Hawaii Sen. Daniel Inouye, 88, dies

Catalina Camia, USA TODAY | USATODAY

WASHINGTON -- Democrat Daniel Inouye, the U.S. Senate's most senior member and a Medal of Honor recipient for his bravery during World War II, has died. He was 88.

He died of respiratory complications and had been at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center since earlier this month. His office said his last word was "Aloha," the traditional Hawaiian word for "hello" and "goodbye."

President Obama praised Inouye, saying the nation has "lost a true American hero."

"In Washington, he worked to strengthen our military, forge bipartisan consensus, and hold those of us in government accountable to the people we were elected to serve," Obama said in a statement. "But it was his incredible bravery during World War II -- including one heroic effort that cost him his arm but earned him the Medal of Honor -- that made Danny not just a colleague and a mentor, but someone revered by all of us lucky enough to know him."

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., announced the news of Inouye's death on the Senate floor, sparking a round of tributes for the man Reid called "a giant of the Senate." Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., hailed Inouye's service and his reserve as a mark of "men who lead by example and expect nothing in return."

Sen. Reid: I'll cherish Sen. Inouye's kindness Sen. Daniel Inouye, a Hawaii Democrat, has died. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid announced Inouye's death on the Senate floor. (Dec. 17)

As president pro tempore of the Senate, Inouye was third in line of presidential succession -- after Vice President Biden and House Speaker John Boehner. First elected to the Senate in 1962, Inouye's tenure is second only to Democrat Robert Byrd of West Virginia, who died in 2010.

Under Hawaii law, Democratic Gov. Neil Abercrombie will appoint a successor to Inouye until a special election can be held.

Perhaps more than any other politician, Inouye has been a dominating presence in Hawaii's history. He has represented Hawaii continuously since it achieved statehood in 1959, first in the U.S. House and then in the U.S. Senate, where he used his seat on the powerful Appropriations Committee to send federal dollars back home for a host of projects. Inouye has served on the committee since 1971, and became chairman in 2009.

Inouye was a proud supporter of "earmarks," the special pet projects of senators, which were banned in the Senate in 2010. Inouye won approval for $392.4 million in earmarks in fiscal 2010, according to the non-partisan Center for Responsive Politics.

Throughout his life, Inouye was a witness to some of the nation's most historic moments, first as a teenage Red Cross volunteer who tended to the wounded when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. He was keynote speaker at the tumultuous 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago.

Inouye would later serve as a member of the Senate committee investigating the Watergate scandal in the 1970s and chairman in the 1980s of the panel investigating the Reagan administration's sale of arms to Iran, whose proceeds were used to fund Nicaraguan rebels in what became known as the Iran-contra affair.

Yet it was on the battlefields in Europe during World War II where Inouye first earned distinction. At a time when the federal government placed thousands of Japanese Americans into relocation camps, Inouye and his Asian-American peers petitioned the White House for the right to serve in the military. He dropped out of school to join the Army's 442nd Regimental Combat Team, made up of "nisei," or Americans whose parents were born in Japan.

In 1944, Inouye narrowly avoided death in France when a bullet struck him in the chest and hit two silver dollars he carried in his shirt pocket for good luck.

He was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for his heroism in 1945 during a battle in Italy near San Terenzo. Inouye and his unit were pinned down by fire. Already wounded by a bullet to his midsection, Inouye was lobbing hand grenades at the enemy when his right arm was almost completely severed by an enemy grenade launcher.

With his left arm, Inouye reached over to pry the live grenade out of his debilitated arm. Hours later while receiving treatment at an Army hospital, Inouye's right arm was amputated.

During his recovery in the hospital, Inouye became friends with a fellow American soldier named Bob Dole -- who later became a U.S. senator from Kansas. Inouye and Dole would often work together on issues when Dole was Senate Republican leader. Dole also lost the use of his right arm in World War II.

More than a half-century after the battle at Terenzo, President Clinton awarded Inouye and 21 other Japanese-American soldiers the Medal of Honor, the nation's highest honor for valor. At the ceremony in 2000, Clinton said the nation owes "an unrepayable debt" to Inouye and his fellow Asian-American soldiers. "Rarely has a nation been so well-served by a people it ill-treated," Clinton said.

Inouye won election to a ninth Senate term in 2010 with 75% of the vote.

Based on Senate service, Democrat Patrick Leahy of Vermont is next in line after Inouye and will become the Senate president pro tempore.

Inouye is survived by his wife, Irene, a son, Ken, and a granddaughter named Maggie. Inouye's first wife, Margaret, died in 2006.

Contributing: Susan Davis