Kyudai News No26 page 4/28

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Kyudai News No26

D You went to high school in Kagoshima too, didnOtyou?Yes, I attended Kagoshima Gyokuryu High School inKagoshima City, the same school as Dr. Setsuo Arikawa, mypredecessor as president. Actually, I su?ered from kidneydisease during my high school years and it was really tough,because dialysis cost one million yen a year in those days.e doctor at Kagoshima University Hospital made mycondition a lot better and told me, “ere’s no othertreatment, so just make sure you get plenty of rest.” For along time after that, I took a strong drug that’s no longeravailable. Fortunately, I didn’t su?er any major side-e?ects,but I did think seriously about death at that time.D That experience triggered your ambition tobecome a physician, didnOt it?at’s right. My older brother was already training tobecome a physician and I decided to follow him down thatpath because of my fervent desire to cure kidney disease, so Ientered the School of Medicine at Kyushu University.D What was your university life like?I commuted to university from the home of some relationson my mother’s side of the family and my relatives werekind enough to make me low-salt meals at home, which Iate every day. At the university, I joined the Go (a Japanesestrategy game) Society. is was partly because I couldn’t doanything physically demanding, but it was also because I’denjoyed playing games such as menko (a card game similarto pogs) and marbles since I was a young child, so I thoughtGo might be fun .D There were active student movements at KyushuUniversity in those days, weren't there?I entered university in 1966 and the campus disputes startedto ?are up the following year. In 1968, there was a majorincident at the Hakozaki Campus, when a U.S. military?ghter plane crashed into the Computer Center building(now the Research Institute for Information Technology),which was under construction at the time.In our class discussions, we talked about issues such as theideal approach to medical careand being a physician.D Were you still beingtreated for kidneydisease at that stage?I was. Perhaps because of mylow-salt diet and the fact thatI didn’t exert myselfexcessively, I experienced aspontaneous recovery duringmy second year of university.It appears that this happens invery rare cases.D The mental andphysical strength thatyou demonstrated asUniversity HospitalDirector must be thelegacy of the vitality thatgrew from your triumph over serious illness.Incidentally, what was the catalyst for yourdecision to go into the field of psychosomaticmedicine?I entered university wanting to do research into kidneydisease, but I came to feel that it was necessary to examineboth the patient’s body and their mind.D How did you find your six years as director?I had various experiences. It sounds like a long time, butlooking back, those six years seem to have gone in a ?ash. Iworked on a variety of new projects every year, and it wasalso the time when the redevelopment of the hospital wasdrawing to a close after almost 12 years. e newTop StoryIn the 1st floor lobby of the new Out-Patient Ward, during his time as University Hospital Director3 Kyudai News No.26