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Norman Mineta is a leader from a bygone era, one that seems almost unimaginable in the current political context.

He served as a Cabinet member in both a Democratic and a Republican White House — secretary of commerce under Bill Clinton and secretary of transportation under George W. Bush.

The longtime Democrat was not only the first Asian-American to serve in a presidential Cabinet, under Bush he became the longest-serving transportation secretary in the nation’s history.

No doubt, Washington had its share of dysfunction back in those days, but at least it was able to accomplish the basics of making our federal government run. Perhaps that was because bipartisanship wasn’t a dirty word, and so many government leaders of the time came of age during World War II, when our national survival hinged on how effectively we could put aside our differences and unite for the greater good.

Mineta was in Honolulu this week to be honored by the Honolulu chapter of the Japanese American Citizens League, which feted him at an intimate Pacific Club luncheon that brought out a who’s who of Hawaii political leaders.

Among the guests paying tribute to the 84-year-old Mineta were Sens. Brian Schatz and Mazie Hirono, Congressman Mark Takai, former Gov. Neil Abercrombie, former U.S. Rep. Colleen Hanabusa and former Surgeon General Kenneth P. Moritsugu.

And while today’s leaders were there in person, many others were there in spirit, conjured by stories about Dan Inouye, Patsy Mink, Spark Matsunaga and others. Mineta knew them well, and shared generously from a lifetime of service that has been as intertwined with Hawaii as it has with the halls of power in Washington, D.C. — something he acknowledged in recalling his early days in Congress.

“The Hawaii delegation was just terrific at taking me in and introducing me to leadership and even in just being there for chitchat,” he said. “I cherish those times.”

But his experience as an American wasn’t always that sunny. Born in San Jose, California, in 1931, Mineta was only 9 when his family was interned in the Heart Mountain camp in Wyoming. A visit Tuesday to Oahu’s Honouliuli Internment Camp site brought back a flood of painful memories.

He recalled seeing his brother, nine years older, cry while the Mineta family was interned over being classified by the draft board as “4C” — enemy alien — and therefore unfit to serve, simply for being Japanese American. And his own befuddlement and hurt at being described in the camp as a “non alien” rather than simply as an American citizen.

Calling his visit to Honouliuli “an emotional experience,” Mineta told the luncheon crowd on Wednesday, “I just couldn’t get over it — the conditions in which those folks lived.” As hard as he and his family had it for the several years they were held in Wyoming, “It was nothing compared to what I saw (at Honouliuli).”

A Warm Embrace By Hawaii Leaders

The Mineta family endured and the war mercifully ended. Despite the treatment he had endured as a youngster, Mineta decided to join the Army after graduating from Berkeley with a business degree and subsequently served as an intelligence officer in Japan and Korea.

After completing his service, he returned to California and the family insurance business and, soon thereafter, an entry into politics as a San Jose City Council member.

A term as mayor followed, and in 1975, he was elected to Congress. Hawaii’s legendary Patsy Mink, who had won the first of 12 congressional terms four years earlier, immediately “took me under her wing. She was just terrific,” said Mineta. Spark Matsunaga, too.

But Sen. Dan Inouye earned Mineta’s greatest admiration. He had met the Hawaii legend years before, and relished the chance to serve with him in Washington. “It was just magical to see Sen. Inouye at work,” Mineta said. “He was a great role model in how to get things done.”

Years later, when their mutual friend Sen. Ted Stevens of Alaska perished in an airplane accident, it fell to Mineta to inform Inouye.

“One of the toughest things I’ve ever had to do was go to Dan and tell him Ted’s plane was missing,” he recalled.

Perhaps it’s a stereotype, but in my experience, members of Mineta’s generation don’t cry easily and rarely in public. Wednesday at the Pacific Club, the room fell silent as Mineta choked up recounting that day. The crowd waited patiently, respectfully, for him to go on.

Among Mineta’s many accomplishments in the ensuing years was passage of the Civil Liberties Act of 1988, the legislation granting reparations to Japanese Americans interned in World War II that the congressman co-sponsored along with his lifelong friend, Wyoming Sen. Alan Simpson.

He and Simpson first met during one of Simpson’s many visits to Heart Mountain, where he went to show support for fellow Boy Scouts interned there, such as Mineta.

The bill granted each surviving internee $20,000, and more than 82,000 individuals were paid after President Ronald Reagan signed the legislation, which had been passed despite Republican opposition.

Schatz on Wednesday called Mineta “the driving force” behind that landmark bill. Though the government actions that necessitated the bill represent a dark moment in American history, it is “our moral duty to keep this memory alive,” said Schatz.

Also decrying the “tragedy of the interment,” Hirono drew parallels between the racism and hysteria that caused it and similar dynamics today, in which the leading Republican candidate for president calls for Muslims to be denied entry into the United States and a wall to built separating the mainland states from Mexico.

Mineta showed that we’re better than that, and that we can rise above such fear mongering and overcome “the politics of divisiveness,” she said. “That he traveled the road from internment to the U.S. Congress is not only a tribute to the greatness of our country, but to the courage and persistence of Norm Mineta.”

Mineta encouraged those seeking to overcome their own obstacles today to remember the importance of community and their responsibilities to others.

“Each of us has two arms. One to climb up the ladder of success, the other to reach back and help others up,” said Mineta. “Exercise both your arms.”