Welcome to brain Stuff production of iHeart Radio. Hey brain Stuff, Lauren vog Obam here. It should be an unthinkable scenario, but it's happened time and time again. People born in the United States are treated as national security threats because of their families countries of origin. In late for example, the Washington Post reported on the story of Peter Sewan Brown, Philadelphia born citizen who says US Immigration and Customs Enforcement
or ICE, held him for deportation to Jamaica. The same article cited Syracuse University study the determined ICE had placed detainers on eight hundred and thirty four U S citizens over just a four year period. And while ICE related incidents have made lots of headlines in our post nine eleven society, the issue has occurred throughout our country's history. Case in point the incarceration of Mizzier Endo born in Sacramento, California, in Endo was one of four children born to her
parents who were Japanese immigrants. In her early twenties, Endo worked as secretary for the state's Department of Employment, but life as Japanese Americans knew it changed dramatically. On December seventh of nineteen forty one, the day Japan attacked Pearl Harbor. Within a few months, the U S had dismissed all Japanese American state employees, including Endo. Of the hundreds of employees affected, sixty three banded together to challenge the firings.
Backed by the Japanese American Citizens League, Endo and her peers hired attorney James C. Purcell to defend their rights. But fighting against the prevailing authoritative rule wasn't easy, and as Purcell took on the case, circumstances continued to worsen for Japanese Americans. At the order of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, more than a hundred and twenty thousand Japanese Americans were
forcibly relocated and incarcerated. Along with her family, Endo was sent first to the Sacramento Assembly Center and then to the Tulei Lake, California Internment Camp. We spoke with the University of California Berkeley School of Law professor Amanda L. Tyler. She's written extensively about Purcell and Endo, both in her book Happiest Corpus in Wartime From the Tower of London to Guantanamo Bay and in the sixteen op ed for the Sacramento b titled Unsung World War Two Hero Deserves
the Medal of Freedom. Tyler said, ms Endo was summarily fired from her job as a California State employee, forced to leave her home, sent two different internment camps, eventually separated from her parents, and all the while her brother was serving in the United States military. Roosevelt's extreme measure was Executive Order nine zero six six, a World War Two policy that prescribed quote regulations for the conduct and
control of alien enemies. As Purcell built a case against the government's actions, he began searching for a plaintiff to challenge the incarceration through a habeas corpus petition dating back to twelve fifteen. Abas corpus as a court order that empowers individuals and or those representing them to dispute the legality of their imprisonment. Purcell decided Endo was an ideal candidate, and not only was she a Methodist citizen with a brother in the U. S. Army, but should never even
been to Japan. While she initially hesitated to act as plaintiff, Endo eventually agreed and Priscell filed the petition on July twelfth in San Francisco Federal District Court. Tyler explained, during the course of her case, the government realized that it posed a serious challenge to all the policies directed at persons of Japanese ancestry that the military instituted under the auspices of Executive Order nine zero six six. So the government offered her release in order to make her case
effectively go away. She resisted, in her later words, because quote the fact that I wanted to prove that we of Japanese ancestry were not guilty of any crime and that we were loyal American citizens kept me from abandoning the suit. Endo remained in confinement from as her case progressed.
When it eventually reached the Supreme Court in April of nineteen forty four, the court unanimously ruled in favor of Endo, stating that quote, the government cannot detain a citizen without charge when the government itself concedes she is loyal to
the United States. While Endo's on wavering commitment to the larger cause was certainly central to the eventual outcome, Tyler credits Percell for his tireless efforts quote 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. I've heard many survivors of the camps refer to Mr Purcell as the man who set
us free. According to Tyler, the case is left more of a cultural legacy than a legal one. She said, Endo's case is not so significant for the precedent it's set because it was decided very narrowly on non constitutional grounds, but it is instead enormously significant. Were being the driving force behind the closing of the Japanese American internment camps.
In the lead up to the decision coming down, President Roosevelt had resisted pressure from advisors to close the camps after the election, and upon purportedly being tipped off that the Supreme Court was going to decide in favor of and does claim that she could not be detained in the camps as a conceitedly loyal citizen, the administration changed course and proclaimed that it would begin closing the camps.
The day after making that announcement, the Supreme Court handed down its decision, and there are larger effects of the case that still influence legal proceedings today. Tyler referred to the ongoing argument over whether the judiciary branch of government of the Supreme Court and other federal courts should yield all decisions about national security to the executive branch the president,
vice president, and cabinet. She said, the larger relevance of all the Japanese American cases that went before the Supreme Court during World War Two, to my mind, is that they show how dangerous deference to the executive in wartime can be USA today, op ed. Tyler referred to Japanese American internment as a cautionary tale for President Trump's proposed
travel ban. Quote. This connects to modern day because it means that the Court should be hesitant to defer to the executive with respect the assertations about the needs of
national security as a blanket matter. To underscore her point, Tyler refers to the Supreme Court's decision last year to overturn the nineteen forty four ruling in the case of Kurimatsu versus the United States, in which American citizen Fred Karmatsu refused to leave the West Coast following President Roosevelt's executive order and was subsequently convicted of disobeying a military order.
While the ruling was technically overruled in dicta A, meaning it may hold more symbolic value than actuabal impact, Tyler
says it's still a meaningful move. She said, had the court in Karnamatsu, among other cases, actually asked to see a factual basis supporting the need for the policies that were put in place by the military under Executive Order nine zero six six, the government could not have provided any evidence this fact and the court's recent overruling of Kamatsu, albeit NDICTA, should give pause to any court inclined to take the executive at its word when individual rights are
at stake. While the US continues to face complex issues around national security, immigration, citizenship, and ingrained institutional prejudices, many continue to look to Endo and Purcell as trailblazers Following the landmark case. Purcell went on to work on a number of Japanese immigration lawsuits and practiced law into his eighties, and although Endo kept a low profile for the remainder of her life, apparently her own daughter didn't know about
Endo's historic impact until she was in her twenties. She continues to be an important figure in the continued fight for fair and equal rights. Today's episode was written by Michel Konstantinovski and produced by Tyler Clong. For more in this and lots of other topics, is it how stuff works dot com. Brain Stuff is production of I Heart Radio more podcasts, My heart Radio, visit the heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.