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Baptism by Fire: Race, Military Service, and U.S. Citizenship Policy, 1918–1935
Lucy E. Salyer
| Sgt.-Maj. Tokutaro Nishimura Slocum returned from the world war with a distinguished record of military service that most American men would have embraced with pride. Though Slocum, as a native of Japan, could have claimed exemption from military service, he enlisted in the army at his adopted hometown of Minot, North Dakota, and served in the 328th Infantry, part of the Eighty-second, or All-American, Division made famous by Sgt. Alvin C. York. He was involved in the legendary battles at Meuse-Argonne and St. Mihiel and, like many other World War I soldiers, suffered throughout his life from being gassed. He returned home to continue his study of law at Columbia University, but first he sought to fulfill his lifelong wish to become an American citizen. Accompanied by two boyhood friends from Minot as his witnesses, Tokie Slocum appeared at the office of Robert Coleman, the chief examiner of naturalization at St. Paul, Minnesota, in early January 1921 to apply for citizenship under the Act of May 9, 1918, which offered naturalization to any alien who had served in the armed forces during the war. Coleman conceded that Slocum had "an excellent character and an excellent army record," but he informed Slocum that the Bureau of Naturalization believed him ineligible for citizenship under Section 2169 of the Revised Statutes, which limited naturalization to those who were "white" or of African descent. According to Coleman, Slocum "burst into tears" and exclaimed, "I know what you mean; you mean that I am yellow. I may be yellow in face, but I am not yellow at heart."1 |
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Slocum's frustrated outburst captures the multifaceted meanings of citizenship during World War I, when loyalty to the nation vied with race as the quintessential criterion of membership in the American polity. The eligibility of Asians for naturalization had not yet been determined by the U.S. Supreme Court, though the consensus in the federal courts was that they were not "white" and thus were excluded from citizenship under the naturalization law of 1870. Such determinations often rested on the presumption that Asians would remain always "yellow at heart," that they would not, and could not, assimilate; physical markers and phenotypes—being "yellow in face"—were thought to mirror an alien interior impervious to americanizing influences.2 Yet the strong link forged between military service and citizenship during World War I undermined the assumptions of racial nativism. In the hyperpatriotic atmosphere of the war, in which all were called to demonstrate their "unqualified loyalty," military service became the ultimate test of a man's Americanness and a compelling organizing principle for U.S. citizenship policy. Asian soldiers who underwent the "baptism of fire," proving they were not "yellow," fit into the war-era narrative of sacrifice and valor. Their claims to the reward of citizenship exposed fundamental tensions in American citizenship policy that judges and administrative officials struggled to reconcile, with conflicting results. |
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