Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 23, Number 2, 1 February 2006 — Military's toxic dumping [ARTICLE]

Military's toxic dumping

Funny how time ean change one's viewpoint on matters. In my dad's youthful days he was a real hell-raiser. Times were tough during the days after the war. He and a few of his friends took it into their heads to make a little beer money by boosting and selling some fire extinguishers being dumped into the oeean by the military. Heek, it was garbage anyway, they thought. Apparently, the military thought otherwise. My dad and his friends were caught, roughed up like infiltrators and tossed into a cold jail eell. It's a wonder I'm here at all to tell his story. In those days, the locals didn't argue with the military, especially after the Massie Affair in the 1930s and the establishment of martial law over Hawai'i in the 1940s. No doubt the parents and families of these boys were ashamed by their misdeeds. Assuming a good whipping capped their ordeal is not a far stretch. In light of recent news charging the military with dumping toxic chemicals in

Hawaiian waters, one could say my dad was an early ehampion for the environment, a steward of the blue waters for the youth of tomorrow and protector of our fragile shore life. Sure, his main eoneem at the time was getting a good Primo buzz. But was anyone else doing anything or has done anything since to deter the military maehine from conducting their malicious plot? John Kapanui Papakōlea, O'ahu