Edwin Shigeo Fukumoto v. John Foster Dulles, as Secretary of State

216 F.2d 553, 1954 U.S. App. LEXIS 2998
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
DecidedOctober 5, 1954
Docket13708
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 216 F.2d 553 (Edwin Shigeo Fukumoto v. John Foster Dulles, as Secretary of State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Edwin Shigeo Fukumoto v. John Foster Dulles, as Secretary of State, 216 F.2d 553, 1954 U.S. App. LEXIS 2998 (9th Cir. 1954).

Opinions

DENMAN, Chief Judge.

Fukumoto appeals from a judgment in a suit under 8 U.S.C. § 903 [1952 Revision 8 U.S.C.A. § 1503], denying his petition that he be declared a national of the United States, holding he had renounced his American citizenship by obtaining a restoration of his nationality in Japan after he had previously renounced it, and hence expatriated himself within 8 U.S.C. 801(a) [1952 Revision 8 U.S.C.A. § 1481(a)].1

Fukumoto’s complaint alleges that he was born on May 6, 1921, at Wailuku, Maui, Territory of Hawaii. His parents are of Japanese descent, and by virtue of his birth of parents of Japanese descent, under the provisions of Japanese law he was born a national of Japan in addition to having been bom a citizen of the United States. It further alleges that while in Japan in September, 1941, the plaintiff renounced and abandoned his Japanese nationality. Dulles agrees that these allegations state the facts.

Having thus become solely a citizen of the United States, the complaint further alleges that: “Stranded in Japan during the war, in September, 1943, the Plaintiff made an application for the recovery of his Japanese nationality; said application was made by the Plaintiff under mistake, confusion, misunderstanding and coercion, and said application was not the Plaintiff’s free and voluntary act. [554]*554Said application did not constitute and does not constitute, naturalization within the meaning and intent of. 8 U.S. Code, Section 801(a).”

Obviously, the mere application does not constitute naturalization in Japan. However, the case was decided by the court on the question of the involuntary nature of Fukumoto’s application, as if in response to the application there had been in fact a recovery of his Japanese nationality, and for the purposes of this decision we accept the district court’s treatment of the application.

The question is did Fukumoto maintain his burden of proof that he did not voluntarily renounce his allegiance for, as stated in Perkins v. Elg, 307 U.S. 325, 334, 59 S.Ct. 884, 889, 83 L.Ed. 1320. “Expatriation is the voluntary renunciation or abandonment of nationality and allegiance."2 .

Fukumoto strongly contends that because he was a citizen of the United States when he applied for his application for Japanese citizenship his situation is analogous to that in Schneiderman v. United States, 320 U.S. 118, 122, 63 S.Ct. 1333, 1335, 87 L.Ed. 1796, where it was stated in a proceeding to denaturalize a citizen, “the facts and the law should be construed as far as is reasonably possible in favor of the citizen.” He also points out that the District of Columbia Circuit has held that in these 8 U.S.C. § 903 proceedings, once the plaintiff has shown that at the time of .the renunciation of citizenship he was in fact a citizen “clear * * * and convincing evidence” is required to show that it was voluntary. Acheson v. Maenza, 92 U.S.App.D.C. 85, 202 F.2d 453, 456. The circuit of the District of Columbia has held similarly in Monaco v. Dulles, 2 Cir., 210 F.2d 760. .

We think it not necessary to consider these contentions since it appears that, without applying them and on the ordinary burden of proof, the testimony not only supports Fukumoto’s contention that his application was not a voluntary act, but it is so convincingly shown by uncontradicted evidence that the judgment should have been rendered for him.

Fukumoto himself took the stand and it is apparent from his testimony that he is a candid and truthful witness. He testified that as a Nisei, that is an American born person of Japanese ancestry, he was “treated everywhere by everyone as an outcast.” In the passion of this same Japanese-American war an analogous treatment of the Nisei by officers of the United States appears in Acheson v. Murakami, 9 Cir., 176 F.2d 953, another 8 U.S.C. 903 case. It is well in cases of human motivation of people of other races that we consider our own psychology.

In that case it appears that by orders of an American General, carried out by American police and other officers, 70,000 Nisei American citizens of the Pacific Coast States were indiscriminately confined for over two years in barbed wire stockades where they were placed in overcrowded pris'on-like structures. This was done though no act of sabotage by any Japanese citizen or much less any Nisei had been committed. .

That is to say, American officers like those in Japan, treated the Nisei as “outcasts” in the full sense of that word. They were cast out of their homes for over two years, their families often separated, with a huge loss of property sold under the evacuation pressure of from one to ten days notice, and they had destroyed their businesses, their established professions and the earning power of mechanics and laborers. Over four thousand such Nisei under pressure of that outrageous treatment gave up their citizenship. We held in the case supra, before us for its restoration, that such acts of denaturalization were involuntary.

Fukumoto’s uncontradicted testimony continues with two occasions when he was subject to gross brutality of the Jap[555]*555anese police. Of one of the beatings by police because a Nisei3 he states that he was accosted by a policeman who:

“When he found out I was a Nisei, he just pulled me down to Harajuku Police Station because I was a Nisei. I couldn’t think of any reason why he would pull me in.
“Q. What happened there? A. At the police station, the policeman there and jailer — I think he was a jailer — especially punished me on the head, slapped me on the face, because I was a Nisei. He said, ‘Nisei, huh,’ and bang, he hit me and no questions asked. I was made to stand behind a set of bars for, oh about two hours. I don’t know what for. And then when they let me go I went back to my home and found that my place had been searched and everything was — the drawers were all open, papers and clothing all over the floor, and I knew that they had come over to search my place while I was standing in the police station.”

The second occasion of police brutality occurred when he was walking with his fiancee whom he stated that under Japanese law he as a Nisei could not marry. He again was accosted by a policeman, who when he discovered they were not married struck him. A part of his motivating pressure leading to his application was to escape such brutality and to enable them to marry and have children. Further' motivation was the fear that as a Nisei his full ration card would be taken from him, which we held in Takehara v. Dulles, 9 Cir., 205 F.2d 560

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

KEKICH
19 I. & N. Dec. 198 (Board of Immigration Appeals, 1984)
Yee Mee v. Dulles
136 F. Supp. 199 (W.D. Pennsylvania, 1955)
Chin Chuck Ming v. Dulles
225 F.2d 849 (Ninth Circuit, 1955)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
216 F.2d 553, 1954 U.S. App. LEXIS 2998, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/edwin-shigeo-fukumoto-v-john-foster-dulles-as-secretary-of-state-ca9-1954.