Sweden v. Yamaguchi
Encyclopedia
Sweden v. Yamaguchi, otherwise known as in the matter of Marianne Wilson, or in the matter of Mary Ann Vaughn
, is a highly complex decision in international family law
which touches on questions in law still unresolved over fifty years later. The formal name of the action was Israel Karl-Gustav Eugene Lagerfelt v. Yamaguchi Masakatsu and Yamaguchi Hideko, or Case of Demand for Delivery of an Infant, No. Wa-154, 1956 Yokohama District Court (Yokohama Chiho-saiban-sho), initiated February 22, 1956. On December 5, 1956, it held that the defendants should deliver the infant to the plaintiff. The appeal was dismissed by Tokyo High Court
(No. Ne-2824) on July 9, 1958.
The case was decided in Yokohama District Court in 1956, and sustained upon appeal by defendants to the Tokyo High Court in 1958. Defendants declined appeal to the Japanese Supreme Court, and custody was granted to the Swedish Crown. Mary Ann Vaughn, to be thenceforth known as Marianne Wilson, was granted Swedish citizenship and remained in the custody of the Swedish Ambassador
s to Japan Tage Grönfall and later Frederick Almquist in Tokyo.
in Yokohama
, Japan on April 17, 1949. Her father was a US national employed under contract with the United States Military Administration of Occupied Japan
. Her mother was a Swedish National, of three generations of Swedish citizens resident in Japan. She was descended from John Wilson (Captain)
and Sophia Wilson
, née Naka Yamazaki, her grandparents, and Professor John Wilson.
The Department of State declined Vaughn's request to allow his wife to immigrate to the United States, due to the absence of a licit civil license. During this time, Japan was under US Law as Occupied Japan
. In addition, Japan had traditionally ignored the marriages of foreigners. As foreigners had no licit koseki
, or Japanese family record, there was no method for registration of foreigner marriages within Japan. As Vaughn was a civilian employee of the United States, his marriage did not come under the terms of permissible immigration
stipulated for US Military Service Personnel who married foreign women (see War-bride
). Due to the absence of recognized civil marriage, James and Vivienne allegedly suffered harassment by US and Japanese authorities.
Upon learning that his wife was pregnant, Vaughn returned to the United States to seek permission for immigration of his pregnant wife. He received assistance from Patrick McCarran, senator from Nevada, who sponsored private legislation permitting the immigration of Vivienne Joy Wilson to the United States for the purpose of legitimizing their marriage; and recognizing his daughter, Mary Ann Vaughn, who had been born in Yokohama during the interim, as his natural-born daughter. Private legislation was passed by the United States Congress and signed into law on 5 August 1950. (81st Congress 2nd Session, v.64 part 2, Chapter 596, Private Law
722, For the relief of Vivienne Joy Wilson and minor daughter Mary Ann Vaughn)
However, Vivienne had been weakened by the privations of World War II, and contracted tuberculosis
during James Vaughn's absence, during which Mary Ann was cared for by a nanny, Fumi. She died on 5 August 1950, the very day of passage of private legislation permitting her to immigrate to the United States.
John Wilson continued to search for Mary Ann, and with the intervention of the AJCAJAO (American Joint Committee for Assisting Japanese-American Orphans
), the Red Cross of Sweden and the International Red Cross, found and identified her in Yokohama in 1955. The AJCAJAO identified her residency with Masakatsu Yamaguchi and wife in Yokohama. The Consul of the Royal Swedish Legation attempted to negotiate a custody settlement with the Yamaguchi family, but was unsuccessful. The Crown then brought suit on behalf of Wilson for custody.
According to Fumi Kaneko (reading from her interview in Asahi Shinbun and Shukan Shincho), the baby was entrusted to her by Vivian at her death bed. There was no mention of a search for the baby; instead Fumi Kaneko said she was the one who approached Swedish Embassy to recognize Mary Ann before she entered into grade school.
and Shukan Shincho Japanese periodicals, especially in the shukanshi
, confrontational weekly magazines. The case attracted considerable attention from the Japanese Leftists, and became a focus of anti-American nationalism
in Japan after World War II. The United States government abjured involvement in the case, not offering to enter as participant or amicus in the hearing.
in Chōfu, Tokyo
ASIJ, graduating in the 1960s. She continued to visit the Yamaguchi family throughout their lifetime. She retained her Swedish citizenship, and relocated to Sweden, working for the Scandinavian Airlines System
for a time, before returning to Japan to settle as a permanent resident Swedish citizen in Japan. She is married with one son, and lives in Tokyo
. She remains in close contact with the John Wilson family of Sweden.
Mary Ann Vaughn
Mary Ann Vaughn , citizen of Sweden, a.k.a Marianne Wilson, was the subject of a widely-publicised and highly controversial case in international family law decided in the Tokyo High Court in 1956, Sweden v. Yamaguchi...
, is a highly complex decision in international family law
Family law
Family law is an area of the law that deals with family-related issues and domestic relations including:*the nature of marriage, civil unions, and domestic partnerships;...
which touches on questions in law still unresolved over fifty years later. The formal name of the action was Israel Karl-Gustav Eugene Lagerfelt v. Yamaguchi Masakatsu and Yamaguchi Hideko, or Case of Demand for Delivery of an Infant, No. Wa-154, 1956 Yokohama District Court (Yokohama Chiho-saiban-sho), initiated February 22, 1956. On December 5, 1956, it held that the defendants should deliver the infant to the plaintiff. The appeal was dismissed by Tokyo High Court
Tokyo High Court
is a high court in Kasumigaseki, Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. The Intellectual Property High Court is a special branch of Tokyo High Court....
(No. Ne-2824) on July 9, 1958.
Case
The case was brought by Consul Baron Lagerfelt on behalf of the King of Sweden as petitioner for guardianship of Mary Ann Vaughn, the daughter of a Swedish national in Japan, against the Yamaguchi family, de facto custodians of the eight-year-old child, to answer the questions of custody, guardianship and citizenship of Mary Ann Vaughn, also known as Marianne Wilson.The case was decided in Yokohama District Court in 1956, and sustained upon appeal by defendants to the Tokyo High Court in 1958. Defendants declined appeal to the Japanese Supreme Court, and custody was granted to the Swedish Crown. Mary Ann Vaughn, to be thenceforth known as Marianne Wilson, was granted Swedish citizenship and remained in the custody of the Swedish Ambassador
Ambassador
An ambassador is the highest ranking diplomat who represents a nation and is usually accredited to a foreign sovereign or government, or to an international organization....
s to Japan Tage Grönfall and later Frederick Almquist in Tokyo.
Parental history
Mary Ann Vaughn was born the only child of James A. Vaughn (b. May 7, 1925) and Vivienne Joy Wilson (b. November 2, 1929), in Bluff HospitalBluff Hospital
Bluff Hospital is a hospital and clinic active in the medical care of foreign residents of Yokohama, Japan....
in Yokohama
Yokohama
is the capital city of Kanagawa Prefecture and the second largest city in Japan by population after Tokyo and most populous municipality of Japan. It lies on Tokyo Bay, south of Tokyo, in the Kantō region of the main island of Honshu...
, Japan on April 17, 1949. Her father was a US national employed under contract with the United States Military Administration of Occupied Japan
Occupied Japan
At the end of World War II, Japan was occupied by the Allied Powers, led by the United States with contributions also from Australia, India, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. This foreign presence marked the first time in its history that the island nation had been occupied by a foreign power...
. Her mother was a Swedish National, of three generations of Swedish citizens resident in Japan. She was descended from John Wilson (Captain)
John Wilson (Captain)
John Wilson was the Anglicized name of Captain Frederick Walgren, a Swedish sailor and o-yatoi gaikokujin who was active in the development of British-Japanese ties in the late 19th century....
and Sophia Wilson
Sophia Wilson
Sophia Wilson was a Japanese courtesan who married Captain John Wilson. She anglicised her name from Naka Yamazaki to Sophia Wilson, and adopted her son, Nils Wilson...
, née Naka Yamazaki, her grandparents, and Professor John Wilson.
Birth
Due to the sensitive nature of Vaughn's employment, the US Military Administration declined to allow Vaughn to marry under civil law at the US Embassy in Tokyo. Vaughn and Vivienne Wilson were married under religious ceremony in Yokohama, Japan on 8 May 1948.The Department of State declined Vaughn's request to allow his wife to immigrate to the United States, due to the absence of a licit civil license. During this time, Japan was under US Law as Occupied Japan
Occupied Japan
At the end of World War II, Japan was occupied by the Allied Powers, led by the United States with contributions also from Australia, India, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. This foreign presence marked the first time in its history that the island nation had been occupied by a foreign power...
. In addition, Japan had traditionally ignored the marriages of foreigners. As foreigners had no licit koseki
Koseki
A is a Japanese family registry. Japanese law requires all Japanese households to report births, acknowledgements of paternity, adoptions, disruptions of adoptions, deaths, marriages and divorces of Japanese citizens to their local authority, which compiles such records encompassing all Japanese...
, or Japanese family record, there was no method for registration of foreigner marriages within Japan. As Vaughn was a civilian employee of the United States, his marriage did not come under the terms of permissible immigration
Immigration
Immigration is the act of foreigners passing or coming into a country for the purpose of permanent residence...
stipulated for US Military Service Personnel who married foreign women (see War-bride
War-bride
War bride is a term used in reference to wartime marriages, especially - but not exclusively - during World War I and World War II.One of the largest and best documented war bride phenomenons is American soldiers marrying German "Fräuleins" after World War II. By 1949, over 20,000 German war brides...
). Due to the absence of recognized civil marriage, James and Vivienne allegedly suffered harassment by US and Japanese authorities.
Upon learning that his wife was pregnant, Vaughn returned to the United States to seek permission for immigration of his pregnant wife. He received assistance from Patrick McCarran, senator from Nevada, who sponsored private legislation permitting the immigration of Vivienne Joy Wilson to the United States for the purpose of legitimizing their marriage; and recognizing his daughter, Mary Ann Vaughn, who had been born in Yokohama during the interim, as his natural-born daughter. Private legislation was passed by the United States Congress and signed into law on 5 August 1950. (81st Congress 2nd Session, v.64 part 2, Chapter 596, Private Law
Private law
Private law is that part of a civil law legal system which is part of the jus commune that involves relationships between individuals, such as the law of contracts or torts, as it is called in the common law, and the law of obligations as it is called in civilian legal systems...
722, For the relief of Vivienne Joy Wilson and minor daughter Mary Ann Vaughn)
However, Vivienne had been weakened by the privations of World War II, and contracted tuberculosis
Tuberculosis
Tuberculosis, MTB, or TB is a common, and in many cases lethal, infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body...
during James Vaughn's absence, during which Mary Ann was cared for by a nanny, Fumi. She died on 5 August 1950, the very day of passage of private legislation permitting her to immigrate to the United States.
Early life
After the death of her mother, Mary Ann Vaughn was placed under the guardianship of Professor John Wilson, with nanny Fumi Kaneko (later Fumi Yamaguchi) in custodial care. Due to the privations of the postwar period, John Wilson sailed to Sweden with his wife and children in 1952. Mary Ann was to accompany them, but due to an outbreak of whooping cough, she was to sail on the next ship. However, Yamaguchi absconded with Mary Ann, and Yamaguchi destroyed the child's records, raising her under claim of an abandoned American orphan in the slums of Yokohama.John Wilson continued to search for Mary Ann, and with the intervention of the AJCAJAO (American Joint Committee for Assisting Japanese-American Orphans
American Joint Committee for Assisting Japanese-American Orphans
American Joint Committee for Assisting Japanese-American Orphans is an American private agency responsible for intracountry adoptions of Japanese-American children after World War II. See also Sweden v. Yamaguchi- External links :*...
), the Red Cross of Sweden and the International Red Cross, found and identified her in Yokohama in 1955. The AJCAJAO identified her residency with Masakatsu Yamaguchi and wife in Yokohama. The Consul of the Royal Swedish Legation attempted to negotiate a custody settlement with the Yamaguchi family, but was unsuccessful. The Crown then brought suit on behalf of Wilson for custody.
According to Fumi Kaneko (reading from her interview in Asahi Shinbun and Shukan Shincho), the baby was entrusted to her by Vivian at her death bed. There was no mention of a search for the baby; instead Fumi Kaneko said she was the one who approached Swedish Embassy to recognize Mary Ann before she entered into grade school.
Public notoriety
The case developed intense national publicity in Japan, with a great national sympathy towards the Yamaguchi family, to remain as custodian, with publication in the Kanagawa Shimbun, Asahi ShimbunAsahi Shimbun
The is the second most circulated out of the five national newspapers in Japan. Its circulation, which was 7.96 million for its morning edition and 3.1 million for its evening edition as of June 2010, was second behind that of Yomiuri Shimbun...
and Shukan Shincho Japanese periodicals, especially in the shukanshi
Shukanshi
is a Japanese term for any weekly magazine, including controversial weekly tabloid newspapers.As noted by Watanabe and Gamble in the Japan Media Review, the genre is "often described as bizarre blends of various types of U.S...
, confrontational weekly magazines. The case attracted considerable attention from the Japanese Leftists, and became a focus of anti-American nationalism
Nationalism
Nationalism is a political ideology that involves a strong identification of a group of individuals with a political entity defined in national terms, i.e. a nation. In the 'modernist' image of the nation, it is nationalism that creates national identity. There are various definitions for what...
in Japan after World War II. The United States government abjured involvement in the case, not offering to enter as participant or amicus in the hearing.
Subsequent history
Mary Ann, now known as Marianne Wilson, remained in the custody of the Swedish Ambassador to Japan, and attended the ASIJ, the American School in JapanAmerican School in Japan
The American School in Japan was founded in 1902 and is an international private day school located in the city of Chōfu, Tokyo, Japan. The school consists of an elementary school, a middle school, and a high school, all located on the Chōfu campus...
in Chōfu, Tokyo
Chofu, Tokyo
is a city located in the western end of Tokyo Metropolis, Japan. As of 2010, the city has an estimated population of 224,878 and a population density of 10,440 persons per km². The total area was 21.53 km². Tokyo Stadium in Chōfu hosts soccer games for two J. League teams: F.C...
ASIJ, graduating in the 1960s. She continued to visit the Yamaguchi family throughout their lifetime. She retained her Swedish citizenship, and relocated to Sweden, working for the Scandinavian Airlines System
Scandinavian Airlines System
Scandinavian Airlines or SAS, previously Scandinavian Airlines System, is the flag carrier of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, and the largest airline in Scandinavia....
for a time, before returning to Japan to settle as a permanent resident Swedish citizen in Japan. She is married with one son, and lives in Tokyo
Tokyo
, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...
. She remains in close contact with the John Wilson family of Sweden.