Naito

In 1949 the plaintiff, as a citizen of the United States, applied for an American passport at the office of the United States Consul at Yokohama, Japan. The application was denied and the defendant issued to plaintiff a “Certificate of Loss of Nationality”. Plaintiff filed this action, under 8 U.S.C.A. § 903 , for a judgment declaring him to be a national of the United States.

The Certificate of Loss of Nationality was issued on the ground that plaintiff had expatriated himself under 8 U.S.C.A. § 801 (d):

However, the litigants have also put in issue the question of whether plaintiff also expatriated himself under 8 U.S.C.A. § 801 (e) (voting in a political election in a foreign state) by reason of his having voted in a Japanese general election in April 1946.

On the voting issue, this court finds as a fact that plaintiff’s act of voting was not his free and voluntary choice, but was the result of duress and coercion which impelled him to vote because he feared the consequences if he abstained from voting. See Kuwahara v. Acheson, D.C., 96 F.Supp. 38 , where the general conditions surrounding the 1946 elections in Japan are discussed at length. The evidence in the present trial…