894.012/15
The Ambassador in Japan (Bancroft) to the Secretary of State
[Received April 16.]
Sir: With reference to the new Expatriation Law which the Japanese Government put into effect on December 1, 1924, by which all children born to Japanese parents in the United States and certain other countries after December 1, 1924, shall be regarded as citizens of these countries unless their parents, within fourteen days after their birth, reserve Japanese citizenship for them by registering their names at a Japanese Consulate, I have the honor to report that according to press statements not one of the forty children born to Japanese parents in Hawaii since December first has been registered at the Japanese Consulate-General.
In commenting on the new Expatriation Law the Japanese Consul-General at Honolulu, Mr. Keichi Yamazaki, is reported to have said that the new law represents the desire of the Japanese Government to remove all objections which were raised to the former system of dual citizenship and that to this end he is personally urging the parents of those Japanese who are to reside in Hawaii to refrain from registering their children at a Japanese Consulate and thus define their status clearly as American citizens over whom the Japanese Government has relinquished all claim to citizenship.
I have [etc.]