Leadership and Overcoming Several Adversities: US Senator Daniel
Inouye's story
Leadership and Overcoming Adversities: Senator Daniel K. Inouye
story, United States Senator (D-Hawaii)
By Howard Edward Haller, Ph.D.
This groundbreaking leadership research by has received
extensive endorsements and enthusiastic reviews from well-known
prominent business, political, and academic leaders who either
participated in the study or reviewed the research findings. You
will discover the proven success habits and secrets of people
who, in spite of difficult or life threatening challenges shaped
their own destiny to become successful, effective leaders. The
full results of this research will be presented in the upcoming
book by Dr. Howard Edward Haller titled "Leadership: View from
the Shoulders of Giants."
The nine initial prominent successful leaders who overcame
adversity that were interviewed included: Dr. Tony Bonanzino,
U.S. Senator Orrin Hatch, Monzer Hourani, U.S. Senator Daniel
Inouye, Dr. John Malone, Larry Pino, U.S. Army Major General Sid
Shachnow, Dr. Blenda Wilson, and Zig Ziglar.
The data from the above nine research participants was
materially augmented by seven other successful leaders who
overcame adversity including: Jack Canfield, William Draper III,
Mark Victor Hansen, J. Terrence Lanni, Angelo Mozilo, Dr. Nido
Qubein, and Dr. John Sperling.
Additionally, five internationally known and respected
leadership scholars offered their reviews of the leadership
research findings including: Dr. Ken Blanchard, Jim Kouzes, Dr.
John Kotter, Dr. Paul Stoltz, and Dr. Meg Wheatley.
This is a short biography of one of the principal participants
who generously contributed their time and insight for this
important research into the phenomenon of how prominent
successful leaders overcome adversity and obstacles.
This is Senator Daniel Inouye's story. Daniel Inouye is the
eldest son of Japanese immigrants who worked on the Hawaiian
sugar plantations where Daniel was born and raised. He lived in
what he described as a "Japanese-American ghetto." He went to
the local Hawaiian school, at which "the student body was 90%
ethnic Japanese."
As a young boy, Daniel accidentally fell and broke his left arm
in a terrible compound fracture. The local doctor, an Ear, Nose
and Throat specialist, set the arm. It mended, but not well. In
his autobiography, Inouye wrote, "My arm hung limp and crooked
and I could barely move it" (1968, p. 49). After two years of
searching his parents, "contacted the best orthopedic surgeon in
Hawaii," who reconstructed Dan's "left arm and made it good as
new."
That incident formed the basis of Daniel's career goal: to
become an orthopedic surgeon. He told the orthopedic surgeon who
repaired his arm and restored it to full use, "I'm going to be a
doctor, like you." He faced racial discrimination when he was
nominated to the local honor society in high school and was made
to feel most unwelcome there.
While still in high school, Dan became a volunteer with the
local chapter of the American Red Cross. Then the "entire world
turned upside down" on December 7, 1942. After the bombing, the
secretary of the local American Red Cross chapter called young
Daniel into action immediately, having him "help with injured
people who had been rescued from fallen debris, as well as the
other wounded that needed treatment."
Daniel shared that his life had been changed by the bombing of
Pearl Harbor: "The war came along, and the challenge was
immense, not just physical, but emotional. My loyalty, together
with those of my generation, was questioned. We were looked upon
as enemy agents, and our friends of Japanese ancestry were
placed in camps, without any trial. And that was something that,
though I was fairly young, I felt had to be overcome." Though
Daniel was of Japanese descent, he was "100% American." The
following year, when President Franklin Roosevelt finally
allowed the Nisei (second-generation Japanese-Americans) to join
the United States military, Daniel attempted to enlist, but he
was turned down.
Unwilling to accept "no" as an answer, he requested information
from the draft board concerning his rejection. The clerk found
that Daniel was "working 72 hours a week at the aid station" of
the local chapter of the American Red Cross. Dan was told,
"You're already making an essential defense contribution, and
you're enrolled in a pre-med course at the University, and Lord
knows we'll be needing doctors." So he dropped out of the
University of Hawaii and quit his job with the Red Cross. Then
he re-applied.
This time his application was accepted. Inouye was bright and
eager to serve. "In the military, there was another challenge,
or obstacle." Dan said, "I was the assistant squad leader. Then,
the youngest person was about two years my senior, and the
oldest was about 15 years my senior." Because these were
Japanese-American soldiers who all came from "a society where
age makes a difference . . . where elders are looked upon with a
bit more respect than the younger ones, it was a challenge. So,
I had to work overtime at that, to justify that position."
He was promoted rapidly, first to corporal and then to sergeant.
Daniel and his unit were sent to Italy to fight. He earned a
battlefield commission to second lieutenant while fighting in
Europe.
In one battle in Italy, near the end of World War II in Europe,
young Lieutenant Inouye had his right arm essentially shot off.
In spite of the intense pain, he insisted on remaining at the
battle scene, directing and protecting his troops, though he had
tourniquets on his right shoulder and the stub of that arm. He
was decorated for his heroism, receiving a Bronze Star, a Purple
Heart, and the Distinguished Service Cross. He was also
recommended for, and later received, the Congressional Medal of
Honor. Lieutenant Inouye was transferred back to the United
States to receive treatment and rehabilitation for his wounds.
Senator Inouye told me, "I specifically chose to do my
rehabilitation as far away from Hawaii as possible," because he
had always been sheltered. He explained, "I had experienced only
limited contact with anything outside my Japanese-American
neighborhood." He wanted to see how other people lived, and
became cultured in the ways of the "hoale" [white] world in the
process. "I underwent a 'Pygmalion transformation,' learning how
to formally dine with silver and china, attending cultural
events and meetings with as many different types of people as I
possibly could."
Inouye shared that his generation, "in Hawaii, [came] from
[Japanese-American] ethnic enclaves [who] spoke a strange brand
of pidgin-English. So I felt that if I lived in a community
where you were literally forced to change your way of
communicating, it would help. And it did."
Daniel specifically noted, "In fact, the highest compliment paid
was when I returned home to Hawaii, and I opened my mouth to see
how [my mother] was, she said, 'You speak like a 'hoale'!"
During his lengthy rehabilitation, Daniel decided to finish
college, get a law degree, and then enter into public service.
He left the U.S. Army as a captain, returned to the University
of Hawaii, and married a Japanese-American girl, Margaret
Awamura. He completed "law school with a Juris Doctorate at
George Washington University in Washington, D.C. in just two
years," and then returned to Hawaii, where he "took and passed
the Territorial Bar exam."
In 1959 he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives for
the new State of Hawaii, becoming the first Japanese-American
ever to be elected to the U.S. Congress. Inouye was elected to
the U.S. Senate in 1962, and has been re-elected every six years
since then. Senator Inouye is the third highest-ranking member
of the United States Senate.
Copyright 2006