Mary Ann Vaughn
Mary Ann Vaughn, a.k.a. Marianne Wilson, is a citizen of Sweden who 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. Vaughn became the ward of the Swedish Ambassador to Japan, Tage Grönwall and later, and resided in the Embassy of [Sweden, Tokyo|Swedish Embassy] in Tokyo.
Birth and ancestry
Vaughn was born the only child of James A. Vaughn and Vivienne Joy Wilson, in Bluff Hospital in Yokohama, Japan, on April 17, 1949.Her father was a US citizen employed under contract with the United States Military Administration of Occupied Japan at the General Headquarters. He was descended from early settlers of the Massachusetts Bay Colony who founded Salem, Massachusetts, and
Her mother was a Swedish national, of three generations of Swedish citizens resident in Japan. She was descended from John Wilson and Sophia Wilson, former Naka Yamazaki, her grandparents, and Professor John Wilson.
Vivienne Wilson had been weakened by the privations of World War II, and contracted tuberculosis during James Vaughn's absence to the United States, during which Mary Ann was cared for by a nanny, Fumi. Vivienne died on 5 August 1950, the very day of passage of private legislation permitting her to immigrate to the United States. She was buried in the Geijin Boche, the Foreign Cemetery overlooking the port in Yokohama, Japan.