4.02.2007

census bureau gave up japanese american names

According to government documents released by two scholars last week, the Census Bureau turned over confidential information, including names and addresses, to help the U.S. government identify individual Japanese Americans during World War II: In 1943, Census released Japanese Americans' data. The documents validate long-held suspicions among Japanese Americans that information about them collected under confidentiality pledges was released to the government. In 2000, the Census Bureau acknowledged and apologized for its role in sharing aggregate data with the U.S. military to help relocate Japanese Americans from the West Coast to inland internments camps after attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. But this most recent disclosure represents the first confirmation that the bureau also shared information about individuals—in this case, the names and addresses of Japanese Americans in the Washington, DC area. A list of 79 names was handed over to aid a Secret Service investigation into possible threats to the president. These disclosures were apparently legal under wartime legislation, but arguably highly unethical. Isn't it possible that similar disclosures could happen today as the government engages is the current war on terror? Isn't is possible that it's already happened?

angry archive