Just a few years before Pearl Harbor, a young 15-year-old Hawaiian native and the son of Japanese immigrants defied his Japanese teacher who taught that no matter where they lived, the students were still Japanese. The student boldly challenged the teacher by insisting that, first and foremost, he was an American.

And, so it has been, from that day forward and throughout the life of now Senator Daniel K. Inouye.

 On December 7, 1941, then 17-year-old Daniel was one of the very first to rush into service caring for injured civilians on that fateful day.

Fifteen months later, he left during his freshman year at the University of Hawaii and enlisted as a private in the U.S. Army’s legendary 442nd Regimental Combat Team, the famed “Go For Broke” Regiment. Shortly thereafter, he was leading a combat platoon in some of the bloodiest campaigns of the war in Southern France and Italy. Inouye’s unit rescued the famed “Lost Battalion” which is today listed in U.S. Army annals as one of the most significant military battles of the century.

 In the closing months of the war, then Lt. Inouye was severely wounded while assaulting a heavily defended hill. But, he continued to lead his men and advanced alone against a machine gun nest tossing hand grenades with devastating effect before his right arm was shattered by an enemy grenade. Continuing on, he threw his last grenade with his left hand before being hit again.

Lt. Inouye spent the next 20 months in Army hospitals after losing his right arm. On May 27, 1947, he was honorably discharged as a Captain having received 12 medals and citations including the Distinguished Service Cross, Bronze Star, Purple Heart, and, 53 years later, on June 1, 2000, Daniel Inouye was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor.

After the war and his recovery, Inouye finished school and began what was to be a storied career, again serving the state and nation he so loved and for which he had sacrificed so dearly. First elected to Congress in 1959 when Hawaii achieved statehood, Inouye began a distinguished 48-year career serving our nation.

But back on the third anniversary of Hawaii statehood, the Congressional Record recorded the profound moment that the young Japanese American first entered Washington and took the Oath of Office in the House of Representatives. The record stated;

“Today is the third anniversary of one of the most dramatic and moving scenes ever to occur in this House.

On that day, a young man, just elected to Congress from a brand new state, walked into the well of the House and faced the late Speaker Sam Rayburn.

The House was very still. It was about to witness the swearing in, not only of the first Congressman from Hawaii, but the first American of Japanese decent to serve in either House of Congress.

‘Raise your right hand and repeat after me,’ intoned Speaker Rayburn.

The hush deepened as the young Congressman raised not his right hand, but his left, and he repeated the oath of office.

There was no right hand, Mr. Speaker. It had been lost in combat by that young American soldier in World War II. Who can deny, Congressman O’Brien said, that, at that moment, a ton of prejudice slipped quietly to the floor of the House of Representatives.”

54 years later, after a review of actions from world war II, Daniel Inouye, along with a host of other Japanese-American soldiers from the 442nd Combat Team, were awarded the Medal of Honor by President Clinton.

Today, after a lifetime of service to his country and as the third most senior member of the Senate, Daniel Inouye continues to be a living testament to what American Patriotism is all about.