Description | Mitsuye Endo was the lead plaintiff in a Supreme Court case that successfully challenged mass internment of American citizens during World War II. Born in Sacramento, California in 1920, she worked as a typist for the California Department of Motor Vehicles when she and her family were forced to evacuate. They were placed at the Tule Lake Relocation Center in Newell, California and later at the Central Utah Relocation Center in Topaz, Utah. After winning the court case at the Supreme Court, Endo and her family relocated to Chicago, Illinois. In 1946, she married Kenneth Tsutsumi (they had met while detained in Utah), and they had three children. Endo died of cancer in 2006, at age 85. Obituary at the New York Times |