Sen. Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii) passed away Dec. 17 at age 88 after a life of service, bravery, and leadership. “[He] stood among the ‘greatest’ of our ‘Greatest Generation,’” said Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric Shinseki in an official statement.
“Tonight, our country has lost a true American hero with the passing of Senator Daniel Inouye,” President Barack Obama said in a statement on the day of the senator’s death.
When Inouye was 17 years old, his ancestral country of Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, and President Franklin Roosevelt declared all Japanese Americans to be enemy aliens. Most were sent to internment camps.
Japanese American men petitioned the government for a chance to enlist in the military, and in 1942, the government granted their request.
“The government decided to form a combat team made up of young Americans of Japanese Ancestry (AJA), the 442nd Regimental Combat Team. In Hawaii, they asked for 1,500 volunteers. About 10,000 signed up, more than 85 percent of the eligible Japanese American males in Hawaii,” wrote Inouye in an official statement only 10 days before his death.
Inouye was among the 1,500 chosen for the team. He won the Medal of Honor after he charged machine gun nests in Italy and was so grievously wounded that he lost one arm.
“His determination to recover and his extraordinary career that followed continue to inspire wounded warriors today,” wrote Defense Secretary Leon Panetta in an official Dec. 18 release.
Of his 34 Japanese American college pre-med classmates who enlisted, Inouye was the only survivor.
