Japanese should not have spurned Waddle

Thank you for publishing Lynne K. Fukuda's Dec. 17 letter to the editor, regarding her thoughts on retired Navy Cmdr. Scott Waddle's recent visit to Japan to show his sincerity about the Ehime Maru tragedy. She certainly expressed my feelings on this subject.

Having served with the U.S. Army, 118th Station Hospital, Fukuoka, Japan, from 1946-47, I know our country showed a deep compassion for the Japanese in their darkest days.

Our hospital, through our president's policies, hired many Japanese civilians to care for our occupation forces' personnel. Certainly, some of the civilians as well as the Japanese government should have been more considerate of Waddle's independent visit to the homeport of the Ehime Maru.

Thank you again, Ms. Fukuda, and to the Star-Bulletin for publishing her recent letter on her kind thoughts of Cmdr. Waddle.

Richard Hoshino

Queen's full-page ad raises more questions

As a social worker, I've grown increasingly concerned about the nurses' strike and its potential impact on family, friends, clients -- the public, which hospitals are here to serve.

For me, The Queen's Medical Center's full-page ad, which appeared in the Star-Bulletin on Dec. 26, raises more questions than it answers. If Queen's feels the need to "control" absenteeism, why are these nurses so often absent? Are they sick or exhausted from harsh, unreasonable working conditions?

I believe nurses when they tell the public that they constantly must work short-staffed, with mandatory (can't say no) overtime because administrators refuse to hire or make efforts to keep adequate nursing staff.

I believe a recent study in the Journal of the American Medical Association that describes increased rates of medical complications and patient fatalities when nurses with high caseloads work short-staffed for 12- to 16-hour shifts.

I believe the true issues are not about pay, but about these unsafe conditions, which matter to us all as potential hospital patients -- but perhaps not to nonmedical, corporate-minded hospital administrators and board members.

Barbara Kirk

Hawaii received gifts from not-so-wise man

Under Hawaii's Christmas tree were two wonderful presents from former Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott. His comments at Sen. Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party showed us two things:

>> In the excitement of a birthday or anniversary celebration, it's easy for intelligent, well-meaning people to say stupid things and make fools of themselves by puffing up their rhetoric.

Congress did something similar in 1993 when it passed a resolution of sentiment for the 100th anniversary of the Hawaiian revolution. Instead of congratulating Hawaii for getting rid of the monarchy, Congress apologized for the negligible U.S. role in that event. And instead of simply saying, "Sorry," Congress passed without hearings a puffed-up piece of nonsense filled with historical inaccuracies and downright falsehoods. Lott was there, and voted against it. Fair warning. Guess he forgot after nine years.

>> Lott's comments seemed to express regret that Thurmond didn't win the presidency on his 1948 segregationist platform. The public was outraged. His Republican colleagues disowned him. The president publicly humiliated him. He was forced to resign as majority leader.

The days of segregation are over. Aren't they? Politicians get in trouble if they support racial apartheid, or the supremacy of one race over others. Don't they? Let's hope Hawaii's politicians do better than Trent Lott when it comes to supporting ceded-land revenues for the racially exclusionary Office of Hawaiian Affairs, or the Akaka bill to establish apartheid in Hawaii.

Ken Conklin
Kaneohe

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