Senator Daniel K. Inouye Les Aspin Award 1999

Senator Daniel K. Inouye was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, on September 7, 1924. At the start of World War II, eighteen-year-old Dan Inouye, a freshman in pre-medical studies at the University of Hawaii, enlisted in the Army’s 442nd Regimental Combat Team. In two of the bloodiest weeks of the war, Inouye became a platoon leader, and won the Bronze Star, as well as a battlefield commission as a second lieutenant. In the closing months of the war, Lt. Inouye was hit in his abdomen and leg by bullets, and was hit by a German grenade which shattered his right arm.

He spent 20 months in Army hospitals after losing his right arm, and came home as a captain with a Distinguished Service Cross, Bronze Star, Purple Heart with cluster, and 12 other medals and citations.

A Distinguished Political Career

After earning his law degree at the George Washington University Law School, Inouye returned to Hawaii and 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, Daniel Inouye won election to the U.S. House of Representatives as the new state’s first congressman. He was re-elected to a full term in 1960 and won election to the U.S. Senate in 1962.

During his tenure in the Senate, Senator Inouye:

• Delivered the keynote address at the 1968 Democratic Convention, in which he appealed for racial understanding and progressive change;
  
  
• Gained national exposure and respect as a member of the Senate Watergate Committee in 1973 and 1974;
  
  
• Served as the third-ranking leader among Senate Democrats as secretary of the Democratic Conference from 1979 to 1988;
  
  
• In 1984 he chaired the Senate Democratic Central America Study Group to assess U.S. policy and served as senior counselor to the National Bipartisan Commission on Central America;
  
  
• In January 1987 he became the chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Secret Military Assistance to Iran and the Nicaraguan Opposition, which held public hearings on the Iran-Contra affair from May through August 1987.

Senator Inouye’s present committee memberships include:

• Committee on Appropriations
  
  
• Ranking Democrat, Subcommittee on Defense
  
  
• Member, Subcommittees on Commerce, Justice, State and the Judiciary; Foreign Operations; Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education; Military Construction
  Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation
  
  
• Ranking Democrat, Subcommittee on Surface Transportation and Merchant Marine
  
  
• Member, Subcommittees on Aviation; Communications; Oceans and Fisheries
  
  
• Committee on Indian Affairs Vice Chairman
  
  
• Member of the Committee on Rules and Administration and the Senate Democratic Steering Committee.