Former Hawaii governor George Ariyoshi, the first US governor of Asian American descent, dies at 100

Mr. Ariyoshi was a three-term governor who rose to the position in October 1973. Three years earlier, he had been elected lieutenant governor and he became acting governor when Governor John Burns became ill with cancer. Mr. Ariyoshi won the office outright in 1974 and was reelected in 1978 and 1982. Hawaii governors are now subject to a two-term limit. His political career coincided with the Democratic Party’s rise to power in Hawaii. Democrats wrested control of the Legislature from Republicans in 1954, the year Mr. Ariyoshi won the first of two terms in the Territorial House of Representatives. He…