Chap­ter 20 high­lights the life of Daniel Inouye, focus­ing on his expe­ri­ences dur­ing World War II, par­tic­u­lar­ly in 1943. After grad­u­at­ing high school, Daniel had hoped to serve his coun­try in the mil­i­tary, but the after­math of the Pearl Har­bor attack left him with a harsh real­i­ty. Due to his Japan­ese her­itage, Daniel was unfair­ly clas­si­fied as an “ene­my alien,” which result­ed in his exclu­sion from mil­i­tary ser­vice. Instead of aban­don­ing his dreams of con­tribut­ing to the war effort, he redi­rect­ed his focus toward edu­ca­tion, enrolling in pre-med­ical stud­ies. This deci­sion was a direct result of the deeply entrenched racial prej­u­dice that Japan­ese Amer­i­cans faced dur­ing this peri­od, as their loy­al­ty to the Unit­ed States was con­stant­ly ques­tioned despite their con­tri­bu­tions to the coun­try.

In Hawaii, many Japan­ese Amer­i­cans man­aged to avoid forced incar­cer­a­tion due to the resis­tance of local offi­cials who stood against mil­i­tary orders. How­ev­er, Daniel’s per­son­al expe­ri­ence took a trou­bling turn when armed offi­cers arrived at his home to seize his father’s reg­is­tered short­wave radio, which was an action meant to humil­i­ate and intim­i­date his fam­i­ly. Wit­ness­ing the destruc­tion of the radio in front of his father, Daniel felt the weight of the injus­tice and racism that his fam­i­ly and oth­er Japan­ese Amer­i­cans were sub­ject­ed to. This event left a last­ing impres­sion on Daniel, rein­forc­ing his desire to fight against the dis­crim­i­na­tion that plagued not only his fam­i­ly but also his entire com­mu­ni­ty. Although the harsh treat­ment was dif­fi­cult to endure, it fueled his deter­mi­na­tion to prove his worth and loy­al­ty to the coun­try that had so unfair­ly treat­ed him.

Despite being ini­tial­ly exclud­ed from mil­i­tary ser­vice, Daniel and oth­er Japan­ese Amer­i­cans began to peti­tion for the right to serve in the armed forces. Their per­sis­tent efforts paid off when Pres­i­dent Franklin D. Roo­sevelt approved the for­ma­tion of a seg­re­gat­ed mil­i­tary unit specif­i­cal­ly for Japan­ese Amer­i­cans in March 1943. Daniel eager­ly enlist­ed in the 442nd Reg­i­men­tal Com­bat Team, a unit whose sol­diers were deter­mined to prove their patri­o­tism. The mot­to of the 442nd, “Go for Broke,” encap­su­lat­ed the resolve and courage of the men who served in this unit, many of whom were fight­ing not only against for­eign ene­mies but also against the prej­u­dice they faced at home. Upon deploy­ment to Italy, Daniel was shocked by the dire con­di­tions he encoun­tered, includ­ing wide­spread pover­ty and dev­as­ta­tion among the local civil­ians. The sight of hun­gry Ital­ians, some so des­per­ate that they offered to work for scraps of garbage, deeply moved him, prompt­ing him to take action. Instead of offer­ing work, Daniel chose to share his rations with the starv­ing peo­ple, mark­ing the begin­ning of a new phi­los­o­phy with­in his unit to ensure that basic human needs were pri­or­i­tized, even in the midst of war.

The nar­ra­tive fur­ther explores Daniel’s expe­ri­ences in intense com­bat, where he demon­strat­ed extra­or­di­nary brav­ery and resilience. Dur­ing a crit­i­cal mis­sion on April 20, 1945, Daniel led his men against Ger­man machine gun posi­tions, a dan­ger­ous oper­a­tion that ulti­mate­ly cost him his right arm. Even in the face of such tremen­dous per­son­al sac­ri­fice, Daniel con­tin­ued to dis­play courage, man­ag­ing to throw a grenade before being grave­ly injured. After endur­ing a long wait for med­ical assis­tance, Daniel under­went surgery with­out anes­the­sia, and the sever­i­ty of his wounds led to the ampu­ta­tion of his remain­ing arm. Despite the immense phys­i­cal and emo­tion­al trau­ma he suf­fered, Daniel nev­er lost his dri­ve to push for­ward. Dur­ing his recov­ery, he formed a deep bond with fel­low sol­dier Bob Dole, and the two promised to sup­port each other’s dreams of suc­cess after the war.

After his recov­ery, Daniel Inouye tran­si­tioned from mil­i­tary ser­vice to a suc­cess­ful career in pol­i­tics. His deep-seat­ed desire to pro­tect cit­i­zens’ rights over prop­er­ty and to fight for jus­tice in the face of inequal­i­ty led him to become one of Hawaii’s first sen­a­tors. His jour­ney from a young sol­dier to a respect­ed politi­cian is a pow­er­ful tes­ta­ment to his resilience and deter­mi­na­tion. Daniel’s rise to polit­i­cal promi­nence sym­bol­ized the broad­er strug­gles of Japan­ese Amer­i­cans and oth­er mar­gin­al­ized com­mu­ni­ties who fought for recog­ni­tion, equal­i­ty, and jus­tice. His sto­ry, marked by courage, sac­ri­fice, and an unwa­ver­ing com­mit­ment to his prin­ci­ples, serves as an endur­ing exam­ple of the pow­er of per­se­ver­ance. As both a sol­dier and a politi­cian, Daniel Inouye’s lega­cy is a reminder of the sac­ri­fices made by the 442nd Reg­i­men­tal Com­bat Team and oth­er Japan­ese Amer­i­can sol­diers dur­ing World War II, as well as the last­ing impact they had on the civ­il rights move­ment and the Amer­i­can polit­i­cal land­scape.