Bill Inouye grew up in Sacramento, California. At the onset of World War II in 1941, the presumed threat to national security led to the imprisonment of Bill and his family with other Americans of Japanese descent at a camp at Tula Lake, California. In 1944, the Inouyes were allowed to move to Philadelphia where for the rest of the war they managed a hostel that served as a halfway house helping to relocate and aid more than 1000 Japanese Americans from other parts of the US. Twenty-five years after the war ended, Bill's mother was awarded the Order of the Sacred Treasurer by the Japanese Emperor for bettering relations between the U.S. and Japan.
Relocation to Philadelphia allowed Bill to attend Swarthmore where he was Phi Beta Kappa graduating in 1944. His plans to attend medical school were delayed by the economic losses suffered by his family during their imprisonment. For the next 5 years Bill worked as a chemist in an asbestos factory. Then, having saved enough money, he entered Penn Medical School in 1949. He graduated AOA in 1953. While he was a medical student doing research in the Harrison Department of Surgical Research and Bill Bluemle's lab, he devised the first coil hemodialysis machine. He made this from screening material and cellulose tubing purchased from a hardware store. The ingenious device was enclosed in a standard Presto Pressure Cooker for distribution of the dialyzing fluid and to provide a closed system that allowed for ultrafiltration by using negative pressure. Bill first described his dialyzer in the 1953 Surgical Forum. It was used clinically at HUP in some of the earliest successful hemodialyses. During this time Willem Kolff visited Penn and was shown Bill's dialysis machine. Soon after, Kolff produced a similar model, failing to credit Inouye for the design. Former HUP nephrologist, Lee Henderson contends that the coil dialyzer should have been named for Inouye rather than Kolff. It soon became standard because it was a great improvement over the cumbersome drum model originated by Kolff. Years later Kolff belatedly acknowledged Inouye's contribution but earlier many others had recognized its seminal importance. Inouye received the National Kidney Foundation's Dialysis Pioneer Award for design of the forerunner of the twin coil artificial kidney. His prototype is now exhibited in several museums including the Smithsonian Institution.
After finishing the HUP surgical residency in 1961, and 2 years in the Army Bill was appointed to the Penn Faculty. He developed a large practice which he conducted mainly at Jeanes Hospital, which at that time, largely because of Bill, was a popular site of HUP resident rotations. Although outstanding in his early years as a scientist and later as a clinician it was as an educator that Bill Inouye particularly excelled. He was appointed Chief of the Penn Service at Philadelphia General Hospital and Chief of the Residents Ward Teaching Service at HUP. Since he worked at several hospitals he often traveled back and forth across town several times a day making sure that every teaching case was covered. He was considered the best teacher by the residents and also by the medical students who dedicated their yearbook to him.
In the fall of 1982, while he was at the peak of his powers as a surgeon and educator and shortly after his promotion to full professor Bill Inouye developed pleural effusion. This soon led to the diagnosis of mesothelioma which seems certainly to have stemmed from his exposure to asbestos during the time he was working to earn money for medical school. As his disease progressed his activities were more and more limited. His courage and dedication to teaching allowed him to continue some professional activity and fortunately he somewhat outlived predictions based on the usual natural history of his disease, perhaps because of a pleural resection by Alden Harken. Although in considerable pain he continued to make teaching rounds with the residents until a few months of his death. When his physical limitations precluded this activity he turned his attention to raising money for the residents' fund, pursuing this activity to within a few days of his death. He contacted every former HUP resident urging each of them to contribute. Many generously did so with the result that for years this fund provided most of the support of resident travel to meetings. Bill donated the stipend he received for his teaching activities plus a sizable personal contribution to support this fund. He also endowed annual teaching awards, one for a resident and another for a faculty member to be chosen by the residents. Until his death in 1985 the residents refused to designate anyone but Bill as the recipient of the faculty award.