DANIEL K. INOUYE

What this episode covers

Daniel Inouye has gone through life-changing events that would eventually put him at the forefront of the country’s political arena. Today he is a senator who relentlessly advocates the cause of Hawaiians, the very people he has grown to identify with. Senator Inouye has also played a major role in shaping the defense policies of the United States. He has worked to strengthen the armed forces, and enhance the quality of life for military personnel and their families. Despite being an ethnic minority, young Daniel Inouye displayed a true sense of patriotism as a soldier who fought wholeheartedly against the axis powers in World War II. In March 1943, he enlisted in the U.S. Army’s 442nd Regimental Combat Team, the famed “Go For Broke” regiment. He was soon promoted to the rank of Sergeant and was designated as 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. Senator Inouye has received numerous awards as a military figure in recognition of his bravery and unflagging service to the country. Evan and Kari engage Senator Daniel Inouye on a discussion, delivering a story about persistence, tenacity, and determination. In this interview, Senator Inouye puts forward a biographic account of his rise as a political powerhouse. He shares a life of hardship, growing up in the plantation, which would be the catalyst to his determined stature to succeed. Senator Inouye also talks about a consequential event at a military camp that would save his life and permanently influence his perception in giving back to society. Watch this interview and gather more insights about the greatness of man in times of tribulation and the serendipitous events that shapes his character to encompass a sense of service to the people. BIO: Senator Daniel K. Inouye was born in Honolulu, Hawaii on September 7, 1924, and was named after a Methodist minister who had adopted his mother. Young Dan Inouye attended Honolulu public schools and earned pocket money by parking cars at the old Honolulu Stadium and giving haircuts to fellow students. Most of his earnings were spent on a flock of homing pigeons, a postage stamp collection, parts for crystal radio sets and chemistry sets. On December 7, 1941, the fateful day of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, 17-year-old Dan Inouye was one of the first Americans to handle civilian casualties in the Pacific war. He had taken medical aid training and was pressed into service as head of a first-aid litter team. He saw a “lot of blood” and 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, enlisted in the U.S. Army’s 442nd Regimental Combat Team, the famed “Go For Broke” regiment. Inouye was soon promoted to the rank of Sergeant and was designated as 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 the U.S. Army annals as one of the most significant military battles of the century. Inouye lost ten pounds, became a platoon leader and won the Bronze Star and a battlefield commission as a Second Lieutenant. Back in Italy, the 442nd was assaulting a heavily defended hill in the closing months of the war when Lieutenant Inouye was hit in his abdomen by a bullet which came out his back, barely missing his spine. He continued to lead the platoon and advanced alone against a machine gun nest which had his men pinned down.