A Short History of the World in 50 Lies

by Natasha Tidd

Following the outbreak of the Second World War in September 1939, America’s FBI and multiple military intelligence agencies requested access to census data pools of individuals, primarily to assess the number of citizens whose ancestry was linked to the Axis powers, Germany, Italy and Japan. However, William Lane Austin, the director of the US Census Bureau, denied access, as it went against the 1929 omnibus census statute, which stated that census data was for ‘statistical purpose only’ and ‘the Director of the Census [could not] permit anyone other than the sworn employees of the Census Office to examine the individual reports.’ As a result of his defiance, in 1940, Austin was forced to retire and, after a lengthy administrative back and forth, in March 1942, the Second War Powers Act became law. This entitled government agencies to have access to any data that was otherwise legally protected as confidential so long as it was ‘for use in connection with the conduct of the war’. Just like that, the 1940 census was free to be used in rounding up and interning America’s Japanese citizens.