[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 188 (Wednesday, December 18, 2024)]
[Senate]
[Page S7175]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   REMEMBERING MITSUYE ENDO TSUTSUMI

  Ms. HIRONO. Madam President, today I rise to honor the late Mitsuye 
Endo Tsutsumi on the 80th anniversary of the historic Supreme Court 
decision in her case Ex parte Endo for her courageous contributions to 
civil rights.
  Mitsuye Endo was born on May 10, 1920, in Sacramento, CA. After 
graduating from Sacramento Senior High School, she attended secretarial 
school and began a clerical job with the California Department of 
Employment. Following the attack on Pearl Harbor, Ms. Endo was fired 
from her State civil service job due to her race. She joined a lawsuit 
challenging California's wrongful termination of civil servants with 
Japanese ancestry, beginning her fight against the unjust treatment of 
Japanese Americans during World War II.
  After Executive Order 9066 was signed by President Franklin D. 
Roosevelt, Mitsuye Endo and over 120,000 other Japanese Americans were 
forcibly removed and incarcerated in desolate camps in the interior of 
the country. They were incarcerated behind barbed wire and armed guards 
under the pretense that they posed a threat to national security on the 
basis of their race. Ms. Endo and her family were incarcerated for 3 
years, first at Tule Lake, CA, and later at Topaz, UT, both 
euphemistically referred to as ``Relocation Centers.''
  Mitsuye Endo stood up for what she knew was right and filed a lawsuit 
challenging her incarceration in July 1942. While her case was pending 
in the Supreme Court, the government offered her an immediate leave 
permit, which would have resulted in the dismissal of her lawsuit. She 
refused to accept the permit, even though it meant she had to remain 
incarcerated for over 1 more year. She stated, ``The fact that I wanted 
to prove that we of Japanese ancestry were not guilty of any crime, 
that we were loyal American citizens, kept me from abandoning the 
suit.''
  On December 18, 1944--80 years ago, today--the Supreme Court 
unanimously ruled in Mitsuye Endo's favor, holding that ``concededly 
loyal'' Japanese Americans could not be imprisoned without cause. Ms. 
Endo's case played a crucial role in ending incarceration; news of the 
Court's pending decision prompted President Roosevelt to announce the 
closure of the camps just 1 day before the Court's decision.
  Even after her passing in 2006, Mitsuye Endo Tsutsumi's legacy of 
courage and integrity lives on in the thriving Japanese American 
communities across the country.
  Thank you, Mitsuye Endo Tsutsumi, for your contributions to this 
Nation.

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