Inouye, Daniel Ken

Inouye, Daniel Ken ĭnˈəwāˌ, ĭnōˈwā [key], 1924–2012, U.S. politician, b. Honolulu, grad. Univ. of Hawaii (1950) and George Washington Univ. Law School (1952). A World War II hero and Medal of Honor recipient, he lost an arm in European combat. Inouye was elected to the the House of Representatives as a Democrat when Hawaii became a state (1959), and from 1963 until the year of his death served as a U.S. senator. He was the first Japanese-American elected to the U.S. House and Senate. Inouye was a member of the committee that investigated the Watergate affair (1973–74) and chaired the committee that investigated the Iran-contra affair (1987). He also chaired the Senate Indian affairs committee (1987–95), commerce, science, and transportation committee (2007–9), and appropriations committee (2009–12) and the select committee on intelligence (1975–81). In 2010 he became president pro tempore of the Senate.

See his Journey to Washington (with L. Elliott, 1967).

The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2024, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.

See more Encyclopedia articles on: U.S. History: Biographies