Welcome to the final post of a seven-part blog series! If you need to catch up, here’s the introduction with links to all the blog posts.
Even after the Certificates of Identity were created, travel to the mainland for Hawaiian-born individuals remained challenging - to the extent that in 1926, immigration officials offered citizenship certificates to all U.S. citizens residing in Hawai’i. Again, these were to be used as travel documents, not official citizenship records. While ostensibly offered to any Hawaiian resident regardless of race or ethnicity, these certificates were predominantly sought by individuals of Asian and Pacific Islander descent, particularly those with Japanese, Chinese, and multicultural ancestry.
Although these certificates were not specifically designated for individuals of Chinese descent, Chinese American applicants keenly understood the heightened travel restrictions placed on their community by exclusionary policies. These regulations posed additional complications for those of mixed heritage. The question over blood quantum also became acute for officials seeking clarity on whom to investigate under these laws. Early on, in 1908, they determined that a threshold of at least half, but not exceeding, Chinese ancestry would trigger exclusion. Despite official policy, applicants with any Chinese lineage continued to apply for these citizenship certificates to avoid protracted detention when traveling to the mainland - even years after the exclusion acts were repealed in 1943.
1908 memorandum on blood quantum and the application of exclusionary laws in the admission of Charles Achi Williams, a person of Eurasian heritage, Case File 10495/CABIN (NAID 28813534)
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(top) Interview with the applicant’s father, Edwin Chung-Hoon, who underscored his diverse ethnicities beyond his Chinese background, case file 4500/4263 (NAID 167236533); (bottom) Certificate of Citizenship 27862 issued to Robert St. Claire Chung-Hoon (NAID 1565934). Note the order of ethnicity, indicating the degree of blood quantum.
Where can I find these certificates?
A duplicate set of certificates are part of series, Certificates of Citizenship - Hawaiian Islands (part of NAID 1565934). Unfortunately, no name index to this collection exists. A select number of applications have survived, which are name searchable in the catalog and are part of the following series: