Leadership and Adversity: Turn Adversity into Opportunities: Senator Daniel Inouye Story [Part I of Two]

This Part I of a two part article about US Senator Inouye provides an insight into the groundbreaking proven research about overcoming adversity and the relationship it has with "Leadership and Adversity" has received extensive endorsements and enthusiastic reviews from well-known prominent business, political, and academic leaders, best-selling authors, and leading scholars 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 adversity, major health issues or injuries, assassination of a parent in front of you, imprisonment in a Nazi Concentration Camp, discrimination, significant abuse, or difficult or life threatening challenges shaped their own destiny to become successful, effective leaders.

The full results of this research are presented in a book by Dr. Howard Edward Haller - "Leadership and Adversity: The Shaping of Prominent Leaders," which was published in November 2008 by VDM Verlag Dr Müller AG & CoKG.

For this two part article provides insights into some groundbreaking overcoming adversity and leadership research. I personally interviewed sixteen prominent leaders in-depth, including - Two Self-Made Billionaires, Seven major company Chairman/CEO's, Three well-known and respected Guru's, US Major General (Ret.) & Two current U.S. Senators, on how overcoming adversity has shaped them: Dr. Tony Bonanzino, Jack Canfield, William Draper III, Mark Victor Hansen, U.S. Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT), Monzer Hourani, U.S. Senator Daniel Inouye (D-HI), J. Terrence Lanni, Dr. John Malone, Angelo Mozilo, Larry Pino, Dr. Nido Qubein, U.S. Army Major General Sid Shachnow (Ret.), Dr. John Sperling, Dr. Blenda Wilson, and Zig Ziglar.

This overcoming adversity and leadership research was reviewed and Peer Debriefed by Five Major Leadership Scholars and Best-Selling Authors: Dr. Ken Blanchard, Dr. John Kotter, Prof. James Kouzes, Dr. Paul Stoltz & Dr. Meg Wheatley.

This is Part I of a two part short biography of one of the sixteen overcoming adversity and leadership research participants who generously contributed their time and insight for this important research into the true insights of the phenomenon of how prominent successful individual leaders overcome adversity and obstacles.

This is Part I of Senator Daniel Inouye’s story of overcoming adversity:

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 medical 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 Inouye dropped out of the University of Hawaii and quit his job with the Red Cross.

Then he re-applied. This time his application into the US Army was accepted. Dan Inouye was bright and eager to serve.[The rest of this story of overcoming adversity and turning adversity into opportunities is presented in Part II]