JAPANESE WOMAN
BRAVES U.S. LAW
First of Her Race to
Ask Citizenship in
Court Here.
For the first time in federal court here a Japanese is applying for citizenship and will receive it if she passes the examination, despite the fact that the United States laws prohibit a Japanese from becoming a citizen. The case is that of Mrs. Nobuyo Inagami, an attractive young Japanese woman employed as a domestic here. Although Mrs. Inagami is a Japanese she was once an American citizen, having been born in Hawaii, a United States possession. Although orientals can not become citizens, if they are born in teh United States or any of its possessions and remain in teh possessions until their majority, they authomatcally become citizens the law says.
Lost Citizenship in 1925.
In 1925 Mrs. Inagami lost her citizenship by marrying in Hawaii a Japanese born in Japan. The United States citizenship laws ruled that any woman citizen who married an alien automatically lost her citizenship and at the time of Mrs. Inagami's marriage, because she married an ineligible alien, she was barred from seeking citizenship again. But in 1931 congress amended the naturalization laws with specific reference to suchcases, placing them in teh same class with other nationalites who lost their American citizenship through marriage. This now places her under the act of 1922, which permits a wife who lost her citizenship through marriage to an alien to regain it by establishing one year's residence and passing teh examination.
Would Bring Children From Japan.
Mrs. Inagami is anxious to regain her citizenship at this time because her two children, born in Hawaii, are now in Japan with her husnad's people, although he is here with her. The grandmother recently died and Mrs. Inagami wishes to go to Japan to bring her children home with her. She made one trip under a permit, but feels her return to this country will be doubly insured if she regains her citizenship. Her hearing is to be helpd April 27 in federal court.