
The son of Japanese immigrants, Hawaii’s Daniel Inouye won honors — and lost an arm — fighting in Italy during World War II. He then trained to be a lawyer and politician, serving in both Hawaii’s territorial House and Senate, before joining the U.S. House of Representatives in 1959 when his home gained statehood. Inouye graduated to the U.S. Senate four years later and remained a member of that institution until his death on Dec. 17, 2012, from respiratory failure. Highly regarded in Washington, Inouye gave the keynote address at the 1968 Democratic Convention and took part in special investigations into the Watergate and Iran-Contra scandals. In 2000, the Distinguished Service Cross he received for destroying a series of German machine gun emplacements while grievously wounded was upgraded to a Medal of Honor. By the time of his death at 88, Inouye had become president pro tempore of the Senate, third in line for the presidency, and the highest-ranking Asian-American public official in U.S. history.