Madam, - I am honoured to be called a disciple of T.K. Whitaker ("Seeds of Reform", Life Features, May 30th). Those who are able to respond to great challenges, as Dr Whitaker did, not only teach others: they allow them to achieve what they might not otherwise have done.
In 1958, while still working in Ireland, I learned I could meet another great man, Peter Drucker, and flew the Atlantic from Shannon. I told Drucker I was seeing a whole society trying to change. We agreed this could prove to be a valuable experience.
Living in New York, 10 years later, when the world was becoming interested in the new Japan, Drucker remembered my Irish experience and phoned, offering me the chance to learn about the post-war transformation of Japanese industry from the American engineers of General MacArthur's Civil Communications Section (CCS) and the Japanese executives who had worked with them. I found the American engineers frustrated that no one would listen to them, even though, as Charles Protzman said, "what we did was very important".
In 1979 my wife, Claire, and I toured Japan to meet those Japanese and record their observations. They included Takeo Kato and Bunzaemon Inoue, both much honoured in Japan: the Japan Union of Scientists and Engineers listed them as among the five Japanese who had done most to create the new quality in Japanese goods that stunned the post-war world. My findings were published by the University of Michigan in 1982. (Anyone who wants to learn more about the creation of Japan's industrial miracle should visit Lisa Sarasohn's website "Honoring Homer Sarasohn" (http://honoringhomer.net/).
Ireland has been blessed with wealth and surely has a duty to tell the poor of the world it was created. I have watched so many Americans and Japanese responsible for Japan's industrial miracle pass away without our intellectual leaders learning from them. Perhaps Ireland should have a website for everyone who thinks they can help understand the Celtic economic miracle and what can be learned from it.
Questions to be asked include: "Do nations that want to learn best manufacturing management have an opportunity comparable to that given Japan's consumer electronics industry by MacArthur's dream team of instructors. Or do open markets by themselves provide enough education?" (I doubt if they do!)
Also, "could Ireland have grown, as Japan did, without introducing wide wealth differentials?" And, lastly, "what can Ireland teach the developing world?" - Yours, etc,
KENNETH HOPPER, Hackettstown, New Jersey, USA.