[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 158 (2012), Part 13]
[Senate]
[Pages 17885-17886]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                            DANIEL K. INOUYE

  Mr. WHITEHOUSE. Mr. President, today the State of Hawai`i, the 
Senate, and the United States mourn the loss of Senator Daniel Inouye.
  Observers of the Senate today know Chairman Inouye as a poised, soft-
spoken statesman: courteous and collegiate; shunning of the spotlight; 
above the petty churn of the partisan fray. But historians will 
remember him as a great patriot, a fierce warrior, a brave pioneer, and 
a great leader.
  Chairman Inouye's unflinching commitment to his country withstood 
both the moral threat of having his family deemed ``enemy aliens'' and 
the direct physical threat of Nazi firepower. His famed ``Go For 
Broke'' 442nd Regimental Combat Team was made up of Japanese-American 
volunteers, but even among this exceptionally decorated group of men, 
Second Lieutenant Inouye exemplified exceptional bravery and sacrifice 
in what Winston Churchill described as the war ``to confront not only 
military but moral aggression.''
  The fight to see the American values of freedom, justice, and 
equality fulfilled would continue beyond the war years and throughout 
Chairman Inouye's lifetime of service to his home state and his 
country. The new State of Hawai`i sent him to Washington as part of its 
very first delegation. The first Japanese American elected to Congress, 
he has been a champion of civil rights for women, Asian Americans, 
Native Hawaiians, and African Americans. Indeed, Chairman Inouye was 
the last surviving member of the Senate to have voted for the Civil 
Rights Act of 1964. He also ferreted out corruption at the highest 
level of government, serving on the Senate's select committee on the 
Watergate scandal, and chairing the investigation of the Iran-Contra 
arms affair.
  But Dan Inouye was first and foremost a servant of the people of 
Hawai`i. Ever grateful for the faith they entrusted in him year after 
year, he worked to make sure they had every opportunity to achieve the 
full potential of the American Dream. I was honored that he joined me 
as an original member of the Senate Oceans Caucus, and as a cosponsor 
of my bill to establish a National Endowment for the Oceans to protect 
the environment and economies that are so vital to both his home State 
and my own.
  As his colleague and compatriot Senator Daniel Akaka said on the 
Senate floor in those first hours after we received the terrible news 
of Chairman

[[Page 17886]]

Inouye's passing, ``He fulfilled his dream of creating a better 
Hawai`i.'' His wife Irene, his son Ken, his daughter-in-law Jessica, 
his stepdaughter Jennifer, and his granddaughter Maggie can all be 
proud of that legacy. My thoughts are with them in this, their time of 
loss.
  As the old hymn tells us:

     Now the laborer's task is o'er;
     Now the battle day is past;
     Now upon the farther shore
     Lands the voyager at last.

  Aloha, Dan Inouye.

                          ____________________