Mitsuye Endo

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Born in Sacramento, California, Mitsuye Endo was the second of four children of immigrants from Japan. After graduating from high school, she became a secretery with the California Department of Employment, but, along with all other Japanese American state employees, she was dismissed from her job after the attack on Pearl Harbor. The first time Endo challenged government actions in court, she was one of the 63 employees who challenged these firings with the help of the Japanese American Citizens League. 

That first case still pending, Endo was incarcerated with her family at the Tule Lake California concentration camp for Japanese Americans. It was through her participation in that first case that James Purcell, that case's lawyer, identified Endo as an ideal candidate for a habeas corpus petition challenging her incarceration. Endo's brother was serving in the military at this time, and Endo was an ideal plaintiff as a Christian who had never been to Japan. 

Purcell filed the petition on July 12, 1942. Many years later, Endo told John Tateishi that she "agreed to do it at that moment, because they said it's for the good of everybody, and so I said, well if that's it, I'll go ahead and do it."

Ultimately, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Endo's favor in December 1944, leading to the release of Japanese Americans and allowance of their return to the West Coast.  

While waiting for the case to go through the courts, Endo had to remain incarcerated so that her suit would not be rendered moot. She was transfered to the Topaz camp in Utah and remained there until May 1945. She moved to Chicago and became a secretery for the Mayor's Committee on Race Relations. She married Kenneth Tsutsum, whom she had met in camp, and had three children, ultimately passing away from cancer in 2006.

Although Endo did not serve in the military, her participation in the habeas corpus case was made possible, in part, because of her brother's service. Endo quietly served on behalf of her people's civil rights.