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is an American politician and the junior United States Senator from Hawaii, in office since 2013. Hirono, a member of the Democratic Party, previously served as a member of the Hawaii House of Representatives from 1985 to 1995 and as the Lieutenant Governor of Hawaii from 1994 to 2002, serving under Governor Ben Cayetano. She was the Democratic nominee for Governor of Hawaii in 2002 but was defeated by Republican Linda Lingle. She then served as a member of the United States House of Representatives for Hawaii's 2nd congressional district from 2007 to 2013. She is the first elected female Senator from Hawaii, the first Asian-American woman elected to the Senate, the first U.S. Senator born in Japan, and the nation's first Buddhist Senator. She considers herself a non-practicing Buddhist and is often cited with Hank Johnson as the first Buddhist to serve in the United States Congress. She is the third woman to be elected to Congress from the state of Hawaii (after Patsy Mink and Pat Saiki). The Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by the retirement of Daniel Akaka, Hirono won the election, defeating Linda Lingle in a re-match landslide victory by 63% to 37%. Hirono was sworn in on January 3, 2013, by the Vice President and President of the Senate, Joe Biden. Hirono is the only person of Asian ancestry currently serving in the U.S. Senate. ==Early life and education== Mazie Hirono was born on November 3, 1947, in Fukushima Prefecture, Japan. Although born in Japan, she was born to a mother who was an American citizen. At the age of 16, her maternal grandfather, Sato Hiroshi, immigrated to Hawaii to work on sugar plantations; Hirono’s grandmother, Tari Shinoki, was a picture bride. After finding plantation work difficult, they opened a bathhouse on River Street in Honolulu in 1928 and saved their money. The couple had a daughter, Sato Laura Chie, in 1924 and a son, Akira. In 1939, Tari returned to Japan with their son and daughter; Hiroshi remained behind to run the bathhouse for two more years before rejoining his family in 1941. Though Laura felt out of place in Japan, in 1946, aged 22, she married a veterinarian, Hirono Matabe, and moved with her husband to southern Fukushima. The couple had three children, Roy, Mazie and Wayne; Mazie was the middle child and only daughter. Hirono's father was a compulsive gambler and alcoholic who would pawn his wife's possessions for gambling money.〔 Treated "like a slave," by her in-laws, Hirono said,〔 in 1951 Laura left her abusive marriage. The deciding moment for her had come after Akira, who had returned to Hawaii after the war, had sent some money for a school uniform for her youngest son Wayne, but her husband had taken it to buy an overcoat.〔 As Laura later recounted, "My brother sent money to buy a school uniform for my son. My husband took the money, went to town and never came back home. It was getting closer to the start of school, so I went to look for him. I found out he had ordered an overcoat for himself with the money. He didn't need an overcoat in the spring. That's when I made up my mind to leave." After telling her in-laws she would be taking her elder son and Hirono to school in her hometown, Laura left the house, never to return. Selling her clothes for the rail fare, she returned to her parents' house. Laura said, "My husband never came around once; my parents were supportive and took all of us in. My mother gave us money. I guess it all boils down to love." Hirono's grandparents decided to return to Hawaii, but as Japanese citizens without professional backgrounds, they could only immigrate under a quota system; as Laura had citizenship, she decided to return first. As Wayne was only three, Laura left him with her parents and returned with Mazie and Roy to Hawaii in March 1955, sending for Wayne and her parents in 1957.〔 "She determined that she had to get away, and it wasn't enough to even be living in the same country — she wanted to put thousands of miles between them," Hirono said. "That took a lot of courage. I always tell my mom there is nothing I can do, (hard as it is to be in politics, to be in public life, that I think is) harder than what she did.",〔〔 After first living with her uncle Akira, Mazie, Roy and her mother moved into a rooming house on Kewalo Street in Honolulu. "The first place had one room, one table, three chairs and one bed," Laura said. "Mazie and Roy slept on the bed. I slept on the floor with a futon. The landlady was so nice. The rent was $35, but she charged us less because I didn't have a job."〔 Laura found work for Hawaii Hochi as a typesetter and also worked three nights a week for a catering company. Hirono herself worked in the school cafeteria and had a paper route. Though money was tight and the family was forced to move often, Laura kept them together. Mazie Hirono recalled that she and her brother used to get a dime once or twice a week from their mother. "We both had baseball piggy banks. My older brother spent all his dimes but I saved mine. But one day I came home and the dimes were gone. My mother had to use it to buy food." Hirono never saw her father again, and he has since died. Laura became a newspaper proofreader in 1961 and retired from the Hawaii Newspaper Agency in 1986; Roy became a Hawaii Electric supervisor. Wayne drowned in 1978, aged 26. Her grandfather, Hiroshi, died in 1989, and her grandmother Tari died in 2000 at age 99.〔〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Tari Sato )〕 Raised in Honolulu, Hawaii, Hirono became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1959, the year that Hawaii became a state.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Hawaii, Senate - Mazie Hirono )〕 Hirono attended Kaahumanu Elementary and Koko Head Elementary Schools. She later graduated from Kaimuki High School, which at the time of her attendance had a predominantly Japanese American student body. Upon graduating from high school, Hirono enrolled at the University of Hawaii at Mānoa where, in 1970, she received a B.A. in psychology. She left Hawaii to attend Georgetown University Law Center. She was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa and obtained her J.D. in 1978. Hirono returned to Honolulu where she practiced law.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Mazie K. Hirono, Attorney )〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Mazie Hirono」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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