New Jersey Sen. Andy Kim reveals a surprise in his Senate floor desk

Kim found found in his desk the name of Sen. Daniel K. Inouye, the only U.S. senator to receive both the Medal of Freedom and Medal of Honor. He called him an "AAPI trailblazer."

Sen. Andy Kim, D-N.J., found a surprise in a Senate floor desk drawer shortly after being sworn in as the state’s first Asian American senator. 

He found that he was sitting at a desk etched with the name of an Asian American trailblazer: 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 army during World War II — enlisting shortly after the strike on Pearl Harbor. 

“I learned Senate floor desks have drawers where every Senator who used that desk carves their name,” Kim wrote in a post on X on Wednesday. “I just pulled out my drawer. 1 name jumped out.” 

Inouye died in 2012 at the age of 88. After he was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, he became the first and only U.S. senator to be the recipient of both the Medal of Freedom and the Medal of Honor. 

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/new-jersey-sen-andy-kim-daniel-inouye-rcna184874

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