Kawakita v. United States

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Kawakita v. United States

Supreme Court of the United States

Argued April 2 – April 3, 1952
Decided June 2, 1952


Full case name:	Kawakita v. United States

Prior history:	In a Federal District Court, petitioner was convicted of treason and sentenced to death,96 F. Supp. 824. The Court of Appeals affirmed, 190 F.2d 506. Certiorari to the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, 343 U.S. 717.

Subsequent history:	190 F.2d 506, affirmed.

Holding

A US citizen owes allegiance to the United States and can be punished for treasonable acts voluntarily committed regardless of dual nationality or citizenship.

Court membership

Chief Justice: Fred M. Vinson
Associate Justices: Hugo Black, Stanley Forman Reed, Felix Frankfurter, William O. Douglas, Robert H. Jackson, Harold Hitz Burton, Tom C. Clark, Sherman Minton

Case opinions

Majority by: Douglas
Joined by: unanimous court
Frankfurter and Clark took no part in the consideration or decision of the case.

Kawakita v. United States, 343 U.S. 717 (1952)^[1], was a case in which the United States Supreme Court reviewed a treason accusation against the defendant Tomoya Kawakita, a dual U.S./Japanese citizen.

1 Accusations
2 Controversy
3 Decision
4 Notes and references
5 External links

[edit] Accusations

Kawakita was found guilty of torturing American prisoners of war while living in Japan during World War II. During this time, he was hired by the mining company Oeyama Nickel as an interpreter between the Japanese and the prisoners of war assigned to work at the factory. His crimes occurred during this period. He worked at the company as a civilian until Japan's surrender. Shortly after his return to the United States, he was recognized by one of the former POWs and subsequently arrested.

[edit] Controversy

The U.S.-born Kawakita asserted that during his time in Japan, he had effectively renounced his U.S. citizenship, and thus could not be tried for treason. He also claimed that he lost his U.S. citizenship when he was registered in Japan's family census the Koseki in 1943. However, his statements were undermined by his reapplication for a US passport in 1945, in which he affirmed he had never renounced his US citizenship while in Japan.

He further argued that a person who has a dual nationality can be guilty of treason only to the country where he resides, not to the other country which claims him as a national. But the U.S. Constitution places no territorial limitations on treason.

[edit] Decision

The court found that Kawakita owed allegiance to the United States during his time in Japan. He was found guilty of eight overt acts and sentenced to death. President Dwight D. Eisenhower commuted the sentence to life imprisonment in 1953. Ten years later President Kennedy, during the closing of the Alcatraz prison where he was serving his time, ordered him released on the condition that he be deported to Japan and permanently prohibited from re-entering the United States.^[1]