Tule Lake History

The Tragic Aftermath

When the war ended, the tragedy of the renunciants became apparent when the Justice Department prepared for mass deportation of the thousands who renounced. The renunciants had little understanding of what they gave up, or that they would become enemy aliens who could be legally expelled. Nearly all of the renunciants eventually sought restoration of their citizenship, including those who expatriated to Japan.

Most regained their citizenship primarily due to the heroic but little-known efforts of Wayne Mortimer Collins, a civil rights attorney from San Francisco.  In Collins’  class action case, Abo v. Clark, decided by U.S. District Judge Louis Goodman, Judge Goodman decided the renunciants’ citizenship should be restored because the renunciations took place under duress, and voided the renunciations and restored citizenship to those who sought to reclaim it.  However, the U.S. Department of Justice appealed the decision and Collins wound up fighting for over 20 years to help former renunciants regain their citizenship.

Although absolved by the government, Japanese Americans who answered the loyalty questionnaire “No” and those who renounced their U.S. citizenship were stigmatized and ostracized for their choices.  The renunciants, along with draft resisters, were condemned at the 1946 National JACL convention, which led to decades of them being marginalized for wartime choices.  Consequently, they speak little about their life in the Segregation Center, a topic filled with powerful feelings of stigma and shame.