Ex parte Endo (1944)

Mitsuye Endo was represented by James C. Purcell, an attorney who visited the Tanforan Assembly Center (an internment camp on the West Coast) after agreeing to represent a number of Japanese American civil service employees who had been fired by the state of California.  Purcell, whose father had been a prison guard at Folsom Prison, was shocked to discover the conditions in the assembly centers were worse than in prison.

I was unable to distinguish this "relocation center" at Tanforan from the prison except that the walls were barbed wire fences; more frequent gun towers; more difficulty of entering to see a client; and the convicts were better housed than my American citizen clients who were not accused of any crime.

For example, the couple I went to see, with their three children, were occupying a stall which had formerly housed only one horse.  The cracks in the beams of the floor were at least one quarter inch wide.  The stall had been whitewashed in some places over patches of manure.

Purcell left his visit motivated to seek the release of Japanese Americans.  Anticipating that a case challenging the firings of state employees on the basis of race would be dismissed, Purcell reached out to his civil service employee clients to pursue a habeas corpus lawsuit.  Purcell felt that a habeas corpus case challenging the constitutionality of interning loyal citizens without providing due process would be more successful than a criminal case challenging the race-based restrictions created by the military.  Purcell chose Mitsuye Endo because of her background:

1.    She did not speak Japanese;

2.    While growing up, her family had never subscribed to a Japanese language paper;

3.    She had never attended a Japanese language school;

4.    She was not Buddhist or a member of the Shinto religion; she was a Methodist

5.    She had a brother in the United States Army in the Pacific theater actively engaging the enemy.

As you read, consider how the case may have been different had the alternate argument been made.

Purcell's full letter recounting his experience can be found here: Resource 6.10.1 | Asian Americans and U.S. Law | H2O (opencasebook.org)