Lt. Cmdr. Todd C. Sander, head of U.S. Naval Hospital Okinawa’s physical and occupational therapy department at Camp Foster, demonstrates equipment to visiting Japanese students and instructors. (Cindy Fisher / S&S)
Lt. Cmdr. Todd C. Sander, head of U.S. Naval Hospital Okinawa’s physical and occupational therapy department at Camp Foster, demonstrates equipment to visiting Japanese students and instructors. (Cindy Fisher / S&S)
Petty Officer 3rd Class Garcia Shettleworth explains the uses of a Therabath as she dips Kanna Tsue's wrapped fingers into a mixture of heated wax and mineral oil on Friday at Camp Foster. (Cindy Fisher / S&S)
CAMP FOSTER, Okinawa — It was gee-whiz time last week for Japanese physical therapy instructors and students invited to tour U.S. Naval Hospital Okinawa — but U.S. medical personnel said they, too, expected to gain from the exchange.
Tsukasa Yonami, an instructor at the Okinawa College of Rehabilitation, said he’d never seen some of the physical and occupational therapy department’s equipment. Among the devices: a web slide exercise rail for strengthening muscles and a machine that uses ground cornhusks to desensitize skin and heat muscles for increased fluidity.
Lt. Cmdr. Todd C. Sander, chief of the department, said the visit has more value than just an educational exchange.
“Building our relationships with our Japanese counterparts is important because there are times when we need our Japanese friends to provide care that we don’t have here,” he said.
An instructor from the Okinawa college and two instructors and seven students from the Department of Physical Therapy at Rinshofukushi College in Tokyo visited the hospital. They discussed and compared techniques with Sander and other therapists, who also demonstrated some of the equipment. Students also sat in on a few examinations.
Yonami said he wanted to show students some of the differences between Japanese methods and U.S. methods.
“The department at the Naval Hospital, the experience is very different from the Japanese system of physical therapy,” he said. “The military sees more sports-related injuries."
Azusa Machida, a second-year student, said Japanese physical therapy doesn’t “have all these kinds of equipment. We don’t really do all the exercises they do here. Since they are military, they probably need more physical therapy and exercises.”
However, instructors and students did see familiar equipment. As Sanders demonstrated the use of a hand-held strengthening device called a body blade, Yonami told students the device also is popular in Japanese physical therapy.
The visitors on Thursday also toured the Early Development and Intervention Services physical therapy department at Kadena Air Base, where they saw pediatric therapy techniques, Sander said.
