Today I felt honored to have met Senator Inouye, a Medal of Honor recipient. I met him while riding the Senate Train to the Capitol. He is an armless, short little Japanese man, who hobbles with a cane, but he has a big presence. This is his story:
Born in Honolulu, Hawaii, Inouye is a Nisei (second-generation) Japanese-American and a son of Kame Imanaga and Hyotaro Inouye. He grew up in the Bingham Tract, a Chinese-American enclave within the predominantly Japanese-American community of Mo'ili'ili in Honolulu.
He was at the Pearl Harbor attack in 1941 as a medical volunteer. In 1943, when the U.S. Army dropped its ban on Japanese-Americans, Inouye curtailed his premedical studies at the University of Hawaii and enlisted in the Army. He was assigned to the Nisei 442nd Regimental Combat Team, which became the most-highly decorated unit in the history of the Army. During the World War II campaign in Europe he received the Bronze Star, the Purple Heart, and the Distinguished Service Cross, which was later upgraded to the Medal of Honor.
Inouye was promoted to the rank of sergeant within his first year, and he was given the role of platoon leader. He served in Italy in 1944 during the Rome-Arno Campaign before he was shifted to the Vosges Mountains region of France, where he spent two weeks searching for the Lost Battalion, a Texas battalion that was surrounded by German forces. He was promoted to the rank of second lieutenant for his actions there. He was nearly killed in an assault in Italy in 1945, which saw Inouye survive a bullet wound to the abdomen and a point-blank attack by a German grenade, during a mission where Inouye advanced alone toward a German gun post to protect his surrounded men.
While recovering from WWII wounds in Percy Jones Army Hospital, Inouye met future Republican presidential candidate Bob Dole, then a fellow patient. Dole mentioned to Inouye that after the war he planned to go to Congress; Inouye beat him there by a few years. Despite being members of different political parties, the two remain lifelong friends. In 2003, the hospital was renamed the Hart-Dole-Inouye Federal Center in honor of the two WWII veterans and another U.S. Senator and fellow WWII veteran who had stayed in the hospital, Philip Hart.
Although he lost his right arm in WWII, Inouye remained in the military until 1947 and was discharged with the rank of captain. Due to the loss of his arm, he abandoned his plans to become a surgeon and returned to college to study political science under the GI Bill. He graduated from the University of Hawaii at Manoa in 1950 with a B.A. in political science. He earned his J.D. from The George Washington University Law School in Washington, D.C. in 1953 and was elected into the Phi Delta Phi legal fraternity. Soon afterward he was elected to the territorial legislature, of which he was a member until shortly before Hawaii achieved statehood in 1959. He won a seat in the U.S. 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 reelected in 1960.
In 1962 Inouye was elected to the U.S. Senate, succeeding fellow Democrat Oren E. Long. He is currently serving his seventh- consecutive six-year term, having most recently run against Republican candidate Campbell Cavasso in 2004.
He delivered the keynote address at the turbulent 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Illinois and gained national attention for his service on the U.S. Senate Watergate Committee. He was chairman of the Select Committee on Intelligence from 1975 until 1979, and chairman of the Committee on Indian Affairs from 1987 until 1995 and from 2001 until 2003. Inouye was also involved in the Iran-Contra investigations of the 1980s, chairing a special committee from 1987 until 1989.
In 2000, Inouye was awarded the Grand Cordon of the Order of the Rising Sun by the Emperor of Japan in recognition of his long and distinguished career in public service.
*All information found at wikipedia.com
