Mitsuye Maureen (Endo) Tsutsumi (1920 - 2006)

Born 10 May 1920 in Sacramento, Sacramento, California, United States

Died 14 Apr 2006 at age 85 in Chicago, Cook, Illinois, United States

Biography

Mitsuye (Endo) Tsutsumi is Notable.

Mitsuye Maureen Endo was born in Sacramento, California on May 10, 1920, the daughter of Jinshiro Endo and Shima Ota, both Japanese immigrants from Hiroshima Prefecture.

Before the Pacific War, Mitsuye worked as a clerk for the California Department of Motor Vehicles in Sacramento. After the attack on Pearl harbor, she and other Nisei employees were harassed at and eventually dismissed from their jobs because they were of Japanese descent. She was eventually forcibly removed, along with her family, to the Tule Lake War Relocation Center and then to the Topaz War Relocation Center.

While incarcerated at Tule Lake, Mitsuye filed a petition arguing that detention of someone loyal to the United States was illegal. In 1944, the Supreme Court decided in the Ex parte Endo case named for her that the federal government could not detain a citizen that is "concededly loyal" to the United States.^[1]

On May 24, 1945, Mitsuye was released from internment at Topaz, and she moved to Chicago, Illinois, where she married Kenneth Tsutsumi, whom she met while incarcerated at Tule Lake. Together, they had three surviving children. She died from cancer in Chicago on April 14, 2006.^[2]

Sources

1. ↑ "Mitsuye Tsutsumi." Chicago Tribune. Accessed 3 May 2019.
2. ↑ "Mitsuye Tsutsumi." Legacy.com. Accessed 3 May 2019.

• "California Birth Index, 1905-1995," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:V25F-1SS : 27 November 2014), Mitsuye Endo, 10 May 1920; citing Sacramento, California, United States, Department of Health Services, Vital Statistics Department, Sacramento.
• "United States Japanese Americans Relocated During World War II, 1942-1946," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:KX2K-XHL : 12 December 2014), Mitsuye Endo, 1942-1946; citing Tule Lake, person number 27908A, file 406528, NARA NAID 1263921, National Archives at College Park, Maryland.
• "United States, War Relocation Authority centers, final accountability rosters, 1942-1946," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QLX5-Y5G6 : 8 February 2019), Mitsuye Endo, 23 Sep 0043; citing roster, family no. 27908, line 620, NARA microfilm publication M1865 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 2001).

See also:

• Wikipedia: Mitsuye Endo
• Wikidata: Item Q72361295, en:Wikipedia