Daniel K. Inouye, the third most senior member of the U.S. Senate, is known for his distinguished record as a legislative leader, and as a World War II combat veteran who earned the nation's highest award for military valor, the Medal of Honor.
Although he was thrust into the limelight in the 1970s as a member of the Watergate Committee and in 1987 as Chairman of the Iran-Contra Committee, he has also quietly made his mark as a respected legislator able to work in a bipartisan fashion to enact meaningful legislation.
As Chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee and of the Senate Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, Senator Inouye has been able to focus on defense matters that strengthen national security, and enhance the quality of life for military personnel and their families. This reflects his hope for a more secure world, and his desire to provide the best possible assistance to the men and women who put their lives at risk to protect the United States.
Senator Inouye has also championed the interests of Hawaii's people throughout his career. He was instrumental in engineering the restoration and return of Kahoolawe, the island that had been used for target practice by the U.S. military, to the State of Hawaii. He continues to press for the passage of legislation that would establish a process by which Hawaii's indigenous people would be able to form their own sovereign government.
Senator Inouye also continues to push for improved education and healthcare for all children, additional jobs for Hawaii's economy, health and human services in rural communities, affordable housing, and the protection of the nation's natural resources. He was instrumental in setting the groundwork for the National Park Service's acquisition of approximately 115,000 acres of the Kahuku Ranch in Kau to expand the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. The initiative is key to protecting rare and endangered bird and mammal species found in the varied habitats of Kahuku Ranch.
As a member of the Senate Commerce Committee, which he previously chaired, Senator Inouye has been able to address important issues, such as aviation and maritime transportation, that are crucial for Hawaii, given its location in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Hawaii is unable to depend on freight trucks and trains the way mainland states can, Senator Inouye notes.
Senator Inouye was first elected to the U.S. Senate in 1962 and is now serving his eighth consecutive term. When Hawaii became a state in 1959, he was elected the first Congressman from the new state, and was re-elected to a full term in 1960.
On May 24, 2008, Senator Inouye married Irene Hirano, who was President and Chief Executive Officer of the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles. He was married for nearly 57 years to Margaret Awamura Inouye, a former instructor at the University of Hawaii, who passed away on March 13, 2006. He has a grown son, Ken Inouye, from his first marriage.
The son of Japanese immigrants, Dan Inouye was born and raised in Honolulu. Exactly three months after he had celebrated his 17th birthday, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Young Dan Inouye, who had medical aid training, rushed into service as the head of a first-aid litter team for his Honolulu neighborhood. He saw a "lot of blood." He 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 and long eager to join the U.S. war effort, enlisted in the U.S. Army's 442nd Regimental Combat Team, the famed "Go for Broke" regiment of soldiers of Japanese ancestry.
Inouye was soon promoted to the rank of Sergeant, and was designated 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 U.S. Army annals as one of the most significant military battles of the century. Inouye lost 10 pounds, became a platoon leader, and was awarded the Bronze Star and a battlefield commission as a Second Lieutenant, as he and other Japanese-Americans continued to fight with unmatched courage that would eventually result with the 442nd being the most decorated unit in U.S. military history for its size and length of service.
Back in Italy as the war was drawing to a close, Inouye displayed "extraordinary heroism" on April 21, 1945, near San Terenzo as he led his platoon through "formidable resistance" to capture a key ridge. His Medal of Honor Citation states in part: "With complete disregard for his personal safety, Second Lieutenant Inouye crawled up the treacherous slope to within five yards of the nearest machine gun and hurled two grenades, destroying the emplacement. Before the enemy could retaliate, he stood up and neutralized a second machine gun nest. Although wounded by a sniper's bullet, he continued to engage other hostile positions at close range until an exploding grenade shattered his right arm. Despite the intense pain, he refused evacuation and continued to direct his platoon until enemy resistance was broken and his men were again deployed in defensive positions."
After losing his right arm, Dan Inouye spent 20 months in an Army hospital in Battle Creek, Michigan. On May 27, 1947, he was honorably discharged with the rank of Captain, and returned home with a Distinguished Service Cross, the nation's second highest award for military valor, along with a Bronze Star, Purple Heart with cluster, and 12 other medals and citations.
His Distinguished Service Cross was upgraded to the Medal of Honor, and that medal was presented to him by the President of the United States on June 21, 2000.
"Please remember that the story of my experiences during World War II is – by itself – not important," Senator Inouye wrote in 2003 to a girl who had visited him in his Washington office. "Much more significant are the values that the 442nd Regimental Combat Team and other segregated units represented: that patriotism and love of our great country are not limited to any ethnic group, and wartime hysteria must never again lead us to trample on our democratic principles."
With financial assistance from the G.I. Bill, Inouye graduated from the University of Hawaii and the George Washington University Law School. Returning to Hawaii from Washington, Inouye served as a Deputy Public Prosecutor for the City of Honolulu. He broke into politics in 1954 during the "Democratic revolution" with his election to the Hawaii Territorial House of Representatives. In 1958, he was elected to the Territorial Senate. A year later, Dan Inouye was elected to the U.S. House.
In 1962, then-Congressman Leo O'Brien of New York commemorated the third anniversary of Hawaii's admission to the Union by reminiscing about Dan Inouye's arrival on the national political scene. His recollection of the day Dan Inouye took the oath of office in the U.S. House was recorded in the Congressional Record:
"Tuesday last was the third anniversary of the admission of Hawaii. Today is the third anniversary of one of the most dramatic and moving scenes ever to occur in this House. 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."
Updated March 27, 2009.
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