Daniel Ken Inouye was an American attorney, soldier, and politician who served as a United States senator from Hawaii from 1963 until his death in 2012.
69 Facts About Daniel Inouye
2.
Daniel Inouye chaired various senate committees, including those on Intelligence, Indian Affairs, Commerce, and Appropriations.
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Daniel Inouye fought in World War II as part of the 442nd Infantry Regiment.
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Daniel Inouye lost his right arm to a grenade wound and received several military decorations, including the Medal of Honor.
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Daniel Inouye later earned a JD degree from George Washington University Law School.
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When Hawaii achieved statehood in 1959, Daniel Inouye was elected as its first member of the US House of Representatives.
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Daniel Inouye was first elected to the US Senate in 1962.
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Daniel Inouye never lost an election in 58 years as an elected official, and he exercised an exceptionally large influence on Hawaii politics.
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Daniel Inouye was the second Asian American senator following Hawaii Republican Hiram Fong.
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Daniel Inouye was the first Japanese American to serve in the US House of Representatives and the first Japanese American to serve in the US Senate.
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At the time of his death, Inouye was the most senior sitting US senator, the second-oldest sitting US senator, and the last sitting US senator to have served during the presidencies of John F Kennedy, Lyndon B Johnson, and Richard Nixon.
12.
Daniel Inouye was a posthumous recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Order of the Paulownia Flowers.
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Daniel Ken Inouye was born in Honolulu, Territory of Hawaii on September 7,1924.
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Daniel Inouye's father, Hyotaro Inouye, was a jeweler who had immigrated to Hawaii from Japan as a child.
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Daniel Inouye's mother, Kame Inouye, was a homemaker born on Maui to Japanese immigrants.
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Daniel Inouye's parents died young and she was adopted and raised by a family in Honolulu.
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Daniel Inouye grew up in Bingham Tract, a Chinese-American enclave in Honolulu.
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Daniel Inouye was raised Christian, and was the oldest of four children.
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Daniel Inouye's parents raised him and his siblings with a mix of American and Japanese customs.
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Daniel Inouye's parents spoke English at home, but had their children attend a private Japanese language school in addition to public school.
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Daniel Inouye dropped out of the Japanese school in 1939 because he disagreed with his instructor's anti-American rhetoric, and focused on his studies at President William McKinley High School.
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Daniel Inouye intended to go to college and medical school after his planned 1942 graduation.
23.
Daniel Inouye witnessed the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7,1941, while still a senior in high school.
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Daniel Inouye applied and was initially turned down because his work at the Red Cross was deemed critical, but was inducted later that month.
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Daniel Inouye was promoted to sergeant within the first three months of fighting in the Italian countryside north of Rome.
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Daniel Inouye received a battlefield commission to second lieutenant for his actions there, becoming the youngest officer in his regiment.
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Daniel Inouye continued to carry the coins throughout the war in his shirt pocket as good luck charms, but lost them later, shortly before the battle in which he lost his arm.
28.
Daniel Inouye's platoon moved to his aid, but he shouted for them to keep back out of fear his severed fist would involuntarily relax and drop the grenade.
29.
Daniel Inouye fell unconscious, and awoke to see the worried men of his platoon hovering over him.
30.
The remainder of Daniel Inouye's mutilated right arm was later amputated at a field hospital without proper anesthesia, as he had been given too much morphine at an aid station and it was feared any more would lower his blood pressure enough to kill him.
31.
Shortly before the Japanese surrender and end of World War II in August 1945, Daniel Inouye was shipped back to the United States to recover for eleven months at a rehabilitation center for wounded soldiers in Atlantic City, New Jersey.
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In mid-1946, Daniel Inouye was transferred to the Percy Jones Army Hospital in Battle Creek, Michigan, to continue his rehabilitation for nine more months.
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Daniel Inouye was honorably discharged with the rank of captain in May 1947 after 20 months of rehabilitation.
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Daniel Inouye eventually received the Medal of Honor on June 21,2000, from President Bill Clinton, along with 19 other Japanese American servicemen in the 442nd.
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Daniel Inouye decided to study law hoping it would lead him into a political career.
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Daniel Inouye had been talked into joining the party by John A Burns, a former police captain and future governor, who had ties to the Japanese American community.
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Daniel Inouye earned his JD degree in two years, and moved back with his wife to Hawaii in late 1952.
38.
Daniel Inouye spent the next year studying for the Hawaii bar exam and volunteering with the Democratic Party.
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At the urging of Burns, Daniel Inouye successfully ran for the Hawaii Territorial House of Representatives in the November 1954 election, representing the Fourth District.
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Daniel Inouye served two terms there, and was elected to the Hawaii territorial senate in 1957.
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Daniel Inouye won a seat in the US House of Representatives as Hawaii's first full member, and took office on August 21,1959, the same date Hawaii became a state; he was re-elected in 1960.
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Daniel Inouye was the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee between 1976 and 1979, and the chairman of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee between 1987 and 1995.
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Daniel Inouye introduced the National Museum of the American Indian Act in 1984 which led to the inauguration of the National Museum of the American Indian in 2004.
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Daniel Inouye was chairman of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee between 2001 and 2003, chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee between 2007 and 2009 and chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee between 2009 and 2012.
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Daniel Inouye was reelected eight times, usually without serious difficulty.
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Daniel Inouye delivered the keynote address at the turbulent 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago and gained national attention for his service on the Senate Watergate Committee.
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Daniel Inouye was involved in the Iran-Contra investigations of the 1980s, chairing a special committee from 1987 until 1989.
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Colonel Oliver North's justifications for his actions in the affair, Daniel Inouye made reference to the Nuremberg trials, provoking a heated interruption from North's attorney Brendan Sullivan, an exchange that was widely repeated in the media at the time.
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Daniel Inouye was seen as a pro-Taiwan senator and helped in forming the Taiwan Relations Act.
50.
On May 1,1977, Daniel Inouye stated that President Carter had telephoned him to express his objections to a sentence in the Senate Intelligence Committee's report on the Central Intelligence Agency.
51.
On November 20,1993, Daniel Inouye voted against the North American Free Trade Agreement.
52.
In 2009, Daniel Inouye assumed leadership of the powerful Senate Committee on Appropriations after longtime chairman Robert Byrd stepped down.
53.
In 2010, Daniel Inouye announced his decision to run for a ninth term.
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Daniel Inouye ran for Senate Majority Leader several times without success.
55.
Daniel Inouye accepted the offer and was given the chance to select the new Senate sergeant-at-arms.
56.
In early 1981, Daniel Inouye called for tighter restrictions on what Americans can ship overseas, citing his belief that American international stature would be harmed along with the country's foreign policy interests in the event of the shipments causing environmental damage.
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In March 1981, Daniel Inouye was one of 24 elected officials to issue a joint statement calling on the Reagan administration to compose a method of finding a peaceful solution that would end The Troubles in Northern Ireland.
58.
In September 1989, during the Senate's debate over bestowing reparations to Japanese-Americans interned during World War II, Daniel Inouye delivered his first public speech on the issue and noted $22,000 were bestowed to each captive American in the Iran hostage crisis.
59.
In October 2002, Daniel Inouye was one of 23 senators who voted against authorization of the use of military force in Iraq.
60.
In March 1982, amid controversy surrounding Democratic Senator Harrison A Williams for taking bribes in the Abscam sting operation, Inouye delivered a closing defense argument stating the possibility of the Senate looking foolish in the event the conviction was reversed on appeal.
61.
In October 1982, after President Reagan appointed two new members to the board of the Legal Services Corporation, Daniel Inouye was one of 32 Senators to sign a letter expressing grave concerns over the appointments.
62.
In March 1984, Daniel Inouye voted against a constitutional amendment authorizing periods in public school for silent prayer and against President Reagan's unsuccessful proposal for a constitutional amendment permitting organized school prayer in public schools.
63.
On May 23,2005, Daniel Inouye was a member of a bipartisan group of 14 moderate senators, known as the Gang of 14, to forge a compromise on the Democrats' use of the judicial filibuster, thus blocking the Republican leadership's attempt to implement the "nuclear option," a means of forcibly ending a filibuster.
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Daniel Inouye resigned the position at the time of her marriage, in order to be closer to her husband.
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On May 27,1947, Daniel Inouye was honorably discharged and returned home as a Captain with a Distinguished Service Cross, Bronze Star Medal, two Purple Hearts, and 12 other medals and citations.
66.
In 2012, Daniel Inouye began using a wheelchair in the Senate to preserve his knees, and received an oxygen concentrator to aid his breathing.
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Daniel Inouye died there of respiratory complications seven days later on December 17,2012.
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Daniel Inouye's body lay in state at the United States Capitol rotunda on December 20,2012.
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Daniel Inouye made a cameo appearance as himself in the 1994 film The Next Karate Kid, giving the opening speech at Arlington National Cemetery for a commendation for Japanese-Americans who fought in the 442nd Regimental Combat Team during World War II.