Daniel Inouye served for a combined 53 years in the House and Senate for the state of Hawaii, becoming the first Senator of Japanese descent. A proud war veteran and energetic legislator, Inouye embraced Members of Congress from across the aisle and won admiration from all parties for his unwavering integrity.
Inouye was born on September 7, 1924, in Honolulu, Hawaii. At age 17, Inouye worked for the Red Cross to train to become a surgeon. When he turned 18, Inouye tried to enlist in the military, but was denied entry because of his race. “Here I was, though I was a citizen of the United States, I was declared to be an enemy alien and as a result not fit to put on the uniform of the United States,” Inouye recalled. After petitioning the government to reverse its decision, Inouye volunteered again and joined the Army as a private, entering the fabled 442nd Regimental Combat Team. While serving the military, Inouye lost his right arm, but later earned the Medal of Honor.
After Hawaii achieved statehood in 1959, Inouye was elected its first Congressman. He continuously represented Hawaii for 53 years, both as a Representative and a Senator. He was the first Japanese American elected to both the House and Senate. Because of his reputation for bipartisanship and ethical courage, Inouye was called to serve as the first Chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Member of the Senate Watergate committee, and Chair of the Iran-Contra Investigative Committee.
Throughout his career, Inouye championed the interests of Hawaii’s people and worked to strengthen Hawaii’s infrastructure, diversify its economy, and protect its natural resources. He advocated for the rights of Native Hawaiians, Native Americans, Alaska Natives, and sought equal justice for Japanese Americans and Filipino World War II veterans.
His advocacy for minority rights extended to the inner workings of government. In his first speech, he supported the use of filibusters, a custom which allows a minority voice to be heard in the Senate. In this speech, he said, “I am a member of a minority, in a sense few other Senators have ever been. I understand the hopelessness that a man of unusual color or feature experiences in the face of constant human injustice. I understand the despair of a human heart crying for comfort to a world it cannot become a part of, and to a family of man that has disinherited him. For this reason, I have done and will continue to do all that one man can do to secure for these people the opportunity and the justice that they do not now have.”
Inouye died on December 17, 2012. When the Senate met on December 18, Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont stood and gestured to Inouye’s empty desk, noting, “Today is the first day since Hawaii became a state that it is not represented by Dan Inouye.” Congress made arrangements to allow Inouye to lay in State, beneath the Capitol Rotunda, an honor granted only to the nation’s most prominent government officials.
On November 20, 2013, President Barack Obama posthumously awarded Inouye the Presidential Medal of Freedom. “[Senator Inouye] taught all of us that no matter what you look like or where you come from,” Obama observed, “this country has a place for everybody who’s willing to serve and work hard.”
