Asahi Shimbun Morning Edition, November 27, 1999 After the war, a patient who had become a prostitute for the occupying forces and suffered severe emotional distress would proudly say, "My husband is MacArthur." Of course, this was not true. Perhaps the sense of "wound" in her life was so strong that she could not bear for her partner to be just an anonymous American soldier. No matter what society says, sometimes one must convince oneself in order to keep on living. Prostitu

Asahi Shimbun Morning Edition, November 20, 1999 Recently, the word "revenge" is frequently heard. It means retaliation. When we hear the term "revenge killing," it sounds like a horrifying act. However, in the sense that there is a cause and a retaliatory response, it is a crime that is easy to understand. No matter how extraordinarily brutal the act may be, since it is a planned crime, it is extremely rare for a court ruling to determine that the perpetrator lacked criminal

Asahi Shimbun Morning Edition – November 13, 1999 Was it the sorrow of a subcontractor’s subcontractor? A small-town factory went bankrupt amid the recession. The middle-aged company president, drowning in alcohol, damaged his liver and began losing consciousness and experiencing convulsions. His work was his life. He found joy in drinking after a hard day’s work, socializing under the guise of business networking, dining with acquaintances, and even engaging in just enough g

Asahi Shimbun Morning Edition – November 6, 1999 "We dedicated all our efforts to understanding the poliovirus, which causes polio, but once the vaccine was introduced, funding for research into its causes was reduced to zero. That is how medicine works, but is that really acceptable for medical science?" I can never forget these words from a renowned molecular biologist, spoken more than a quarter-century ago. In fact, ever since the enactment of the Mental Retardation Welfa

Asahi Shimbun Morning Edition, December 4, 1999 A man who has been living a long life of illness since being exposed to radiation in Nagasaki visited a psychiatric clinic, complaining that the pain from his chronic rheumatoid arthritis was preventing him from sleeping. "I was a champion in ballroom dancing during the war. As a hibakusha, I have suffered from various illnesses, struggled to hold down a job, and dance was my only joy. But now, my arthritis causes so much pain i