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The University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa and the Library of Congress celebrated an agreement that will honor the lifework of the late Senator Daniel K. Inouye.

The Daniel K. Inouye Project gives UH Mānoa the honor of housing, preserving and organizing Inouye’s congressional papers. It also establishes a digital access program for the papers at both UH Mānoa and the Library of Congress.

“The senator of course was a graduate of UH Mānoa and we are humbled and honored to bring home and house valuable portions of his life’s work here at his alma mater,” said UH Mānoa Chancellor Tom Apple.

The project also includes the creation of an oral history and a distinguished scholars initiative focusing on topics of national and international interest.

Senator Inouye’s widow Irene Hirano Inouye said the senator would be extremely pleased that his work is being made available to an international audience.

“His work spanned certainly work around the globe and many other countries are also interested in what his life had represented,” said Hirano Inouye.

Hirano Inouye looked on as Chancellor Apple and the Director of Preservation for the Library of Congress Mark Sweeney signed the memorandum of understanding establishing the Senator Daniel K. Inouye Project.

Inouye’s son Ken Inouye presented UH Mānoa with his father’s University of Hawaiʻi diploma, and the Daniel K. Inouye Institute presented UH Mānoa with a $250,000 check to support the beginnings of the effort to carry on Inouye’s legacy.

“It’s the kind of partnership that the senator would have loved because it connects Hawaiʻi to our nation’s capitol,” said Hirano Inouye.

“We have an opportunity to explore his legacy. Senator Inouye’s legacy, but also more importantly an opportunity to build on it,” said Sweeney.

“(This is) extraordinarily important and it’s novel. The Library of Congress doesn’t do this often, and we were very, very pleased that after several months of discussion, we were able to have this memorandum of understanding signing today, and to have the senator’s legacy project support this,” said UH President M.R.C. Greenwood.

“This will be a place where every Hawaiʻi child can come and learn not only about the senator and his legacy, but our American system of government,” said Apple.

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