Short Stuff: Mitsuye Endo

In today's short stuff, we look at another amazing woman who has all but been ignored by history. The story of Mitsuye Endo. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Hey, and welcome to short stuff. I'm Josh, and there's
Chuck and there's Jerry over there. So this short stuff
because it's shorter, that's right. And this is one of
my favorite kinds of short stuff, kind of tailor made
for a short stuff when you have a little bit
of information about a great person in history who never
got their due, but there's not a lot much more

(00:26):
known about them, right, so you can talk about her
in this case and twelve minutes or so her and him. Yeah, good,
it'll be thirteen minutes. That's right. And this is the
story on the her part of mitsu yi Indo. Nicely done,
I think so. I'm pretty sure too, Okay. Mitsu Yi

(00:47):
Endo was born in Sacramento. Wait where was she born Sacramento, California?
Which is an important point here, Chuck, because from being
born in Sacramento, California, in he was an American citizen,
natural born. That's right. She was one of four kids
to Japanese immigrants. Um, and got a job working for

(01:09):
the government. She was went to secretary school and then
worked as a secretary for the Department of Employment. Full
blooded born American working for the state government. Right, um,
and she was working for the state government in December
of nineteen one when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, and
the sentiment towards the Japanese in America turned sharply at

(01:33):
that point, um so much so that I believe the
next year UM, the President at the time, Franklin Delano Roosevelt,
issued an executive order called Executive Order nine oh six six,
which we have recorded on before. That's right, we did
a whole episode on this. But Executive Order nine oh

(01:54):
six six basically said, anyone of Italian American, German American
or Japanese American ancestry is basically fair game to have
their constitutional and civil rights utterly stripped from them during
this crisis of wartime, just because we're not sure if

(02:14):
they might do something hinky to disrupt America's wartime effort. Right. So,
within just a few months of December seventh, nineteen UM,
the United States dismissed all Japanese American state employees, which
included Mitsui Indo. UM. Hundreds of people affected, and sixty

(02:36):
three of those people were brave enough to get together
and challenge the firings, and they had a little backing
by the Japanese American Citizens League, and they got together
and they hired a very cool dude uh an attorney
named James C. Purcell, Yeah, who was not at all Japanese,
had no Japanese ancestry, and him whatsoever. He just saw

(02:58):
that this was not right. He saw something that wasn't right,
and he decided to take on this case. Um. And
so the being summarily fired because you are of Japanese ancestry,
not a Japanese immigrant, but like an American born person
of Japanese ancestry. That's bad enough. But under this executive order,

(03:20):
in this kind of wartime hysteria, things got way worse
for Japanese Americans, especially ones on the West Coast, because
part of this executive order was basically like, hey, military,
do what you need to do. In the military said, well,
we figured we should probably clear the West coast of
anybody like that. We're going to forcibly remove Japanese Americans

(03:41):
from their homes and eventually into internment camps. And that's
the episode we did. Yeah, Japanese in tournament. It was
a good one. So they're basically incarcerated. Um, she and
her family, And we should point out that her brother
was serving in the U. S. Army. That's a huge point.
It is huge point. Um. Her family was moved. She

(04:03):
was moved a couple of times. They were at Tuley
Lake at one point, which is a very famous uh
internment camp that I think is still around as like
a living museum. Um. But at what eventually she was
separated from her family. They started by trying to keep
families together, and then they just stopped doing that and
people like mitsui Endo ended up being separated from her family,

(04:26):
forced into a prison. It was a detainment detention center.
If that sounds familiar, Yeah, exactly. Um. So Purcel's on
the case. He's uh gotta be in his bonnet to
help these people out, and he's trying to build a case.
And what he needs is to find somebody, just one
person who will step forward and who was brave enough

(04:47):
to challenge their incarceration through habeas corpus petition, which is
to say that basically, hey, I shouldn't be um incarcerated
and I officially legally challenging my incarceration, right it means
bring me the body. It's part of the magna carta
I think, where it's basically says, bring the prisoner to me,

(05:09):
the judge, and let me decide if they're being held
illegally or not. We did an episode on that too,
if I'm not mistaken. Yeah, we definitely did something at
some point on habeas corpus so. So mitsu Endo was
a perfect test case or challenge case for this to
pur sell because she um, she was a Methodist, she
was a citizen and natural born citizen of the US,

(05:31):
her brother was in the army, and she'd never even
been to Japan in her entire life. But there's a
big part of this, like, despite her just perfect um presentation,
for a case like this, you have to convince her too.
And part of Japanese culture is you don't stand out,
number one. You certainly don't stand out by making trouble

(05:54):
for the authorities. So it was extraordinarily brave when she
finally agreed to be the case for all Japanese Americans
who are being unconstitutionally treated by the US. Yeah, and
that that was what did it. When he said, hey, listen,
this is not for you, this is for everyone, and um,
still slightly reluctant, she agreed and saw the bigger picture. Uh,

(06:16):
and we're going to talk about the rest of our
story and Purcell's right after this. M okay, chuck so

(06:38):
um Mitsu yi Endo has agreed to have her case
taken by Purcell on to basically challenge all of Executive
Order nine oh six six in the constitutionality of it, right,
And I think in pretty short order this case, um
was people in government knew what was going on on
the federal level, and they found out who she was

(07:01):
and what her story was, and I think early on
they were kind of like, oh, yeah, this probably doesn't
look good for us. Wait, she's a methodist. Oh god, uh,
this doesn't look great for us. So you know what,
let her out. Um, she'll be fine, and just just
let her out because she I think we probably did
the wrong thing here. But she said no, and I

(07:23):
guess also at Purcell's urging, she stayed and turned um
and said, this is a societal issue. There's something much
larger at play, and I want to I want to
carry this like all the way to the top in
the court system. Yeah, because the government said if you
just drop this and go away, we'll let you out specifically,

(07:44):
and she said, nope, that's pretty pretty cool. Man. Yeah,
so um, she said no, and they kept uh, they
kept um the case up all the way to the
Supreme Court. Supreme Court heard it and just ruled unanimously
that no, this is totally unconstitutional. What's happened to her? Um,
It wasn't so much that the Supreme Court case that um,

(08:05):
their decision in the end O case, that it closed
the Japanese Internament camps, Japanese American Internament camps. That wasn't
the what happened. What happened was it produced the pressure
that convinced Roosevelt to shut down the Internament camps. Yeah,
this is fairly cowardly, I think. Um. In the end,

(08:27):
they did the quote unquote right thing. But it was
only because this was looming. Apparently there was inside word
and they got tipped off that like, hey, the Supreme
Court is gonna come down against you, Roosevelt basically. Uh.
And so the day after I'm sorry, the day before
the Supreme Court handed down their decision, Um, Roosevelt came

(08:49):
out and they said, oh, you know what, we're we're
just gonna end this Internament thing right here, right. And
then the next day the Supreme Court made like made
public their decision and end which was Yeah, cowardly, I
think it's a pretty good word about it. But there's
no way of getting around that. It was the end
O case that was the pressure that closed the internment camps,

(09:10):
and so much so that, Um, there's a law professor
named Amanda Tyler who's an expert on the case. She
said that, Um, she's interviewed survivors of the Japanese internment
camp Japanese American internment camp. Sorry, um, who considered Purcell
as they refer to him as the man who set
us free? Pretty amazing. It is pretty amazing. And Endo
herself is very much regarded as a hero from this too.

(09:35):
But she kept such a low profile that she um,
her own daughter didn't even know the impact that she'd
had until her daughter was well into her twenties. Yeah.
She eventually made her way to Chicago, Um, after all
this washed over. She worked as a secretary for the
Mayor's Committee on Race Relations. A couple of years after that,
married a man named Kenneth Sutsumi, and she had met

(09:57):
him in an internment camp. Like tell me this is
in a movie waiting to be made. They went on
to have three kids and she kept a pretty low
profile after that. Like you said, UM was not a braggart, Um,
but it was. It was a big deal. And I
think as like this has come out more in recent years. UM,
she's definitely like gotten her due in certain corners. I

(10:21):
wish the story was out wider. That's one reason we're
doing this. But she lived in Chicago for the rest
of her life. Eventually, very sadly died of cancer in
two thousand and six, and so Shell kept practicing law
right into his eighties. As a matter of fact. Yeah,
that's great. UM. So this is this is noteworthy still today.
Is that UM law Professor man of Tyler points out

(10:43):
because there's an ongoing debate over whether the executive, the
president and the executive branch has ultimately absolute power when
it comes to matters of national security, especially during wartime UM,
or if the courts still have of a check as
the Constitution suggests that they do, over the executive's actions

(11:05):
no matter what it is or no matter what the
situation is, that the executive can't be absolutely right, no
matter what and unquestioned by the court. Yes, And I
think by constitution suggest you mean the Constitution clearly lays
out in demands right, Well, it depends on your interpretation, right,
So I guess that's it for short Stuff again, Chuck,

(11:28):
nice selection. I think mitsuji Endo needs a parade every
year and her honor agreed. Thanks a lot for joining us.
Hope you enjoyed it. Until next time, Short Stuff Audios
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(11:51):
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