Leadership and Adversity - Profile Inouye

Leadership and Adversity: Orrin G. Hatch Story
United States Senator (R-Utah)

By: Howard Edward Haller, Ph.D.

This article offers an insight into groundbreaking proven research into how to overcome adversity and how to become a successful leader which is well researched and fully documented in my new book “Leadership and Adversity: The Shaping of Prominent Leaders.” This new Leadership book 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 leadership secrets of people who, in spite of adversity, discrimination, 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 the just published book, “Leadership and Adversity: The Shaping of Prominent Leaders,” by Howard Edward Haller, Ph.D., which is available on www.amazon.com, www.amazon.ca, www.amazon.de, and www.amazon.co.uk.

The nine initial prominent successful leaders, who’s stories are told and shared their secrets about how to overcome adversity were: Dr. Tony Bonanzino, U.S. Senator Orrin Hatch (UT), Monzer Hourani, U.S. Senator Daniel Inouye (HI), Dr. John Malone, Laurence Pino, U.S. Army Major General Sid Shachnow (Ret.), Dr. Blenda Wilson, and Zig Ziglar.

The data from the above nine research participants was materially augmented by seven other successful individuals who overcame adversity including: Jack Canfield, William Draper III, Mark Victor Hansen, J. Terrence Lanni, Angelo Mozilo, Dr. Nido Qubein, and Dr. John Sperling.

Additionally, five internationally known, highly respected Best-Selling authors, and major academic scholars offered their peer debriefing comments, reviews and their agreement with the findings of my research findings including:

Dr. Ken Blanchard, Dr. John Kotter, Professor Jim Kouzes, Dr. Paul Stoltz, and Dr. Meg Wheatley.

This is a Part II of a short biography of one of the prominent leaders principal participants for my Leadership and Adversity research who generously contributed their time and insights into the phenomenon of how individuals can successfully overcome adversity and obstacles and even go on to become prominent successful leaders.

Part II of II of the Article on Senator Inouye

This time Dan's application to the U.S. Army was accepted. Inouye was bright and eager to serve. “In the military, there was another challenge, or obstacle.” Dan said, “I was the assistant squad leader. Then, the youngest person was about two years my senior, and the oldest was about 15 years my senior.” Because these were Japanese-American soldiers who all came from “a society where age makes a difference . . . where elders are looked upon with a bit more respect than the younger ones, it was a challenge. So, I had to work overtime at that, to justify that position.”

He was promoted rapidly, first to corporal and then to sergeant. Daniel and his unit were sent to Italy to fight. He earned a battlefield commission to second lieutenant while fighting in Europe. In one battle in Italy, near the end of World War II in Europe, young Lieutenant Inouye had his right arm essentially shot off.

In spite of the intense pain, he insisted on remaining at the battle scene, directing and protecting his troops, though he had tourniquets on his right shoulder and the stub of that arm. He was decorated for his heroism, receiving a Bronze Star, a Purple Heart, and the Distinguished Service Cross. He was also recommended for, and later received, the Congressional Medal of Honor. Lieutenant Inouye was transferred back to the United States to receive treatment and rehabilitation for his wounds.

Senator Inouye told me, “I specifically chose to do my rehabilitation as far away from Hawaii as possible,” because he had always been sheltered. He explained, “I had experienced only limited contact with anything outside my Japanese-American neighborhood.” He wanted to see how other people lived, and became cultured in the ways of the “hoale” [white] world in the process. “I underwent a ‘Pygmalion transformation,’ learning how to formally dine with silver and china, attending cultural events and meetings with as many different types of people as I possibly could.”

Inouye shared that his generation, “in Hawaii, [came] from [Japanese-American] ethnic enclaves [who] spoke a strange brand of pidgin-English. So I felt that if I lived in a community where you were literally forced to change your way of communicating, it would help. And it did.”

Daniel specifically noted, “In fact, the highest compliment paid was when I returned home to Hawaii, and I opened my mouth to see how [my mother] was, she said, ‘You speak like a ‘hoale’!” During his lengthy rehabilitation, Daniel decided to finish college, get a law degree, and then enter into public service.

He left the U.S. Army as a captain, returned to the University of Hawaii, and married a Japanese-American girl, Margaret Awamura. He completed “law school with a Juris Doctorate at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. in just two years,” and then returned to Hawaii, where he “took and passed the Territorial Bar exam.” In 1959 he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives for the new State of Hawaii, becoming the first Japanese-American ever to be elected to the U.S. Congress. Inouye was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1962, and has been re-elected every six years since then. Senator Inouye is the third highest-ranking member of the United States Senate.

Howard Edward Haller, Ph.D.
Chief Enlightenment Officer
The Leadership Success Institute
Author: “Leadership and Adversity: The Shaping of Prominent Leaders”
Publisher: VDM Verlag Dr Müller AG & CoKG ISBN 978-3-639-09841-9
[Now available on www.Amazon.com]