22: How Asian-American WWI Veterans Were Denied and Then Won Their Citizenship

Sergeant-Major Tokutaro Nishimura Slocum was denied citizenship, then was naturalized, then was denaturalized, and finally was naturalized again

Tokutaro Nishimura Slocum was one of thousands of Asian Americans who served in the U.S. military during World War I, many of whom hoped their service would enable them to become citizens at a time when non-white immigrants were not otherwise allowed to become citizens.

Slocum was born in Japan and then grew up in North Dakota, first joining his father who worked for a railroad and then worked on a farm, and then staying with a kind white family whose name he assumed. 

He joined the U.S. army in 1917, served in several battles, and was the highest-ranking Asian-American officer in World War I, serving as a sergeant major. 

In 1921, he applied for citizenship based on his service but was told by a naturalization examiner that he was ineligible because he was not white. 

“You mean that I am yellow.  I may be yellow in face, but I am not yellow at heart,” Slocum reportedly said after bursting into tears.

Laws passed by Congress in 1918 and 1919, on their face, promised “aliens” the ability to naturalize if they served during World War I.  Some judges granted citizenship on that basis, but the government argued that “aliens” should be read more narrowly to exclude Asian Americans.

Slocum nonetheless did manage to become a citizen in 1921 thanks to a sympathetic judge, but his naturalization certificate was canceled in 1923 as more courts adopted the government’s views.  He even dropped plans to attend Columbia Law School because non-U.S. citizens could not then become lawyers.

Another Japanese-American immigrant veteran, Hidemitsu Toyota, who had served in the Coast Guard for about a decade and received eight or more honorable discharges, took his case to the United States Supreme Court.  Unfortunately, in 1925, the Supreme Court held that Asian-American veterans were not eligible to become citizens because of other laws that restricted citizenship only to those who were “white” or of African descent.

Slocum, then working as a salesman, began a campaign to change the law.  He rallied veterans’ organizations like the American Legion to support a change in the law, and the Nye-Lea bill was passed in 1935 to grant citizenship to Asian-American veterans of World War I.  Slocum received the pen that President Franklin D. Roosevelt used to sign the act into law, and he became a citizen again for the second time.

Despite his fervent patriotism, Slocum was incarcerated along with other Japanese Americans during World War II, but he was released in 1942 after a riot at the Manzanar camp.  He worked for the federal government during and after the war and he died in 1974.  Slocum never became a lawyer himself, but his son did – his son even attended the same school that Slocum had planned to attend.

A tip of the hat to R.F. Kuang, whose excellent new novel Yellowface addresses the role of Chinese laborers in World War I, which got me wondering about Asian Americans who had served in combat in Europe.  Other notable Asian Americans who served in WWI include Color Sergeant Lau Sing Kee, who received the Distinguished Service Cross for running messages in a warzone when every other runner was killed or out of action, Private Tomas Mateo Claudio, and Private Henry Chinn.

Sources:  Harry Honda, “Tokie Was Naturalized ‘Twice’,” Pacific Citizen, December 19-26, 1975, online here.  Lucy E. Salyer, Baptism by Fire: Race, Military Service, and U.S. Citizenship Policy, 1918-1935, The Journal of American History (December 2004).  Deenesh Sohoni, Fighting to Belong: Asian-American Military Service and American Citizenship, chapter 4 of Inclusion in the American Military: A Force for Diversity.  I was not able to find definitive statistics for the number of Asian Americans who served in World War I, but I went with thousands given the articles I’ve seen, including a reference in Sohoni’s article to about 5,700 Filipinos and several thousand “other Asian” having served.  Toyota v. United States, 268 U.S. 402 (1925).  “When is a Citizen Not a Citizen, His Puzzle,” Belvedere Daily Republican, July 12, 1923.  The photo of Slocum is from the Library of Congress here.  If I do more stories in the future, I plan to write more about Lau Sing Kee – for now, see Andrew R. Chow’s excellent article, Overlooked No More: Lau Sing Kee, War Hero Jailed for Helping Immigrants, New York Times, August 25, 2019.