The Honorable Joseph R. Biden President of the United States The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20500

Re: Presidential Medal of Freedom Nomination. Mitsuye Endo Tsutsumi

Dear Mr. President,

The Presidential Medal of Freedom is our nation’s highest civilian honor. Only 647 people have been recognized since it was established in 1963 by President John F. Kennedy. It celebrates the best of us and signifies that any one of us can change our country or the world for the better.

My father, Fred T. Korematsu, received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Bill Clinton in 1998. Other civil rights heroes who stood up in the face of injustice during the Japanese American Incarceration, Gordon Hirabayashi and Minoru Yasui, were awarded Medals posthumously by President Barack Obama in 2012 and 2015 respectively. They were honored for standing up for what is right in the face of gross injustice in response to Executive Order 9066. While their cases were not successful at the U.S. Supreme Court, they were overturned by a writ of coram nobis in 1983. During World War II, there were four cases that challenged the legality of the Japanese American Incarceration. The one name that is missing from this impressive roster of names, is the name of the one plaintiff that was successful: Mitsuye Endo Tsutsumi.

Mitsuye was the daughter of Japanese immigrants living in California. In the wake of the attack on Pearl Harbor, she, like many other Japanese Americans lost her job. At 22 years old, Mitsuye objected to her dismissal and challenged the incarceration orders that followed through a writ of habeas corpus petition, Ex parte Endo. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in her favor on December 18, 1944, however, in an attempt to scuttle her victory, the U.S. Army issued a Public Proclamation the day before announcing the closing of the incarceration camps. She fought the inequality of Executive Order 9066, remaining incarcerated the entire time, turning down offers of freedom to drop her case. Mitsuye rarely spoke about her pivotal role in history. But she was a changemaker who is an inspiration for all Americans to tell our stories and speak out against racism, xenophobia, and other unwarranted discrimination.

As part of her legacy, we can hope for a future where we never allow the same fear and ignorance to grab hold of our decision-makers to repeat the same terrible, xenophobic mistake without an uproar in opposition. This year is the 80th anniversary of both my father’s case, Korematsu v. U.S. and Ex parte Endo. She refused to be coerced to give up her landmark case. She demonstrated the courage to keep up the fight.

At a time when we see women’s rights and civil rights being rolled back, we need to stand up for women. The time to stand up for Misuye giving voice to thousands of innocent Japanese Americans unjustly incarcerated during World War II is now. The Fred T. Korematsu Institute hopes Mitsuye Endo Tsutsumi will join the ranks of 647 recipients as a hero of our U.S. Constitution, for honoring the rule of law, and for standing up for what is right with a posthumous Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Sincerely,

Dr. Karen Korematsu
Founder and President 
Fred T. Korematsu Institute