey number. Addition 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 Military Reference Branch (NNRM), National Archives, Washington, DC 20408 for information about these holdings. The telephone number is (202) 501-5385. Selected pages from these textual records have also been incorporated as supplementary documentation for the electronic record version. The studies available from the National Archives in electronic form are listed in Appendix A of Reference Information Paper 78. There are 84 such studies, composed of 275 data files (137 of Machine-readable documentation and 138 of survey data). RECORD GROUP 389: RECORDS OF THE OFFICE OF THE PROVOST MARSHAL GENERAL As part of a study of former prisoners of war during the late 1970's, (see "POW: Study of Former Prisoners of War", GPO# 1980 0-626-869/2243, 184 pp.), the Veterans Administration created two electronic data files from punchcard records in the custody of the Textual Division of National Archives. The punchcards borrowed by the Veterans Administration for their study were from a large collection of records on U.S. and other prisoners of war held by the Germans and Japanese during World War II. The punchcard records had been created by the War Department during the course of World War II and were transferred to the National Archives from the Office of the Provost Marshal as part of a series of records relating to prisoners of war, 1941-46. The two data files are known as: a.) U.S. Military Personnel Returned Alive, World War II, European Theater (N = 85,541); b.) U.S. Military Personnel Returned Alive, World War II, Pacific Theater (N = 19,202). Punchcards of records for prisoners of war (military and civilian) who died in camp, for those who escaped, who were civilians or non-U.S. citizens, for some who were returned after having been missing, and possibly other categories of persons for whom the War Department had created a punchcard record (AGO Form No. 326, 15 April 1944), were not borrowed for the Veterans Administration study. Thus those punchcards were not copied to an electronic medium, and the information they contain is available only from the punchcards. In addition, a review of the records of the European Theater electronic dataset 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 from the dataset. The War Department punchcards, and hence the records of the electronic data files listed above, include the following data elements: service number, name, grade (and grade code), arm of service (and its code), date reported, racial group, U.S. state of residence, type of organization, parent unit, casualty area, date of latest report, source of report, status, detaining power, place of detention, and whether the POW was on a Japanese ship that sank, or if he died during transport to the Phillippine Islands. For more information on these records or general information about our holdings, please contact us directly at TIF@NIHCU.BITNET or the Center for Electronic Records (NNX), Reference Services Staff, National Archives, Washington, DC 20408. The telephone number is (202) 501-5579. Ted Hull Center for Electronic Records National Archives (202) 501-5579