Yasuo Kuniyoshi is widely considered one of the great American artists of the first half of the twentieth century. Yet, despite his immense contributions to American culture, Kuniyoshi was never allowed to become an American citizen.

It’s time for Congress to correct that error.

Kuniyoshi was born in Japan in 1889. He emigrated to the United States when he was sixteen and lived here the rest of his life. Although he considered himself thoroughly American, racist laws like the Immigration Act of 1924 prohibited people born in Japan from becoming naturalized American citizens. The prohibition was finally lifted in 1952, and Kuniyoshi immediately applied for citizenship, but he died of cancer in May 1953, before his application could be approved. On an estate tax form filed with the IRS, his citizenship was listed as “Stateless, formerly Japanese.”

Now, seventy years later, Congress can make amends for the unjust laws that barred Yasuo Kuniyoshi and other Japanese Americans from becoming American citizens by granting Kuniyoshi citizenship posthumously. Posthumous citizenship is an honor rarely bestowed, but one that is plainly justified in this instance.

Kuniyoshi created hundreds of works in a wide range of styles and media. He is perhaps best known for his painting Circus Girl Resting, which became a lightning rod for conservative critics when it was included in a State Department exhibition that toured Europe in 1947.

After the attack on Pearl Harbor, Kuniyoshi, like all Japanese Americans, was the object of constant surveillance and suspicion. He enlisted his friends in the art world to write letters of reference for him—Carnegie Art Museum director Homer Saint-Gaudens said he was “one of the very best artists in our land and wholly and entirely American,” and MoMA’s Alfred Barr called him “an integral part of the cultural life of this country”—but Kuniyoshi was still considered an “enemy alien.”

He was not forced into an internment camp during the war like so many other Japanese Americans, but his cameras were confiscated, his home was searched, his bank account was frozen, and he was required to obtain written permission from the War Department to travel away from home. He joined the group Artists for Victory, but when he tried to enter the group’s war poster competition, he was told “no members of the nations of our enemies” were eligible.

In 1945 he even tried to join the U.S. Army. “My life and my interest lies in this country,” he wrote in a letter to Secretary of War Henry Stimson. “I should be glad to contribute my services within my limitations as an artist, if they can be of any help to the U.S. government.”

Although he was rejected for military service, Kuniyoshi still contributed to the war effort. He wrote scripts for “Japan Versus Japan,” a Japanese-language short-wave radio program produced by the War Department and beamed into Japan, and designed Japanese-language propaganda posters for the Office of War Information.

In other words, Yasuo Kuniyoshi was a loyal and patriotic American in every way—save for his citizenship.

Apart from his art and his work in support of the United States during the war, Kuniyoshi was also deeply involved in social causes and helped found Artists Equity Association, an advocacy group for American artists, and served as its first president. He was also one of the founders of the American Artists Congress.

Granting him posthumous citizenship would also recognize the hundreds of other Americans born in Japan who were denied citizenship yet still contributed mightily to this nation’s arts, culture, sciences, industry, and economy.

Congress should pass legislation granting Yasuo Kuniyoshi American citizenship at long last. It’s an honor overdue, and it’s the right thing to do.