page_title: S. I. Hayakawa
section_title: Political career
hierarchical_section_title: S. I. Hayakawa / Political career
caption_attribution_description: English: President Ronald Reagan and John Louis (6-8) Photo op. With Ambassador to United Kingdom John Louis President Ronald Reagan and S.I. Hayakawa (9-10) Meeting with Senator S.I. Hayakawa
context_page_description: Samuel Ichiye Hayakawa was a Canadian-born American academic and politician of Japanese ancestry. A professor of English, he served as president of San Francisco State University and then as U.S. Senator from California from 1977 to 1983.
context_section_description: Hayakawa won an unexpected victory in the 1976 Republican Senate primary over three better-known career politicians including HEW Secretary Robert Finch, long-time U.S. Representative Alphonzo Bell and California Lieutenant Governor John L. Harmer. Much like Jimmy Carter, Hayakawa touted himself as a political outsider.
  On the Democratic side, incumbent Senator John Tunney faced a surprisingly strong challenge from another political outsider, Tom Hayden. Hayden's extremely liberal candidacy forced Tunney to run more to the left in the primary, which hurt him in the general election.
  Nevertheless, Tunney was favored to easily win reelection. Comfortably ahead in the polls, Tunney did not aggressively campaign until the final weeks before the election. But Hayakawa's position as a political outsider was popular in the wake of the Watergate scandal. In addition, Tunney had a high absenteeism rate while serving in the Senate and missed numerous votes. Hayakawa exploited this with a television ad that showed an empty chair in the U.S. Senate chamber. Hayakawa gradually closed the gap with Tunney, and ultimately defeated him by just over three percentage points.
  During his 1976 Senate campaign, he spoke about the proposal to transfer possession of the Panama Canal and Canal Zone from the United States to Panama. Hayakawa said, "We should keep the Panama Canal. After all, we stole it fair and square." However, in 1978 he helped win Senate approval of the Torrijos–Carter Treaties, which transferred control of the zone and canal to Panama. He also supported a bill that led to the creation of the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians, which examined the causes and effects of the incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II. During his time in the Senate, Hayakawa was one of three Japanese Americans in the chamber, the other two being Daniel Inouye and Spark Matsunaga, both of Hawaii.
  He planned to run for reelection in 1982 but trailed other Republican candidates badly in early polls and was short on money. He dropped out of the race early in the year and was ultimately succeeded by Republican San Diego Mayor Pete Wilson.
  Hayakawa founded the political lobbying organization U.S. English, which is dedicated to making the English language the official language of the United States. Hayakawa, who lived in Chicago as a Canadian citizen during World War II and was thus not subject to confinement, argued that the internment of Japanese Americans was beneficial and that Japanese Americans should not be paid for "fulfilling their obligations" to submit to Executive Order 9066.
caption: Samuel Ichiye Hayakawa, United States Senator from California on May 8, 1981, with President Reagan at the White House
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