Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-q99xh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T19:11:40.836Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Displacement, Diversity, and Mobility: Career Impacts of Japanese American Internment

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 December 2021

Jaime Arellano-Bover
Jaime Arellano-Bover*
Affiliation:
University of Rome Tor Vergata, Einaudi Institute for Economics and Finance (EIEF), and IZA, Via Sallustiana, 62, 00187 Roma, Italy. E-mail: j.arellano.bover@gmail.com.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

In 1942 more than 110,000 persons of Japanese origin living on the U.S. West Coast were forcibly sent away to ten internment camps for one to three years. This paper studies how internees’ careers were affected in the long run. Combining Census data, camp records, and survey data, I develop a predictor of a person’s internment status based on Census observables. Using a difference-in-differences framework, I find that internment had long-run positive effects on earnings. The evidence is consistent with mechanisms related to increased mobility due to re-optimization of occupation and location choices, possibly facilitated by camps’ high economic diversity.

Type
Article
Information
The Journal of Economic History , Volume 82 , Issue 1 , March 2022 , pp. 126 - 174
Copyright
© The Economic History Association 2021

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

An earlier version of this paper was the second chapter of my dissertation at Stanford University; I thank Ran Abramitzky, Caroline M. Hoxby, Luigi Pistaferri, and Isaac Sorkin for their thoughtful advice. Manuel Arellano, Barbara Biasi, Leah Boustan, Liran Einav, Joseph Ferrie, Nate Hilger, Gordon Leslie, Guido Martirena, Kris James Mitchener, Petra Moser, Santiago Pérez, Nicola Pierri, Caio Waisman, and seminar participants at various institutions and conferences have provided very useful comments that have enriched this paper. I am also grateful for suggestions by the editor Eric Hilt, and two anonymous referees. This project benefited from the support of a Shultz Graduate Student Fellowship in Economic Policy through a grant to the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research, as well as a Summer Research Fellowship from the John M. Olin Program in Law and Economics at Stanford Law School. Their financial support is gratefully acknowledged.

References

Abramitzky, Ran, Leah, Platt Boustan, and Dylan, Connor. “Leaving the Enclave: Historical Evidence on Immigrant Mobility from the Industrial Removal Office.” NBER Working Paper No. 27372, Cambridge, MA, June 2020.Google Scholar
Abramitzky, Ran, Leah, Platt Boustan, and Katherine, Eriksson. “A Nation of Immigrants: Assimilation and Economic Outcomes in the Age of Mass Migration.” Journal of Political Economy 122, no. 3 (2014): 467–506.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Arellano-Bover, Jaime. “Replication: Displacement, Diversity, and Mobility: Career Impacts of Japanese American Internment.” Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2021-07-08. https://doi.org/10.3886/E144561V1.Google Scholar
Angrist, Joshua D., and Krueger, Alan B.. “The Effect of Age at School Entry on Educational Attainment: An Application of Instrumental Variables with Moments from Two Samples.” Journal of the American Statistical Association 87, no. 418 (1992): 328–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bauer, Thomas K., Sebastian, Braun, and Michael, Kvasnicka. “The Economic Integration of Forced Migrants: Evidence for Post-War Germany.” Economic Journal 123, no. 571 (2013): 998–1024.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Becker, Sascha O., and Andreas, Ferrara. “Consequences of Forced Migration: A Survey of Recent Findings.” Labour Economics 59 (2019): 1–16.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Becker, Sascha O., Irena, Grosfeld, Pauline, Grosjean, Nico, Voigtländer, and Ekaterina, Zhuravskaya. “Forced Migration and Human Capital: Evidence from Post-WWII Population Transfers.” American Economic Review 110, no. 5 (2020): 1430–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bess, Demaree. “California’s Amazing Japanese.” Saturday Evening Post 227, no. 44 (1955): 38–83.Google Scholar
Card, David, and Ana, Rute Cardoso. “Can Compulsory Military Service Raise Civilian Wages? Evidence from the Peacetime Draft in Portugal.” American Economic Journal: Applied Economics 4, no. 4 (2012): 57–93.Google Scholar
Chetty, Raj, and Nathaniel, Hendren. “The Impacts of Neighborhoods on Intergenerational Mobility II: County-Level Estimates.” Quarterly Journal of Economics 133, no. 3 (2018): 1163–228.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chetty, Raj, Nathaniel, Hendren, and Katz, Lawrence F.. “The Effects of Exposure to Better Neighborhoods on Children: New Evidence from the Moving to Opportunity Experiment.” American Economic Review 106, no. 4 (2016): 855–902.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chin, Aimee. “Long-Run Labor Market Effects of Japanese American Internment during World War II on Working-Age Male Internees.” Journal of Labor Economics 23, no. 3 (2005): 491–525.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chyn, Eric. “Moved to Opportunity: The Long-Run Effects of Public Housing Demolition on Children.” American Economic Review 108, no. 10 (2018): 3028–56.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Costa, Dora L., and Kahn, Matthew E.. “Surviving Andersonville: The Benefits of Social Networks in POW Camps.” American Economic Review 97, no. 4 (2007): 1467–87.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Daniels, Roger. “Why Were Japanese Americans Interned during World War II?” In What Did the Internment of Japanese Americans Mean?, edited by Alice, Y. Murray, 29–63. Boston, MA: Bedford/St Martin’s, 2000.Google Scholar
Daniels, Roger. Prisoners without Trial: Japanese Americans in World War II. New York: Hill and Wang, 2004.Google Scholar
Dee, Thomas S. “A Teacher Like Me: Does Race, Ethnicity, or Gender Matter?” American Economic Review 95, no. 2 (2005): 158–65.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Deryugina, Tatyana, Laura, Kawano, and Steven, Levitt. “The Economic Impact of Hurricane Katrina on Its Victims: Evidence from Individual Tax Returns.” American Economic Journal: Applied Economics 10, no. 2 (2018): 202–33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eriksson, Katherine. “Ethnic Enclaves and Immigrant Outcomes: Norwegian Immigrants during the Age of Mass Migration.” European Review of Economic History 24, no. 3 (2020): 427–46.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eriksson, Katherine, and Zachary, Ward. “The Residential Segregation of Immigrants in the United States from 1850 to 1940.” Journal of Economic History 79, no. 4 (2019): 989–1026.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ginn, Thomas. “Prison or Sanctuary? An Evalu ation of Camps for Syrian Refugees.” Mimeo, Center for Global Development, 2020.Google Scholar
Goldin, Claudia, and Katz, Lawrence F.. The Race between Education and Technology. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2009.Google Scholar
Guiso, Luigi, Luigi, Pistaferri, and Fabiano, Schivardi. “Learning Entrepreneurship from Other Entrepreneurs?” Journal of Labor Economics 39, no. 1 (2021): 135–91.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Higgs, Robert. “Landless by Law: Japanese Immigrants in California Agriculture to 1941.” Journal of Economic History 38, no. 1 (1978): 205–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hilger, Nathaniel. “Upward Mobility and Discrimination: The Case of Asian Americans.” NBER Working Paper No. 22748, Cambridge, MA, October 2016.Google Scholar
Horowitz, Joel L., and Charles F. Manski. “Nonparametric Analysis of Randomized Experiments with Missing Covariate and Outcome Data.” Journal of the American Statistical Association 95, no. 449 (2000): 77–84.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hsieh, Chang-Tai, Erik, Hurst, Jones, Charles I., and Klenow, Peter J.. “The Allocation of Talent and U.S. Economic Growth.” NBER Working Paper No. 18693, Cambridge, MA, January 2013.Google Scholar
Hsieh, Chang-Tai, Erik, Hurst, Jones, Charles I., and Klenow, Peter J.. “The Allocation of Talent and U.S. Economic Growth.” Econometrica 87, no. 5 (2019): 1439–74.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Imbens, Guido W., and Angrist, Joshua D.. “Identification and Estimation of Local Average Treatment Effects.” Econometrica 62, no. 2 (1994): 467–75.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Japanese American National Museum. Instructions to All Persons: Reflections on Executive Order 9066. February–August 2017.Google Scholar
Katz, Lawrence F., Kling, Jeffrey R., and Liebman, Jeffrey B.. “Moving to Opportunity in Boston: Early Results of a Randomized Mobility Experiment.” Quarterly Journal of Economics 116, no. 2 (2001): 607–54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kling, Jeffrey R. (2006). “Incarceration Length, Employment, and Earnings.” American Economic Review 96, no. 3 (2006): 863–76.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lee, David S. “Training, Wages, and Sample Selection: Estimating Sharp Bounds on Treatment Effects.” Review of Economic Studies 76, no. 3 (2009): 1071–102.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Leighton, Alexander H. The Governing of Men: General Principles and Recommendations Based on Experience at a Japanese Relocation Camp. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1950.Google Scholar
Levine, Gene N. “Japanese-American Rese arch Project (JARP): A Three-Generation Study, 1890–1966.” Ann Arbor, MI: NACDA, 2006.Google Scholar
Levine, Gene N., and Colbert, Rhodes. The Japanese American Community: A Three-Generation Study. Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers, 1981.Google Scholar
Miho, Antonela, Alexandra, Jarotschkin, and Ekaterina, Zhuravskaya. “Diffusion of Gender Norms: Evidence from Stalin’s Ethnic Deportations.” CEPR Discussion Paper No. 13865, London, UK, 2020.Google Scholar
Nakamura, Emi, Jósef, Sigurdsson, and Jón, Steinsson. “The Gift of Moving: Intergenerational Consequences of a Mobility Shock.” Mimeo, UC Berkeley and Stockholm University, 2020.Google Scholar
Niiya, Brian. Japanese American Research Project — Densho Encyclopedia, 2017. (Online; accessed 16 July 2017).Google Scholar
Okubo, I., Ogita, T., Takemura, V., Naruse, K., Rikimaru, M., Takayama, Y., Miyamoto, I., Makimoto, J., Suzuki, M., Oye, M., and Rademaker, J. A.. Granada Community Analysis Report. Technical Report 2, Community Analysis Section, Granada Relocation Center, Granada, CO, 1943.Google Scholar
Rao, Gautam. “Familiarity Does Not Breed Contempt: Generosity, Discrimination, and Diversity in Delhi Schools.” American Economic Review 109, no. 3 (2019): 774–809.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ruggles, Steven, Katie, Genadek, Ronald, Goeken, Josiah, Grover, and Matthew, Sobek. Integrated Public Use Microdata Series: Version 6.0 [dataset], 2015.Google Scholar
Saavedra, Martin. “Early Childhood C onditions and Mortality: Evidence from Japanese American Internment.” Mimeo, Oberlin College, 2013.Google Scholar
Saavedra, Martin. “School Quality and Educational Attainment: Japanese American Internment as a Natural Experiment.” Explorations in Economic History 57 (2015): 59–78.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Saavedra, Martin. “Kenji or Kenneth? Pearl Harbor and Japanese-American Assimilation.” Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization 185 (2021): 602–24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sarvimäki, Matti, Roope, Uusitalo, and Markus, Jäntti. “Habit Formation and the Misallocation of Labor: Evidence from Forced Migrations.” Mimeo, Aalto University and University of Helsinki, 2020.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shoag, Daniel, and Nicholas, Carollo. “The Causal Effect of Place: Evidence from Japanese-American Internment.” Mimeo, Harvard University and University of California Los Angeles, 2016.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Spicer, Edward H., Hansen, Asael T., Katherine, Luomala, and Marvin, Opler. Impounded People: Japanese-Americans in the Relocation Centers. Tucson, AZ: University of Arizona Press, 1969.Google Scholar
Spickard, Paul R. Japanese Americans: The Formation and Transformation of an Ethnic Group. Boston: Twayne, 1996.Google Scholar
Su, Christopher. “An Ambitious Social Experiment: Education in Japanese-American Internment Camps, 1942–1945.” Bachelor thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2011.Google Scholar
Wu, Ellen D. The Color of Success: Asian Americans and the Origins of the Model Minority. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2013.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Supplementary material: PDF

Arellano-Bover supplementary material

Online Appendices

Download Arellano-Bover supplementary material(PDF)
PDF 4.8 MB