442: Meet the Japanese American legal clerk who abolished internment policies

Mitsuye Endo (1920-2006) may not have been a lawyer, a politician, or an activist, but she was a 22-year-old secretary with a determination that shook the U.S. Supreme Court and changed the course of American history.

Endo was Nisei, a second-generation Japanese American, born in Sacramento, California as the second of four children. After graduating from Sacramento Senior High School, she went to secretarial school and got a clerical job with the state Department of Employment. In 1941, she got a job as a typist for the California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV).

In the aftermath of the Pearl Harbor attack on Dec. 7, 1941, the California State Personnel Board dismissed all Japanese American state employees by spring 1942, including Endo, who was one of those 63 terminated employees at the DMV. These 63 former employees  sought to challenge their unfair termination, with the aid of the Japanese American Citizens League (JACL) and the support of San Francisco lawyer James C. Purcell, who represented them and filed an employment lawsuit for each worker. Unfortunately in the meantime, Endo and her family were sent to the Sacramento Assembly Center detention facility temporarily, and later that year, to the concentration camp in Tule Lake, California.

Purcell also wanted to challenge Executive Order 9066 for the United States’ unlawful and unconstitutional incarceration of the roughly 120,000 Japanese Americans and asked Endo to be the face of this lawsuit. He felt she was an ideal candidate as she was a Methodist, only spoke English, had never visited Japan, and had a brother who was serving in the U.S. military. Endo was reluctant at first, but eventually agreed, knowing she would be helping all the incarcerated Japanese Americans. With her on board, Purcell filed the case under a habeas corpus petition on July 12, 1942. They argued that the U.S. government could not imprison Americans without a trial.

It can be difficult to swear “unqualified allegiance” to a country that has torn you away from your home and business, and forced you into harsh living conditions.

In 1943, Endo signed a so-called “loyalty questionnaire,” which was distributed to camp residents regarding their loyalty to the United States. The Selective Services System Form 304A asked questions such as, “Will you swear unqualified allegiance to the United States of America and faithfully defend the United States from any or all attack by foreign or domestic forces, and forswear any form of allegiance or obedience to the Japanese emperor, or any other foreign government, power, or organization?” The responses to this questionnaire weren’t all positive—it can be difficult to swear “unqualified allegiance” to a country that has torn you away from your home and business, and forced you into harsh living conditions. This form was part of a selective service so young men could be drafted if they answered “yes.”

In the War Relocation Authority (WRA) publication, the Tulean Dispatch Magazine, California writer Shuji Kimura wrote, “Loyalty doesn't mean saying ‘yes’ or ‘no,’ or extending one’s hand to the flag, or raising a hat or standing up when one hears the ‘Star Spangled Banner’; anyone can do these things. No, loyalty has to be in our hearts and in our memories; it has to be in our fiber and in our bones. Loyalty comes from having lived in America, and having lived deeply.”

In 1943, Endo and her family were once again relocated, this time to the Topaz Relocation Center in Utah. All the while, she and Purcell continued pursuing and pushing their case through several courts and delays, eventually ending up in front of the U.S. Supreme Court. Once the case reached that level, the WRA offered Endo an immediate leave permit, which allowed her to live outside of the concentration camps if she were to abandon the case completely. She refused, choosing to remain imprisoned so she could represent her fellow Japanese Americans and fight the courts for all of their freedom.

In 1944, an order from the attorney general’s office stated that the wrongfully terminated 63 Japanese American employees could have their positions back, with back pay provided for the time lost between the termination, relocation, and incarceration.

On Dec. 18, 1944 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously in favor of Endo in Ex Parte Endo, stating that the WRA did not have the right to detain loyal citizens. Beginning Jan. 2, 1945, many Japanese Americans were released as the concentration camps transitioned to close. Folks were allowed to return to their homes, but unfortunately, many still faced widespread racism and open hostility as they integrated back into their communities along the West Coast.

While waiting for her case to finish up, Endo remained at the Topaz Relocation Center until May 1945. Two weeks later, President Franklin D. Roosevelt officially ended the West Coast exclusion, allowing Endo to finally go home.

Without Endo, the United States might not have faced the hard truth about Japanese Americans’ incarceration for decades.

After her release, she moved to Chicago to live with her sister and brother-in-law. Endo became a secretary for the mayor’s committee on race relations and two years later, married Kenneth Tsutsumi, who she met while in the camps. The couple lived their remaining days in Chicago and had three children. Endo gave only one interview for a brief oral history, and was quoted in the anthology And Justice For All in 1984. Even her children did not know her role in history—only learning about it as adults. Endo died from cancer in 2006. She was posthumously inducted into the California Hall of Fame as part of the 18th class, which also happened to be all-female inductees (and also included Vicki Manalo Draves) in December 2024.

Without Endo, the United States might not have faced the hard truth about Japanese Americans’ incarceration for decades. Her legal action and fight revealed the cracks in a nation built on liberty. Endo’s defiance proved that the pursuit of justice could still hold power in the face of fear and prejudice.