Ozawa v. United States

(Redirected from Takao Ozawa v. United States )

Takao Ozawa v. United States, 260 U.S. 178 (1922), was a US legal proceeding. The United States Supreme Court found Takao Ozawa, a Japanese American who was born in Japan but had lived in the United States for 20 years, ineligible for naturalization . In 1914, Ozawa filed for United States citizenship under the Naturalization Act of 1906 . This act allowed only "free white persons" and "persons of African nativity or persons of African descent" to naturalize. Ozawa claimed that Japanese people should be properly classified as "free white persons".

Contents

• 1 Political context

• 2 Background

• 3 Argument

• 4 The courts' reaction

• 5 Public reaction

• 6 Legacy

• 7 See also

• 8 References

• 9 External links

Political context

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The U.S. Supreme Court had originally been hesitant to take on the case presented by Takao Ozawa. One reason was the changing policy resulting from the unclear state of laws during wartime in the United States during World War I.

Japan had sided with the Allied Powers on August 23, 1914, hoping to expand its influence in China as well as the Pacific using the Anglo-Japanese Treaty. This was an alliance between the United Kingdom and Japan (January 30, 1902 - August 17, 1923). Because Japan was the first non-white nation to attend a peace conference, they brought with them a proposal to address racial inequality and white supremacy to the Paris Peace conference on January 18, 1919. This was a conference meant to reestablish peace after the events of World War I.[_citation needed
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Japan made three demands in their proposal. The first two were territory related and involved the potential retrocession of territories held in Shandong and the Central Pacific. Japan had made secret treaties in order to secure these territories and had highly contested the idea brought up in the conference to cede them. The third peace term demand was the racial equity proposal in which Japan demanded equity to their Western allies. Japan’s proposal aimed to promote racial equality among the Allies and directly challenged policies that Japan observed as perpetuating racial inequality in the West. This proposal targeted policies such as the California Alien Laws passed on 19 May, 1913.

The United States had been more tolerant when it came to the proposal at first, as opposed to the British, asking Japan to draft two proposals: "one which they desired, and another which they would be willing to accept in lieu of the one they prefer". For the proposal to be implemented, unanimity was necessary among the representatives. However, the British and American opposition vetoed Japan's proposal, and it was not passed. Opposition to the proposal in Britain and the United States was heavily influenced by racial tensions, Japan being the only non-white great power among the allies causing distrust and hesitation toward their proposal.

The failure of Japan's proposal in the Paris Peace conference added a new layer of tension when it came to the Supreme Court taking up the Ozawa case. The Court's ruling risked worsening the United States' relationship with Japan, which was already affected over the failure of their proposal. The Alien Land Law of 1920 had also been passed, another land law that barred Japanese Americans from owning land, further contributing to the Supreme Court's hesitation to take on the case.[_citation needed
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Background

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Takao Ozawa was born on June 15, 1875, in Kanagawa , Japan . In 1894, he moved to San Francisco, California , where he attended school. After he graduated from Berkeley High School , Ozawa attended the University of California . In 1906, after graduating, he moved to Honolulu , Hawaii . After settling down in Honolulu, Ozawa learned English fluently, practiced Christianity , and obtained a job at an American company. While in Hawaii, he married a Japanese woman, who also studied in the U.S., and had two children. In his legal brief, Ozawa wrote of his personal identity, “In name, General Benedict Arnold was an American, but at heart he was a traitor. In name, I am not an American, but at heart I am a true American.” He reported his background as purposeful attempts toward assimilation, writing:

(1) I did not report my name, my marriage, or the names of my children to the Japanese Consulate in Honolulu; notwithstanding all Japanese subjects are re- quested to do so. These matters were reported to the American government. I do not have any connection with any Japanese churches or schools, or any Japanese organizations here or elsewhere. (3) I am sending my children to an American church and American school in place of a Japanese one. (4) Most of the time I use the American (English) language at home, so that my children cannot speak the Japanese language. (5) I educated myself in American schools for nearly eleven years by supporting myself. (6) I have lived continuously within the United States for over twenty-eight years. (7) I chose as my wife one educated in American schools . . . instead of one educated in Japan. (8) I have steadily prepared to return the kindness which our Uncle Sam has extended me . . . so it is my honest hope to do something good to the United States before I bid a farewell to this world.

On October 16, 1914, Takao Ozawa decided to apply for citizenship after living in America for 20 years to the United States District Court for the Territory of Hawaii. Ozawa tried to petition under the naturalization law. However, the District Court of Hawaii rejected this petition because Ozawa had been born in Japan. This made him ineligible under section 2169 of the Revised Statutes that stated: “The provisions of this Title shall apply to aliens, being free white persons, and to aliens of African nativity and to persons of African descent…". Ozawa tried to petition under the naturalization law, but was rejected. He continued to take his case to the U.S. District Court in Hawai'i, who again disqualified his application as someone of the “Japanese race. In May 1917, Ozawa’s appeal was passed, "on three successive occasions" from the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco to the U.S. Supreme Court. The immigrant civic association, Pacific Coast Japanese Association Deliberation Council, hired former U.S. Attorney General George W. Wickersham to be Ozawa's chief counsel in front of the Supreme Court.

By the time Ozawa's case made it to the Supreme Court he had been living in America for 28 years.

Argument

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In his brief to the court, Ozawa argued for his case on the basis of his good character. Ozawa notably wrote in his brief that "The color of skin is controlled by climate", further arguing that an individual's race should not be a determining factor in their worth as a person and ultimately his worth as a citizen of the United States.  An excerpt from one of Ozawa's legal briefs reads as follows: "I neither drink liquor of any kind, nor smoke, nor play cards, nor gamble, nor associate with any improper person. My honesty and my industriousness are well known among my Japanese and American acquaintances and friends; and I am always trying my best to conduct myself according to the Golden Rule." Ozawa's legal briefs also made the argument that, "[t]he Japanese are assimilable", adding to his argument t

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