November 3, 1947 –

U.S. Senator and co-sponsor of Congressional Gold Medal Act

The first Asian-American women to serve in the Senate, Mazie Hirono sponsored the bill awarding WWII Filipino veterans the Congressional Gold Medal. Hirono’s grandparents immigrated to Hawai’i from Japan to work on sugar plantations. Though Mazie Hirono would be born in Japan in 1947, her mother moved her family back to Hawai’i in 1955. Before joining the senate in 2012, Hirono served in the House of Representatives for six years. In addition to the Congressional Gold Medal, Hirono championed an immigration bill, the Filipino World War II Veterans Parole Program, that sought to reunited Filipino WWII veterans with their children or other family members.