Hawaii and the nation have recognized the many contributions of the late U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye by naming facilities, a solar telescope, a highway and a Navy destroyer after the powerful statesman, who died Dec. 17, 2012.
As chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Inouye’s impact was felt near and far, and a reminder of the latter is Israel’s decision to name an Arrow missile defense site after him.
The Jerusalem Post said the occasion will mark the first time the Jewish state has named a military facility for a non-Israeli.
Inouye’s wife, Irene, is expected to be a guest of the Israeli Defense Ministry at a Jan. 14 ceremony at a secret military facility, the Post said.
Before his death at the age of 88, Inouye was a staunch supporter of Israel.
Sallai Meridor, a former Israeli ambassador to Washington, wrote in an opinion piece upon Inouye’s death that the Hawaii politician "played a leading role in all major aspects of the strategic relations between America and Israel."
Inouye was instrumental in transforming American military aid to Israel from loans to grants totaling tens of billions of dollars, Meridor said.
Meridor said Inouye led American support of Israel’s multilayered missile defense system, including Arrow, David’s Sling and Iron Dome.
"He assured that Israel would not only be allowed to purchase (the) most advanced American weapons system for its defense, but also be able to develop its own cutting-edge systems to assure Israel’s qualitative military advantage over its enemies," Meridor said.
Inouye’s relationship with Israel began in September 1945 when he was recuperating from combat injuries — which would later earn him the Medal of Honor — and he learned from another wounded soldier of Nazi Germany’s death camps and its mass killing of Jews.
Asked why, the soldier said that "people don’t like Jews," an answer that Inouye later said had haunted him all his years.
The Japanese-American, who lost his right arm charging German machine gun nests in Italy, was no stranger to racism.
When he and other nisei soldiers arrived at Camp Shelby in Mississippi for training, one newspaper headline read, "Japs invade Mississippi."
While in the uniform of a U.S. Army captain with his right sleeve pinned up, Inouye endured being denied service in a restaurant because of his race.
Inouye learned more about Israel, sold Israeli bonds in Hawaii in 1951 and said he considered converting to Judaism.
