Naturalization has been repeatedly refused to Japanese on the ground that they are not "white" persons

—case, the court distinguished human groups as either "chocolate brown” (Australoid), “brown black” (Negroid), “yellow” (Mongoloid), “fair whites” (Xanthochroic), or “dark whites” (Melanchroic). However, the court added that these differences" do not exist in the case of each individual... but are sufficiently distinct to form the basis of well-recognized•

The act of Congress of May 6, 1882, removed the doubt as to "the yellow or tawny races of Asiatics" by providing "that hereafter no State court or court of the United States shall admit Chinese to citizenship; and all laws in conflict with this act are hereby repealed

—it was declared that the Japanese, like the Chinese, belong to the Mongolian race, and therefore thatwhether this question is viewed in the light of Congressional intent, or of the popular or scientific meaning of "white persons," or of the authority of adjudicated cases, the only conclusion I am able to reach, after careful consideration, is that the present application must be …

An 1894 federal court decision, in re Saito, concluded that “a native of Japan is not entitled to naturalization, not being included in that clause of the naturalization act… reading 'aliens being free white persons

Judicial decisions interpreting the term "free white person" have excluded the Japanese from citizenship.

The court held that Japanese, like Chinese, belong to the Mongolian race, and so are not entitled to naturalization, not being included within the terms "white persons."

By 1913 Japanese had challenged their designation as ineligible to citizenship four times in federal court, losing each time.

—this interpretation was supported by numerous historical sources cited by early racial prerequisite courts but was ultimately rejected by the Supreme Court in Ozawa based on the conclusion that the affirmative form of the Naturalization Act and the petitioner' s burden of proof did not support such a definition: It may be true that [the African and American Indian] races were …

Thus it has been held that a native of China, of the Mongolian race, is not a white person, within the meaning of the Naturalization Laws; 21 nor is a half-breed son of an English father and a part Chinese and part Japanese mother within the meaning of that term; 22 nor a Japa-'See intra, Part IV subtitle "Half-breeds." "See supra, Part I."'

[PDF] Elliot Griffis

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