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Ineligible
sushux
Summary:
In 1920, a court case appears before the Supreme Court: should Japanese immigrants be allowed to naturalize and become American citizens, even though the existing law only explicitly allows “free white persons of good character” and “persons of African descent” to naturalize?
Given Japan’s allyship with the US in World War I, the Supreme Court decides to delay judgement until 1922, so as not to trigger an international scandal with their decision of “No.”
Around the same time, the Board of Naturalization is looking for a test case to narrow the definition of “free white persons”, and finds the perfect test case in the form of Bhagad Singh Thind, a recently naturalized citizen from the Punjab. Would the Supreme Court draw a distinction between “Aryan” and “white person”?
This comic in four parts is about the people who challenged the laws of naturalization all the way up to the Supreme Court.
Notes:
Hey folks! This January, I was feeling particularly worried about the Supreme Court cases, so I decided to try to get this 31 page behemoth done before the Birthright Citizenship decision comes out. It's been a lot of drawing the past 6 months, especially trying to find time between all the work and stuff, but I'm pretty happy with the results! I'll inevitably go in and tweak some of the images before finally doing a print of this, but here's me, getting it in before June 30!
Also, the order of this goes:
Chapter 1: Yamashita Comic
Chapter 2: Ozawa Comic
Chapter 3: Historical notes about Yamashita and Ozawa
Chapter 4: Thind Comic
Chapter 5: Pandit Comic
Chapter 6: Historical notes about Thind and PanditI'm planning on making individual tumblr posts for each comic, so I'll link those when that happens... not at 2am.
(See the end of the work for more notes.)
Chapter 1: Yamashita v Hinkle (1920)
Summary:
“The Ownership of lands by aliens, other than those who in good faith have declared their intention to become citizens of the United States, is prohibited in this state”.
-- Washington State Constitution, Article Two, Section 33, adopted 1889
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Notes:
tumblr link: https://summercomfort.tumblr.com/post/820777077686075392/a-civil-action-uw-law-school-tries-to-right-a
Some more Yamashita:
- https://magazine.washington.edu/feature/a-civil-action-uw-law-school-tries-to-right-a-historic-wrong/ (shorter)
- https://www.seattletimes.com/pacific-nw-magazine/how-a-japanese-immigrant-stood-up-to-the-injustices-of-his-day-with-a-pioneering-civil-rights-message-that-resonates-in-ours/ (longer but better)dude his life is so sad I'm full of feels
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