He Knew What Prison Looked Like. This Was Worse.
July 13, 1942: attorney James C. Purcell filed a writ of habeas corpus on behalf of Mitsuye Endo.
James C. Purcell had grown up around incarceration. His father had been a guard at Folsom Prison, one of California’s most notorious penitentiaries. Purcell knew what prison cells looked like. He knew what “confinement” meant.
But when he visited the Tanforan Assembly Center in the spring of 1942, what he saw shocked him. Japanese Americans were being housed in horse stalls. Families crammed into quarters still reeking of manure. Armed soldiers patrolled from towers. The atmosphere was suffocating, humiliating.
At the time, Purcell was a young attorney in Sacramento working for the California State Personnel Board. Like many civil servants, he had followed the government’s new exclusion orders, and he had seen the ripple effects firsthand: Japanese American state employees were being fired en masse, often without any due process.
One of those employees was Mitsuye Endo, a quiet, efficient Nisei typist. She had never so much as received a traffic ticket. Her loyalty to the U.S. was unquestioned. Her only “crime” was her ancestry.
Unlike many who chose not to challenge their removal, Endo quietly agreed to become the test case. Purcell filed her habeas corpus petition on July 13, 1942, arguing that her detention was unconstitutional. It would take more than two years before the Supreme Court would rule on Ex parte Endo, but when it did, it struck a blow to the heart of mass incarceration.
The Court ruled unanimously: The U.S. government could not detain loyal citizens without cause. Just one day before that ruling was announced, the War Department quietly issued orders to begin closing the camps.
To this day, Mitsuye Endo remains one of the most important but least-known figures in the fight for civil liberties in America. But Purcell’s work didn’t stop there.
He also partnered with attorney A.L. Wirin to submit an amicus brief on behalf of the Japanese American Citizens League in Oyama v. California, a challenge to the state’s Alien Land Law. In 1950, he represented the family of JACL leader Mike Masaoka in a key lawsuit contesting California’s lingering ban on Issei land ownership. After that victory, Purcell helped numerous Issei verify their ownership of land and prevent local authorities from seizing property based on ignorance of the ruling.
Decades later, Purcell quietly advised California State Assemblymember Patrick Johnston, who introduced legislation that ultimately passed in 1982. The law provided $5,000 in compensation to 314 surviving Japanese Americans who had been wrongfully fired from California state jobs during WWII.
Purcell continued practicing law into his 80s, representing unions, political leaders, and businesses. He passed away at the age of 84, having spent most of his life using the law to protect civil liberties.
Perhaps history changed the moment he stepped into Tanforan — a living condition much worse than convicts.