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Lydia recently wrote us requesting an early submission for the WWII-L
Listserv she is organizing.  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