APRIL 21, 2025 – Army Capt. Daniel Ken Inouye’s time in the military was just the start of a storied public service career that spanned more than half a century. During World War II, Inouye proved his dedication to the U.S. through battle. That loyalty was honored decades later when a review of his record determined he should receive the Medal of Honor.
Inouye was born Sept. 7, 1924, in Honolulu to Hyotaro Inouye and Kame Imanaga, who were Japanese immigrants. He had two brothers and a sister.
While still in high school, Inouye worked for the American Red Cross and dreamed of becoming a surgeon. When the attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, happened his senior year, he volunteered as a medical aide, which inspired him to join the World War II effort. But when he tried to enlist in the Army, he was denied. At the time, fear of Japanese Americans, known as nisei, was rampant in the U.S., so they were barred from service due to concerns about their allegiance.
Inouye petitioned his service denial. In the meantime, he began studying for a premed degree at the University of Hawaii.
By late 1942, the Army decided to let nisei join to prove their allegiance. In February 1943, the Army activated the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, which was one of four units created for Japanese Americans to serve. It became one of the most decorated units in U.S. military history, where Inouye was finally allowed to join.
The 442nd deployed to Italy in June 1944. Two months later, it absorbed another nisei unit, the 100th Infantry Battalion. Together, the new unit performed with such distinction that it was reassigned to combat in southern France, where it took part in heavy fighting in the Vosges mountains. The 442nd liberated towns across the country and helped rescue soldiers assigned to the 1st Battalion, 141st Infantry Regiment — famously known as the “Lost Battalion” — which had been surrounded by the German military.
Toward the end of the war, the 442nd was sent back to Italy. On April 21, 1945, then-2nd Lt. Inouye was part of Company E, which was tasked with attacking an enemy-defended ridge that guarded an important road junction near San Terenzo, Italy.
Through heavy fire, Inouye led his platoon in the siege of an artillery and mortar post, which led to the capture of several enemy combatants. It also brought the platoon within 40 yards of the main hostile force before fire from three enemy machine gun nests hidden in bunkers and rock formations pinned them down.
Disregarding his own safety, Inouye crawled up the treacherous ridge and, after getting to within 5 yards of one machine gun, tossed two grenades to destroy it. He then stood up and took out the second machine gun nest before the enemy could retaliate.
Inouye was wounded by a sniper bullet, but he pushed on, engaging other hostile positions at close range until a grenade shattered his right arm.
“I looked at it, stunned and disbelieving. It dangled there by a few bloody shreds of tissue, my grenade still clenched in a fist that suddenly didn’t belong to me anymore,” Inouye wrote in his 1967 autobiography, “Journey to Washington,” cowritten by author Lawrence Elliott.
In that memoir, Inouye wrote that he pried the grenade out of his destroyed hand and threw it, killing a German gunman. He then continued firing his own gun until he was shot in the leg and thrown down a hillside. Despite being badly wounded, Inouye pressed his men to continue the attack until they’d captured the ridge. Only then did Inouye allow himself to be evacuated.
At a field hospital, Inouye’s arm was amputated without the use of anesthesia. According to government reports, he’d been given a lot of morphine while in the field, and medics feared that any more would lower his blood pressure and kill him.
The loss of Inouye’s arm brought an end to his dream of becoming a surgeon. He spent nearly two years recovering in hospitals before being honorably discharged as a captain, May 27, 1947.
A New Chapter of Service
Inouye used the GI Bill to finish a degree at the University of Hawaii, where he met Margaret Shinobu Awamura, an instructor at the school. They married on June 12, 1949, and had a son.
Inouye continued his education at George Washington University Law School, graduating in 1952 before returning to his home state, where he served for two years as an assistant public prosecutor in Honolulu.
In 1954, Inouye was elected to serve in Hawaii’s legislature when it was still a territory. Five years later, when Hawaii achieved statehood, Inouye became the island chain’s first U.S. representative. In 1962, he successfully ran for the Senate, a position he held for decades. His accomplishments were numerous, including being a key figure in the Senate investigations into Watergate and the Iran-Contra scandals.
Inouye’s actions in Italy in 1945 initially earned him the Distinguished Service Cross. However, in the 1990s, legislators called for the review of service records of Asian Americans who served in World War II to see if any were passed over for higher honors due to discrimination. The reviews concluded that discrimination was, indeed, a factor.
To remedy that, on June 21, 2000, Inouye and 21 other members of the 442nd and 100th received Medals of Honor from President Bill Clinton during a White House ceremony.
“I take this as the greatest compliment I’ve ever had,” Inouye said at the time. “I will wear it proudly, and I will not tarnish it.”
Inouye continued his work in the Senate. In 2010, he served as president pro tempore, making him the highest-ranking Asian American politician in U.S. history and third in line for presidential succession.
In the last several years of his life, Inouye received many accolades for his decades of service to the country.
In 2008, the senator delivered the keynote address at the George Washington University Law School’s commencement, where he also received an honorary Doctor of Laws degree. In December 2011, Inouye and more than 450 other Asian American soldiers from World War II were again honored for their loyalty and heroism during the war, this time with the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest civilian award for service given.
In early December 2012, Inouye was hospitalized at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland. He died Dec. 17 of respiratory complications.
Overall, Inouye’s service to his country spanned more than 60 years.
On Nov. 20, 2013, President Barack Obama posthumously awarded Inouye the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
“He taught all of us that, no matter what you look like or where you come from, this country has a place for everybody who’s willing to serve and work hard,” Obama said of Inouye.
Inouye is buried at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in his hometown of Honolulu.
His name graces many institutions in Hawaii and throughout the nation. Inouye is also the namesake of a guided missile destroyer commissioned in 2021, as well as an Air Force C-17 Globemaster III based at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii.
By Katie Lange
DOD News