[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 163 (Tuesday, December 18, 2012)]
[Senate]
[Pages S8132-S8133]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      REMEMBERING DANIEL K. INOUYE

  Mr. PRYOR. Mr. President, I understand we are in a period of morning 
business. I wish to offer a few reflections and reminiscence about our 
dearly departed Senator Dan Inouye.
  Yesterday afternoon I came into the Chamber expecting to vote on a 
matter or two. I was stunned and devastated to hear the news, as were 
the rest of my colleagues, that we had lost Senator Inouye. When I 
think of what a Senator is and should be, I think of Dan Inouye.
  When I came to the Senate, 10 years ago now, I would say that there 
were three undisputed giants in this hall. There may have been more, 
but there were three undisputed giants I think everybody recognized as 
giants in the Senate. One would be Ted Stevens, one would be Ted 
Kennedy, and the other would be Dan Inouye. There is something about 
those three men, those three Senators, that put them in a class by 
themselves.
  Some of it is the force of their personalities, some of it is their 
legislative accomplishments, some of it is just their ability to get it 
done; when the chips are down to have the integrity, to understand the 
vital role that the Senate plays in our Federal system. I think Dan 
Inouye had all of those traits and he also had character. Character is 
something that is hard to describe, it is hard to quantify, hard to 
define sometimes, but there is no doubt Senator Inouye had character.
  Yesterday morning I got off the plane. Like many of us I raced into 
the office. I noticed I had a big bundle of papers waiting for me to 
look at. I did not have a chance to look at those, I just grabbed those 
and plopped them on my desk and I thought I would go deal with those 
later, and later turned out to be the next morning, which is this 
morning.
  I have been thinking about losing our friend Dan Inouye over the last 
12 or 14 hours or so, and I was sitting in my office starting to go 
through this stack of papers and there at the bottom of the stack I saw 
a Christmas card that had come from Senator Inouye and his wife. I 
thought this Christmas card summed up one of the traits that made 
Senator Inouye so special. It is from Dan and Irene--certainly we offer 
our prayers and our support for Irene right now--but the photo was 
taken at the Maui Arts and Cultural Center, ``a performing arts 
facility, providing music, dance and theatrical performances as well as 
art exhibitions.'' It is about Hawaiian culture and education and there 
he is on their Christmas card, promoting Hawaii and never stopping in 
that quest to make us aware of the special nature of that State and the 
importance of that State and so many of the qualities of that State.
  I look at Senator Inouye's picture on the Christmas card and what I 
see is that very kind and very generous but also, as our fellow 
Senators will testify and have testified repeatedly today, that very 
encouraging face and way of Dan Inouye.
  Actually a year or so ago, on my own initiative, I wanted to know a 
little bit more about him. It is rare to have a Congressional Medal of 
Honor recipient in your midst, much more rare to work with that person 
every day. I had the great fortune and extreme pleasure of being on two 
of Senator Inouye's committees, committees he chaired. He chaired the 
Commerce Committee for a while and he chaired the Appropriations 
Committee. I served on both of those with him as chair. In both of 
those, by the way, I saw the great bipartisan working relationship he 
had. I want to talk about that again in a moment.
  About a year or two ago I thought: I want to know more about Senator 
Inouye, so I started reading. Of course, you can go to Wikipedia and 
whatnot, but there are several books available, several resources 
available where they talk about his life story. Of course, with Senator 
Akaka and Senator Inouye, they were both born in the Territory of 
Hawaii, not the State of Hawaii but the Territory of Hawaii. When you 
start to read about Dan Inouye's young life, you start to think this is 
an ordinary, average guy. He is going to grow up and be pretty 
nondescript. Who knows what he is going to do with the rest of his 
life? But

[[Page S8133]]

when he is a youngster he does things such as he parks cars at ball 
games; he cuts his classmates' hair for money--you know, these little 
things we all do. He saved his money and bought and trained a flock of 
homing pigeons. He had a postage stamp collection--all this ordinary 
American stuff that boys do as they are growing up.
  But his life took a dramatic turn on December 7, 1941. He was an 
eyewitness, like Senator Akaka--and Senator Akaka often tells the story 
but Dan Inouye was an eyewitness to the bombing of Pearl Harbor. He was 
too young to join the military at that point, but he was not too young 
to serve. The way he served was he worked as a medic in the aftermath 
of that. I read a story about him one time and the only comment he said 
was he saw ``a lot of blood'' in those days when he worked around the 
clock to help people.
  When he finally came of age to be able to serve, which was a few 
years later, he joined the Nisei 442nd Regimental Combat Team. For a 
lot of people, a lot of Americans, we may not appreciate exactly what 
or who the 442nd is, but it turns out it would become the most highly 
decorated unit in the history of the U.S. Army. Of course, Senator 
Inouye received the Medal of Honor for his service in that unit.
  There is one other distinction it has. Almost all the Members were of 
Japanese descent. So here is this 17-, 18-year-old young man who had 
eyewitness accounts of very harsh treatments by Americans of Japanese 
Americans.
  One of the things Senator Inouye did not talk a lot about is that he 
did some sort of goodwill tour back in the 1940s to Japanese internment 
camps. He came to the two in Arkansas. My understanding is maybe the 
members of the 442nd--I am not quite sure how it worked, but they were 
doing some training or whatever, maybe down in Louisiana. I am not 
quite sure. But nonetheless they came and they went to the two Japanese 
internment camps in Arkansas.
  He goes on to serve in World War II with tremendous distinction. In 
fact, there are a few video interviews I would recommend to people that 
C-SPAN2 ran last night, just unbelievable, some of the stories he told 
about serving in the war and how it changed his life.
  One of the things that I loved about him is how he carried a burden. 
He carried a burden of those heroic war years with him for the rest of 
his life. The fact that he had been so effective in war haunted him. It 
stayed with him, I am sure, until the day he died. I heard him talk 
about it a few months ago.
  He also struggled and suffered with his own type of discrimination 
because he was a Japanese American. My generation--and certainly people 
younger than me--take that for granted. We don't discriminate against 
Japanese Americans. However, during the time of World War II, when a 
lot of people had never had much experience with Asians and Asian 
Americans, all they knew was that they had bombed Pearl Harbor, we were 
at war with them, so they must all be bad.
  I remember Senator Inouye told a story--in fact, it was on PBS for 
the series called ``The War,'' a Ken Burns movie, where he talked about 
how he lost his arm and had done his rehab and was headed out to the 
west coast. It is my understanding he was supposed to catch a ship and 
go back to Hawaii after his long rehabilitation. Well, he decided to 
stop in and get a haircut at a local barber shop on the west coast. I 
believe the barber shop was in Oakland, CA. Here was a highly decorated 
World War II veteran who had literally almost given his life to this 
country and would live the rest of his life without his right arm. When 
he walked in the barber shop, the barber told him bluntly: ``We don't 
cut Jap hair.'' ``We don't cut Jap hair'' is the kind of thing that 
stays with you. That is the kind of thing that made Senator Inouye so 
special.
  I saw him meet with a young man just a few months ago who had also 
lost his arm. This young man lost his arm to cancer. He introduced 
himself to Senator Inouye and said: I have always admired you and 
respected you because of your disability and what you have done for 
other people with disabilities. Dan Inouye looked him square in the eye 
and said: ``I don't consider it a disability.''
  There again, we see his character and get a glimpse of what he was 
all about.
  He was also the first Japanese American to be elected to Congress, 
the first Japanese American to be sworn in, and the first Japanese 
American to serve in the Senate. In fact, he was sworn into the House 
the very same day that Hawaii became a State.
  There is a story that has circulated in the House for a decade about 
his swearing in. He came in at kind of a special time because he won a 
special election. He was in a class of one to be sworn in over there 
and Sam Rayburn did the normal swear-in thing. He said, without 
thinking: ``Raise your right hand and repeat after me.'' Of course, 
Congressman Inouye didn't have a right hand at that point; he left it 
in Italy while fighting for his country.
  He broke several barriers, large and small, throughout his life. One 
of the things I loved about him was his relationship with Ted Stevens. 
I still remember that their desks were right across the aisle from one 
another. I remember them working together on all kinds of legislation. 
They were brothers. Their love and friendship transcended partisan 
divide. They were totally for the national interest. I think they set a 
great example for all of us and how we can work together.
  They didn't always agree. If we look at their voting record, they 
voted opposite each other a lot of times, but they worked together and 
had an exemplary relationship I think we should all follow.
  We had Senator Inouye come to the Senate Prayer Breakfast a few 
months ago. For those who are watching at home or don't know a whole 
lot about the Senate, every Wednesday morning we are in session we have 
a Senate Prayer Breakfast. It is for Senators and former Senators only. 
When we come together, it is a very special time to share each other's 
lives and tell stories.
  It was a treat to have Dan Inouye. I believe he lived in Rockville, 
so it was hard for him to get here so he didn't make it that often, but 
he came when he could. I have been here 10 years, and I have been going 
to the prayer breakfast almost that long. He is the only speaker I have 
seen in the Senate Prayer Breakfast who got a standing ovation before 
he spoke and a standing ovation after he spoke. That is the kind of 
Senator and man he was. He had this spirit that oozed from him. No 
matter what situation he was in, other people respected him so much.
  This last story I will tell is one of my favorite stories about him. 
When he won his reelection back in 2010--I didn't see it, but I heard 
this--at the podium that night while accepting his election for his 
ninth term, he announces that he is going to run for his tenth term in 
2016. That is part of that indomitable spirit that we will all miss so 
much about Senator Inouye.
  With that, I want to thank my colleagues for all the wonderful things 
they have said about Senator Inouye. I want to lift up his family in 
prayer. He has a fantastic, wonderful staff, and I know everyone in 
Hawaii is mourning the loss of this great man.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from New Jersey.

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