H former members 1957–1992 H Daniel K. Inouye 1924–2012 UNITED STATES REPRESENTATIVE 1959–1963 UNITED STATES SENATOR 1963–2012 DEMOCRAT FROM HAWAII hen Daniel K. Inouye first took his seat in interest in politics.” He rushed to aid the wounded during the U.S. House of Representatives in 1959, the devastating attack on Pearl Harbor. Upon turning 18, Speaker Sam Rayburn of Texas took quick Inouye applied to enlist in the military but was denied stockW of the young legislator. “You’ll soon be the second entry because of his race. The U.S. government classified most widely recognized member in the Congress,” mused nisei (American-born children of Japanese immigrants) the Speaker, who embodied the institution for so many unfit for service. “Here I was, though I was a citizen of the Americans. “We don’t have too many one-armed, Japanese United States, I was declared to be an enemy alien and as a Congressmen here.”1 Indeed, Inouye left an indelible mark result not fit to put on the uniform of the United States,” on Hawaiian politics and on the U.S. Congress, where he Inouye recalled.6 served for a combined 53 years in the House and Senate, After petitioning the government to reverse its decision, serving with 412 Senators during his long tenure in that Inouye volunteered again in 1943 and joined the Army as chamber. A proud war veteran and energetic legislator, a private, entering the fabled 442nd Regimental Combat Inouye battled for party leadership and embraced Members Team. Composed primarily of Japanese-American soldiers, of Congress from across the aisle. On November 20, 2013, the 442nd served with distinction in the French and Italian President Barack Obama posthumously awarded Inouye campaigns during World War II, and the unit famously the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Senator Inouye “taught rescued the “Lost Battalion” of Texans behind enemy lines all of us that no matter what you look like or where you in France. Inouye later lost his right arm in a return sweep come from,” Obama observed, “this country has a place for through Italy, crushing his dream of becoming a surgeon.7 everybody who’s willing to serve and work hard.”2 After his injury, Inouye recovered at Percy Jones Hospital Daniel Ken Inouye was born on September 7, 1924, in Battle Creek, Michigan, where he met future Senate in Honolulu, Hawaii, to Hyotaro Inouye, a file clerk, and colleagues Philip Hart of Michigan and Robert Dole of Kame Imanaga, who, as a young orphan, had been taken in Kansas, with whom he discussed becoming a lawyer and by Native Hawaiians.3 A Methodist minister and his family entering national politics.8 adopted Inouye’s mother, who was homeless. She named Inouye spent 20 months in U.S. Army hospitals before Inouye after her adoptive father. “She made it very clear being honorably discharged and retiring as a captain on to me from the time I was very young, ‘I owe a lot to the May 27, 1947. He earned a Distinguished Silver Cross, Hawaiian [people], and I expect you to repay that debt,’ ” Bronze Star, and a Purple Heart, as well as 12 other medals Inouye said.4 Inouye graduated from McKinley High and citations, for his military service. Though Inouye and School in Honolulu, then known as “Tokyo High” because the other members of the “Go For Broke” regiment were the city’s segregation policies concentrated a high number eventually acknowledged as heroes for their efforts on the of ethnic Japanese students at McKinley.5 Italian front, most received little formal recognition at the At age 17, Inouye worked for the Red Cross with every time. Only when Hawaiian Senator Daniel Akaka insisted intention of becoming a surgeon. “When the war broke on an Army review of war records nearly a half a century out I was a high school senior and preparing myself to go later did their heroism come into focus. Inouye received to college and become a doctor,” Inouye said. “I had no the Medal of Honor with 21 other Japanese Americans on 336 H ASIAN AND PACIFIC ISLANDER AMERICANS IN CONGRESS Image courtesy of the U.S. Senate Historical Office 42940_07-APA-MP2.indd 336 2/13/2018 11:58:45 AM Daniel K. Inouye 1924–2012 UNITED STATES REPRESENTATIVE 1959–1963 UNITED STATES SENATOR 1963–2012 DEMOCRAT FROM HAWAII 42940_07-APA-MP2.indd 337 2/13/2018 11:58:46 AM H daniel k. inouye H June 21, 2000, for his service in World War II. “I take this seat open for his territorial senate colleague Patsy Takemoto as the greatest compliment I’ve ever had,” Inouye noted. “I Mink. But he withdrew from the race and ran for the lone will wear it proudly. And I will not tarnish it.”9 U.S. House seat instead when party stalwarts Oren Long After the war, with the assistance of the GI Bill, Inouye and William Heen ran for the Senate.14 Long noted this graduated from the University of Hawaii in 1950. He then deference and pledged to retire after his first term ended, pursued a law degree from George Washington University clearing the way for Inouye to run for the vacant Senate Law School, where he graduated in 1952 before returning to seat in 1962.15 In 1959 this decision put him in direct Hawaii. He was admitted to the bar in 1953 and then served conflict with Mink for the Democratic nomination to the as an assistant public prosecutor for Honolulu during 1953 U.S. House, and he narrowly defeated her in the primary. and 1954. Inouye married Margaret Shinobu Awamura, an He faced Dr. Charles H. Silva, director of the territorial instructor at the University of Hawaii, on June 12, 1949, department of institutions, in the general election. and they had one son, Ken, in 1964.10 Margaret died in While his campaign style was described as “sunny” and 2006, and on May 24, 2008, Inouye married Irene Hirano, “outgoing,” much of his overwhelming appeal came president of the U.S.–Japan Council.11 from his status as a war hero. Inouye won in a landslide, Inouye joined a wave of young Japanese-American World garnering 69 percent of the vote.16 War II veterans graduating from college and returning to His election made him the first Japanese-American Hawaii in the early 1950s. This group, respected for their Member of Congress, but it was his war injuries that contributions to the war effort and freshly educated, made initially made him an object of considerable interest in an immediate impact on Hawaii’s political system. “The Washington. When Inouye was sworn in on August 24, time had come for us to step forward,” Inouye said of this 1959, he was asked to raise his right hand for the oath. generational shift. “We had fought for that right with all the Upon lifting his left hand, “There was a gasp,” Inouye said, furious patriotism in our bodies and now we didn’t want noting that many Members did not know he had lost his to go back to the plantation.… We wanted to take our full right arm.17 place in society.”12 Upon arriving in DC, outgoing Delegate Burns directed Many of the former members of the 442nd became Inouye straight to the Texas delegation, with whom attached to prominent Democrat John Burns. Burns was Hawaiians had developed a working relationship. Inouye the final Hawaiian Delegate to Congress and helped secure became close with Speaker Rayburn, who steered him to statehood for the islands before serving three terms as the Agriculture Committee, an influential and helpful governor from 1963 to 1974. For much of Inouye’s early assignment for the Hawaiian Islands, notable for their sugar political career, Burns headed the Hawaiian Democratic production. In turn, Inouye maintained the friendship Party in spirit, if not always in name.13 Inouye stood out between Hawaii and Texas. In 1960 Inouye was an early from this group of Burns protégés and merited special supporter of Texas Senator Lyndon B. Johnson’s presidential attention from the party. He was elected to the territorial campaign before Johnson eventually accepted John F. house during the Democratic revolution of 1954, when Kennedy’s offer to be the vice presidential nominee. Democrats swept statewide positions and took control of Inouye toiled quietly for his two terms in the House, the legislature long held by Republicans. Inouye served as trying to foster a larger network of support for future majority leader in the territorial house until 1958, when he campaigns and to protect the sugar industry in Hawaii. His was elected to the territorial senate. only substantial piece of legislation passed late in his first When Hawaii achieved statehood in 1959, Inouye term, extending several key provisions to recognize Hawaiian declared his intention to seek a seat in the U.S. Congress. statehood in the Hawaii Omnibus Act (H.R. 11602). The He first planned to run for the Senate, leaving the House act amended a bevy of existing laws to ensure the new state 338 H ASIAN AND PACIFIC ISLANDER AMERICANS IN CONGRESS 42940_07-APA-MP2.indd 338 2/13/2018 11:58:46 AM H daniel k. inouye H received the full benefits accorded to the other 49 states.18 Between his workmanlike approach to legislating and Nevertheless, Inouye’s popularity in the islands helped him his tight ties with the powerful Texas delegation, Inouye’s soar to re-election in 1960 ; he took 74 percent of the vote star rose quickly in the national Democratic Party.