Hawaiian Senator and Medal of Honor Winner Daniel K. Inouye Dies at Age 88

US Senator Daniel K. Inouye of Hawaii died at the age of 88 at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, MD from respiratory complications. He served in WWII, was a member of Congress and a US Senator since 1962. In 1959 when he was elected to the House because the first Japanese American elected to Congress. Since 2010 Sen. Inouye had been the Senate’s president pro tempore, which put him third in the line of succession for the presidency. Inouye was also a Medal of Honor recipient. Rest in Peace.

Daniel K. Inouye … Rest in Peace

Sen. Daniel K. Inouye of Hawaii, a highly decorated World War II combat veteran who used his status as one of the most powerful Democrats in Washington and the second-longest-serving senator in history to send billions of dollars to his home islands, died Monday at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda. He was 88.

Peter Boyland, a spokesman for the senator, said the cause was respiratory complications.

He cut a singular figure in the nation’s capital when he arrived in Washington in 1959 as a representative from the newest state and the first Japanese American elected to Congress.