Who Can Be a Citizen?

Two early court cases had lasting implications for Japanese Americans.

WONG KIM ARK. California-born Wong Kim Ark was just 9 years old when Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act, prohibiting Chinese immigrants from becoming American citizens. Although a citizen, Wong felt the effects of this legislation a decade later. After a trip to China, the San Francisco Collector of Customs denied Wong re-entry to his U.S. homeland. Wong challenged the government’s refusal to honor the 14th Amendment, which granted citizenship to all persons “born or naturalized in the United States.” In 1898, the Supreme Court ruled in his favor, declaring that U.S.-born descendants of immigrants could not be denied citizenship, regardless of their ethnicity or their ancestors’ nationality. With the victory, Wong resettled in the U.S.; his four sons joined him in the following years.

TAKAO OZAWA. In 1914, Takao Ozawa, a native of Japan and graduate of the University of California, lived and worked in Hawai‘i with his family. After two decades in the U.S., he wanted to become a citizen of his adopted country. In his eyes, he met all of the qualifications of the Naturalization Act of 1906, which allowed “free white persons” to naturalize; Ozawa spoke English and practiced Christianity. And, as he argued, his skin was as white or whiter than the average Caucasian’s. When the Supreme Court heard the case in 1922, Justice George Sutherland declared that the word “white” meant “what is popularly known as the Caucasian race.” He found Ozawa racially ineligible for citizenship because he did not look Caucasian. The Ozawa decision gave anti-Japanese advocates the “evidence” they needed to push for legislation like the Immigration Act of 1924, which barred further immigration from Japan.