America was selective about its citizens. But not soldiers.
May 18, 1917: President Woodrow Wilson signed the Selective Service Act of 1917, establishing the military draft during World War I.
The Selective Service Act required most male citizens and resident aliens between the ages of 18 and 45 to register for the draft.
Many Asian immigrants occupied a strange legal position in the United States.
Under existing naturalization laws, Issei immigrants from Japan were considered “aliens ineligible for citizenship.” Unlike many European immigrants, they were legally barred from becoming naturalized Americans because of their race.
Yet they were still expected to support the country during wartime.
At first, many Japanese nationals remained exempt from military service because of treaty protections between the United States and Japan. But in Hawaiʻi, where the Japanese population was large and military manpower was urgently needed, recruitment efforts expanded rapidly.
President Woodrow Wilson blindfolded during the national draft lottery of World War I, 1918. The Selective Service Act required millions of men across America to register.
Courtesy of The Bancroft Library, UC Berkeley
Racism in bold type: A 1906 poster from the Japanese & Korean Exclusion League. It was was backed by city officials including Mayor Eugene Schmitz to fan anti-Asian hatred.
Strict anti-Asian immigration laws limited who Asian men could marry. Many turned to Mexican and Mexican American women. Here was a Punjabi Mexican couple, 1917.
Courtesy of the Library of Congress
While the government called on immigrants and minorities to serve the nation, many Asian immigrants were still legally denied the right to become American citizens.
Courtesy of the Library of Congress
Members of Company D, the segregated all-Japanese unit of the Hawaiʻi National Guard formed during World War I.
Hawaiʻi and the Draft
Newspaper announcements appeared in Japanese and other ethnic languages encouraging “friendly aliens” to enlist. Some were led to believe military service could eventually help them become American citizens. When the United States entered World War I in 1917, Hawaiʻi’s National Guard underwent massive expansion.
The islands became a major recruiting center for a racially segregated military force that included Japanese, Filipino, Chinese, Korean, Native Hawaiian, and white soldiers in separate units.
Approximately 29,000 men registered for military service in Hawaiʻi. Of those, roughly 11,000 were immigrant Japanese and Nisei. Ultimately, 838 Japanese immigrants and Japanese Americans were accepted into military service.
Because of their numbers, they were organized into a segregated all-Japanese unit known as Company D.
Hopes and Dreams
Many Japanese and Japanese American volunteers during World War I came from Hawaiʻi, though some also served from the American mainland. The exact number is difficult to determine, but historians believe it was small compared to Hawaiʻi’s.
For many Issei immigrants, military service represented more than patriotism. It represented hope.
Some believed serving the United States might finally allow them to become citizens in the country where they had built their lives and families. But even after the war, many Japanese immigrant veterans were still denied naturalization.
The Act of May 9, 1918 granted citizenship opportunities to foreign-born veterans “of the white race” or “of African descent.” Asian veterans were effectively excluded.
Courtesy of the Library of Congress
Young men registering for the draft on June 5, 1917, shortly after the Selective Service Act took effect. This included many immigrants classified as “friendly aliens.”
Courtesy of South Asian American Digital Archive (SAADA)
On December 9, 1918, Bhagat Singh Thind, still serving in uniform, was initially granted U.S. citizenship under special naturalization provisions for foreign-born soldiers.
Hidemitsu Toyota, a Japanese immigrant veteran who served in the U.S. Army for seven years, later fought for the right to become an American citizen.
Courtesy of California State University Sacramento Library
After WWI, Tokutaro Slocum joined JACL and pushed for legislation to restore citizenship to veterans who had been denied it because of race.
Fighting for Citizenship
Hidemitsu Toyota, a Japanese alien veteran, who served in the US Army for seven years, filed a petition for naturalization.
On May 25, 1925, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against Toyota, ruling that a person “of the Japanese race” could not be naturalized under the Act of May 9, 1918.
One Japanese immigrant veteran, Tokutaro Nishimura Slocum, fought with the U.S. Army in France during World War I and later personally appealed to Congress.
His efforts eventually helped lead to the Nye-Lea Act of 1935, which finally allowed several hundred Asian immigrant veterans to become naturalized citizens.
Even then, the broader racial barriers remained.
The Contradiction Continued
During World War II, Japanese Americans were incarcerated in concentration camps under Executive Order 9066.
Then, in 1944, the U.S. government reinstated the military draft for Nisei men while many of their families still remained imprisoned behind barbed wire.
More than 300 Japanese American men resisted the draft from inside the camps, arguing that a government denying their constitutional rights had no moral authority to demand military service from them.
Others volunteered and fought anyway.
The long struggle for Asian immigrants to gain equal access to American citizenship would not fully end until the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952.
Courtesy of Bettmann Archive
Many young Japanese American men took the oath of military service while still incarcerated with their families in U.S. camps.
The men from Tule Lake WRA Camp Block 42 were illegally arrested at gun point for refusing to register for the controversial draft questionnaire, 1943
Courtesy of US National Archives and Records Administration
Despite his service to the country during WWI, Hikotarō Henry Yamada was incarcerated with his family at Santa Anita Assembly Center in 1942 under Executive Order 9066.