The Honorable Daniel K. Inouye

Daniel K. Inouye was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, on Sept. 7, 1924. Growing up, he attended Honolulu public schools. On 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. He had taken medical aid training and was pressed into service as head of a first-aid litter team. Inouye began pre-medical studies at the University of Hawaii, but in March 1943 he enlisted in the U.S. Army's 442nd Regimental Combat Team.

Sgt. Inouye spent three months in the Rome Arno campaign with the U.S. Fifth Army. His unit then shifted to the French Vosges Mountains where they 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 became platoon leader 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 Inouye was hit in his abdomen by a bullet that came out his back, barely missing his spine. He continued to lead the platoon and advanced alone against a machine gun nest that had his men pinned down. He tossed two hand grenades with devastating effect before his right arm was shattered by a German rifle grenade at close range. Inouye threw his last grenade with his left hand, attacked with a submachine gun and was finally knocked down the hill by a bullet in the leg.

Inouye spent 20 months in Army hospitals after losing his right arm. He came home as a Captain with a Distinguished Service Cross (the second highest award for military valor), Bronze Star, Purple Heart with cluster and 12 other medals and citations. His Distinguished Service Cross was upgraded to a Medal of Honor, the nation's highest award for military valor, by the President of the United States on June 21, 2000.

After earning his law degree at the George Washington University Law School, he returned to Hawaii and served as a Deputy Public Prosecutor for the city of Honolulu. He broke into politics in 1954 with his election to the Territorial House of Representatives. He later won election to the Territorial Senate. After Hawaii became a state on August 21, 1959, Inouye won election to the United States House of Representatives as the new state's first Congressman. He was reelected to a full term in 1960 and won election to the United States Senate in 1962.

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