Early Childhood Conditions and Mortality: Evidence from Japanese American Internment

Abstract

Using War Relocation Authority records linked to the Social Security Death Index, I investigate whether the internment of Japanese Americans during WWII affected the life spans of male internees who were incarcerated during early childhood. Using un-interned Japanese Hawaiians as a control group, difference-in-differences estimates suggest that internees incarcerated within the first four years of life died approximately two years earlier. Furthermore, the internees from low socioeconomic status families and internees incarcerated in cold climates drive almost the entire effect. Additionally, NCHS cause-of-death data suggest that early childhood incarceration increased the incidence of circulatory diseases by 7 percentage points. Data on Chinese Americans suggest that the identifying assumption is satisfied.

Keywords: childhood, mortality, death, circulatory disease, Japanese American Internment

JEL Classification: I12, J13, N3