The decision of the University of Hawaii-Manoa not to proceed with a $50 million Daniel K. Inouye Center for Democratic Leadership gives the university an opportunity to finally do something right.
Rather than clutter the Manoa campus with more concrete and glass, the university should start work on a competently researched, meticulously documented, fair and well-written biography of the late senator.
“More than any other statesman in the history of these volcanic islands — more than Kamehameha the Great, who united them into a kingdom in 1810, or Gov. John Burns, who led the political revolution that established Democratic Party rule here in 1954 — Inouye, 86, has ruled over Hawaii.”
—Jason Horowitz
“Sen. Daniel Inouye, Hawaii’s reigning son”
—The Washington Post, Oct. 5, 2010
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Mission accomplished would show that the university, known more recently for its maladroit administration, deteriorating buildings and failed football program, can still function as an educational institution.
Work on Inouye’s biography needs to begin now, while people who knew him can talk for the record about his personality, style, dreams, achievements, strategies, maneuvers, compromises and defeats.
As a first order of business, Inouye’s congressional papers need to be properly archived.
Second, a biographer would have to be selected.
The Inouye biography should be a project of the UH’s Department of History.
Its goal should be historical truth.
The committee to select the Inouye biographer should include people with strong UH ties such as:
>> Dan Boylan, retired UH-West Oahu history professor and the main author of “John A. Burns: The Man and His Times.”
>> Neil Abercrombie, who received a Ph.D. in political science from UH and is an admirer of T. Harry Williams’s “Huey Long: A Biography.”
>> John J. Stephan, the author of “Hawaii Under the Rising Sun,” a significant scholarly work that explores the times that gave rise to Inouye.
A competent biography would help us understand Inouye — the proud son of Japanese immigrants, the graduate of McKinley High School and UH, the war hero and Medal of Honor recipient, and the controversial figure who allegedly committed a wartime atrocity and allegedly engaged in sexual harassment.
A longtime state and national political figure, he was once a revolutionary and later became an enduring symbol of the status quo.
His enormous influence over the Democratic Party of Hawaii probably accounts for the condition of Hawaii’s politics and government today.
The biography should assess the veracity of Inouye’s own “Journey to Washington” (1967). Why isn’t his autobiography still in print? Is there anything in it that he wanted to suppress?
The biography should review Inouye’s legislative record. Over a long political career of almost a half-century, what important pieces of legislation did he introduce and get passed?
The news media applauded his ability to bring home the bacon. What’s needed now is a review of those millions upon millions of dollars in federal appropriations. Who exactly benefited? What has so much Department of Defense money done to improve the lives of Hawaii residents and lay the foundation for a prosperous future?
Who was Daniel K. Inouye?
Did he rule over Hawaii?
The story of his life, read as a cautionary tale, could be his most important legacy.
Warren Iwasa, a member of the Democratic Party of Hawaii, is a former journalist and government employee.
