Sen. Andy Kim, D-N.J., found a surprise in a desk drawer on the Senate floor shortly after he was sworn in as the state’s first Asian American senator.
He found himself sitting at a desk engraved with the name of an Asian American pioneer: Daniel K. Inouye, a former senator who became the first Japanese American elected to Congress.
Inouye became Hawaii’s first congressman after it became a state and served in the military during World War II — shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor.
“I learned that desks on the floor of the Senate have drawers that every senator who used that desk carved their name into,” Kim wrote in a post on X on Wednesday. “I just took out my drawer. One name stood out.”
Inouye died in 2012 at the age of 88. After being posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, he became the first and only U.S. Senator to receive both the Medal of Freedom and the Medal of Honor.
‘Medal of Honor from the Second World War. Senator for ~50 years. AAPI pioneer,” Kim wrote about Inouye.
Sen. Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, in 2011.
Inouye was the second-longest serving senator, representing Hawaii for 49 years. Hawaii’s largest airport was renamed after the Honolulu native in 2017, according to Hawaii’s transportation department.
Kim, the first Korean-American senator, represented New Jersey’s 3rd Congressional District before defeating Republican Curtis Bashaw and capturing former Sen. Bob Menendez’s seat. Asian Americans are the fastest growing racial group in the state, with the number of voters increasing 99% between 2000 and 2022.
“I can’t believe I get to sit at the desk of a hero of mine,” Kim said.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
