United States, in which American citizen Fred Korematsu refused to leave the West Coast following President Roosevelt's executive order and was subsequently convicted of disobeying a military order. To underscore her point, Tyler refers to the Supreme Court's decision last year to overturn the 1944 ruling in the case of Korematsu v. The day after making that announcement, the Supreme Court handed down its decision in Ex parte Endo."
After the 1944 election and upon purportedly being tipped off that the Supreme Court was going to decide in favor of Endo's claim that she could not be detained in the camps as a concededly loyal citizen, the administration changed course and proclaimed that it would begin closing the camps. "In the lead up to the decision coming down, President Roosevelt had resisted pressure from advisers to close the camps. "Endo's case is not so significant for the precedent that it set, because it was decided very narrowly on non-constitutional grounds, but it is instead enormously significant for being the driving force behind the closing of the Japanese-American internment camps," she says. Purcell as 'the man who set us free.'"Īccording to Tyler, the case has left more of a cultural legacy than a legal one. "I have heard many survivors of the camps refer to Mr. "He recognized the serious constitutional problems with what the government was doing and he felt compelled to use his skills to give a voice to a community that was unfairly targeted and unconstitutionally treated during the war," she says. When it eventually reached the Supreme Court in April 1944, the Court unanimously ruled in favor of Endo, stating that "the government cannot detain a citizen without charge when the government itself concedes she is loyal to the United States." While Endo's unwavering commitment to the larger cause was certainly central to the eventual outcome, Tyler credits Purcell for his tireless efforts. In her early 20s, Endo worked as a secretary for the state's Department of Employment.Įndo remained in confinement for months as her case progressed. Born in Sacramento, California, in 1920, Endo was one of four children born to Japanese immigrants. Case in point: the incarceration of Mitsuye Endo. citizens over just a four-year period.Īnd while ICE-related incidents have made headlines in our post-9/11 society, the issue at heart has recurred throughout the country's history. The same article cited a 2013 Syracuse University study that determined ICE had placed detainers on 834 U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) held him for deportation to Jamaica. In late 2018, for example, The Washington Post reported on the story of Peter Sean Brown, a Philadelphia-born citizen who says U.S. It's an unthinkable scenario, but it's happened time and time again: People born in the United States are treated as national security threats. government to hold Japanese citizens in internment camps. Mitsuye Endo participated in a landmark Supreme Court case challenging the right of the U.S.
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