Japanese claims have no basis in fact

I am quite disappointed and appalled to read the one-sided commentary written by Ichiro Ue on the Dokdo Island conflict between South Korea and Japan ("Japan must get to bottom of S. Korea rift," March 31). Let me tell you the truth to this ongoing island dispute.

Dokdo Island has been a part of the Korean Shilla kingdom since 512 A.D., according to ancient Korean maps. Even archived U.S. documents show maps drawn by Japanese geographer Shihei Hayashi in 1785 that Dokdo Island was part of the Korean Peninsula. The Tokugawa government also told Japanese fishermen to not fish in the waters off of Dokdo Island.

Furthermore, Japan is also having conflicts with China over the Diaoyutai Islands near Okinawa.

Ue wondered why President Roh was infuriated with Japan's right-wing government. The answer has to do with Japan's past actions and aggressions against her Asian neighbors. Japan has committed atrocities and heinous acts, such as carrying out the Rape of Nanjing, forcing girls as young as 8 to become sex slaves of the Japanese military, forcing males to work long hours for Japanese conglomerates, and conducting live vivisection on Chinese, Koreans and allied POWs.

Japan's government has repeatedly denied its past atrocities.

If Japan's government wants to be a true world leader and become a permanent member on the U.N. Security Council, it had better shape up and not revert back to its facist-militaristic past.

Give us tax break for catchment tanks

I'm all for conserving water, but how about saving it, too? As in water catchment tanks, to take the burden off our use of the county water supply.

If we could get a tax credit or discounted rates from the water board, it would be an incentive to lay out the cost for the catchment tank installation. This is similar to the tax credit given for a solar water heating system to conserve electric use.

When it rains hard, it pains me to see all that water falling off our roofs. I want to save it to water the yard when we have no rain. I want to save the rain for a non-rainy day.

What's wrong with military recruiting?

I completely fail to follow the logic of the April 7 letter "Should recruiters be in our high schools?": "Hawai'i has the most soldiers killed in Iraq of any state in the country, per capita. Should the Air Force recruiters really be in our high schools?"

As an Air Force retiree, the government pays me to live in Hawai'i without working, pays my medical bills for the rest of my life, and allows me to buy groceries on base for about half-price. During 12 years of active duty, I flew missions in the Pacific and Europe and spent enjoyable weekends at government expense in such places as Bangkok and Athens. During 16 years in the Air Force Reserve, I worked as an engineer for companies like Boeing and Lockheed while being paid at a double-time rate for flying a few nights and weekends with an occasional week in choice destinations like Florida, Las Vegas and Panama.

The contributor is a substitute teacher. I flew combat in Vietnam with another now-retiree, also from Hawai'i, who retired shortly after 20 years and has now spent another 20 years in a second career as a teacher at Castle High.

Inouye's explanation didn't appease anger

It was with great interest that I read Sen. Inouye's explanation of his long-term support of drilling in the Arctic refuge in Alaska. Apparently, he has received more negative feedback from constituents regarding this vote than any other in the last 10 years.

We are most definitely angry, and his explanation did little to appease us.

First, he claims the area for the proposed drilling is very small, only 2,000 acres. It's not the size of the land that matters; it's the damage it causes that is most important. The refuge is home to more than 150 wildlife species, including caribou, polar bears, musk oxen and millions of migratory birds.

Second, Sen. Inouye says that of all 230 Indian tribes in Alaska, only one opposes drilling, the Gwich'in, and only after no oil was found on their land. This argument exposes the reason why all of the other tribes support drilling: economic gain.

The main reason we choose representatives in government is to ensure that they work for the common good, and not for the monetary benefit of a few.

Finally, he claims that drilling in the refuge will reduce our dependency on foreign oil by 4 percent and that it will reduce our need to fight for oil in Iraq. According to recent studies, the oil that we will get from this region won't even be available to us at the pumps for another 12 years. Surely the United States will be out of Iraq by then.