Senator
Daniel K. Inouye was born in Honolulu, Hawaii on September 7, 1924, and
was named after a Methodist minister who had adopted his mother.
Young Dan Inouye attended Honolulu public schools and earned pocket money by parking cars at the old Honolulu Stadium and giving haircuts to fellow students. Most of his earnings were spent on a flock of homing pigeons, a postage stamp collection, parts for crystal radio sets and chemistry sets. On December 7, 1941, the fateful day of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, 17-year-old Dan Inouye was one of the first Americans to handle civilian casualties in the Pacific war. He had taken medical aid training and was pressed into service as head of a first-aid litter team. He saw a "lot of blood" and did not go home for a week. In March 1943, 18-year-old Dan Inouye, then a freshman in pre-medical studies at the University of Hawaii, enlisted in the U.S. Army's 442nd Regimental Combat Team, the famed "Go For Broke" regiment. Inouye was soon promoted to the rank of Sergeant and was designated as a combat platoon leader during the Italian campaign. He slogged through nearly three bloody months of
the Rome Arno campaign with the U.S. Fifth Army. In the fall of 1944, Inouye's unit was shifted to the French Vosges Mountains and spent two of the bloodiest weeks of the war rescuing a Texas Battalion surrounded by German forces. The rescue of "The Lost Battalion" is listed in the U.S. Army annals as one of the most significant military battles of the century. Inouye lost ten pounds, became a platoon leader and won the Bronze Star and a battlefield commission as a Second Lieutenant. Back in Italy, the 442nd was assaulting a heavily defended hill in
the closing months of the war when Lieutenant Inouye was hit in his abdomen
by a bullet which came out his back, barely missing his spine. He continued
to lead the platoon and advanced alone against a machine gun nest which
had his men pinned down. He tossed two hand grenades with devastating
effect before his right arm was shattered by a German rifle grenade
at close range. Inouye threw his last grenade with his left hand, attacked
with a submachine gun and was finally knocked down the hill by a bullet
in the leg. Dan Inouye spent 20 months in Army hospitals after losing his right arm. On May 27, 1947, he was honorably discharged and returned home as a Captain with a Distinguished Service Cross (the second highest award for military valor), Bronze Star, Purple Heart with cluster and 12 other medals and citations. His Distinguished Service Cross was recently upgraded to a Medal of Honor, the nation's highest award for military valor. He received that medal from the President of the United States on June 21, 2000. With financial assistance from the G.I. Bill, Inouye graduated from the University of Hawaii and the George Washington University Law School. Then, he returned to Hawaii and served as a Deputy Public Prosecutor for the city of Honolulu. He broke into politics in 1954 with his election to the Territorial House of Representatives. He later won election to the Territorial Senate. When Hawaii became a state on August 21, 1959, Daniel Inouye won election to the United States House of Representatives as the new state's first Congressman. He was reelected to a full term in 1960. Elected to the United States Senate in 1962, Inouye is currently serving his seventh consecutive term in the Senate. Senator Inouye has championed the interests of Hawaii's people throughout his career. In 1993, he was instrumental in engineering the restoration and return of Kahoolawe, an island that had been used as target practice by the military, to the State of Hawaii. He has also fought for improved education and health care for all children, additional jobs for Hawaii's economy, health and human services in rural communities, affordable housing, and the protection of America's natural resources. A nationally known leader and the third most senior member of the United States Senate, Senator Inouye has played a major role in shaping the defense policies of the United States. He has worked to strengthen the armed forces, and enhance the quality of life for military personnel and their families. To commemorate the third anniversary of Hawaii statehood, Congressman Leo O'Brien of New York reminisced about Senator Inouye's arrival on the national political scene. His recollection of the day Inouye took the oath of office in the House of Representatives was recorded in the Congressional Record:
On that day, a young man, just elected to Congress from the brand new state, walked into the well of the House and faced the late Speaker Sam Rayburn. The House was very still. It was about to witness the swearing in, not only of the first Congressman from Hawaii, but the first American of Japanese descent to serve in either House of Congress. "Raise your right hand and repeat after me," intoned Speaker Rayburn. The hush deepened as the young Congressman raised not his right hand but his left and he repeated the oath of office. There was no right hand, Mr. Speaker. It had been lost in combat by that young American soldier in World War II. Who can deny that, at that moment, a ton of prejudice slipped quietly to the floor of the House of Representatives. HighlightsThe Early Years
Political Career
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