Daniel Inouye
Daniel Ken "Dan" Inouye (Japanese: 井上 建, Hepburn: Inoue Ken?, pronounced /iːˈnoʊwɛ/ ē-NOH-weh; September 7, 1924 – December 17, 2012) was a Medal of Honor recipient, a recipient (posthumously) of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, a United States Senator from Hawaii, a member of the Democratic Party, and the President pro tempore of the United States Senate from 2010 until his death in 2012, making him the highest-ranking Asian American politician in U.S. history. Inouye was the chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Appropriations. Inouye fought in World War II as part of the famous 442nd Infantry Regiment. He lost his right arm to a grenade wound and received several military decorations. Returning to Hawaii, he earned a law degree and was elected to Hawaii's territorial House of Representatives in 1953, and to the territorial Senate in 1957. When Hawaii achieved statehood in 1959, Inouye was elected as its first member of the U.S. House of Representatives, and in 1962 he was first elected to the U.S. Senate. Inouye was the most senior U.S. senator at the time of his death. He is one of the longest serving U.S. Senators in history, second only to Robert Byrd. Inouye was the first Japanese American to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives and later the first in the U.S. Senate. He never lost an election in 58 years as an elected official. At the time of his death, Inouye was the second-oldest sitting U.S. senator, after Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey, who also died soon afterwards. Because of his seniority, following Senator Byrd's death on June 28, 2010, Inouye became President pro tempore of the Senate, making him third in the presidential line of succession after the Vice President and the Speaker of the House of Representatives.