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President
of Nagasaki University
Hiroshi
Saito
M.D., Ph.D.
President's Profile
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Opening Address at The First International Symposium on Establishment of a New Discipline gMedical Care for Hibakushah
January 31, 2008
Distinguished guests and ladies and gentlemen,
It is a great honor and pleasure for me to extend greetings on the First International Symposium on Establishment of a new Discipline gMedical Care for Hibakushah
As the President of Nagasaki University, I consider this honor very significant for the following three reasons.
First of all, this is the remarkable result of a continuous endeavor in Radiation Medical Sciences by the research project leader, Professor Shunichi Yamashita, and his trusted staff of the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences.
Their study received the highest rating in the interim assessment of the g21st Century COE Programh from 2002 to 2006, and its high standard has already been widely recognized.
I am very proud that they have established a global research network in Radiation Medical Sciences with research institutes around the world including Chernobyl and Kazakhstan and internationally renowned organizations such as WHO, and that their various achievements in international medical initiatives have come to be appreciated with the help of this strong network.
The second is that our subject in this field of research was gInterdisciplinary, combined fields, new disciplinesh.
Although Nagasaki University consists of eight faculties and one research institute, it has no such departments in basic learning as literature, law, and science, unlike other large-scale national university corporations.
Its undergraduate and graduate schools concentrate mainly on applied science.
However, we have never taken this fact as a negative factor.
Rather, we have always thought of this as an opportunity and have tried to create new disciplines crossing the borders between established learning fields, thus taking up the challenge to develop Nagasakifs unique and traditionally-fostered gforever enterprising spirith.
I believe that our mission is to put into practice our philosophy as a gCenter for the transmission of intellectual informationh by creating the cutting edge in science and continuously conveying our achievements to the world.
Winning the gFY 2007 Global COE Programh will certainly be one of the driving forces to promote that mission.
The Japan Society for the Promotion of Science pointed out that gResearch needs to be reinforced in both its social science aspect and its physical chemistry aspect by an interdisciplinary point of view, and it also needs further elaboration and deliberation to become a firmer base for educational researchh as well.
On this advice, I have realized that there are still more issues in which we have to make improvements.
Finally, this research originated in the self-sacrificing efforts of our seniors and forerunners who devoted themselves to the treatment of radiation victims during the terrible devastation by the atomic bomb.
Nagasaki University lost 897 and then up to 1,000 precious lives of faculty/administrative staff and students in Nagasaki Medical College and various predecessor schools, respectively. The University lived this together with the people of Nagasaki and supported them or was supported by them when the whole city was trying to recover from the atomic disasters.
The research field gGlobal Strategic Center for Radiation Health Risk Controlh emerged from Nagasakifs recovery and development.
In that sense, we have to be grateful to the citizens of Nagasaki.
Yet, it is also true that we cannot feel genuine gjoyh, since we all know the background in which this research subject was born.
We are fully aware of our responsibilities as a University in Nagasaki, having experienced and inherited the tragedy of the atomic bomb.
On winning the gGlobal COE Programh in the year of the 150th anniversary of the School of Medicine, Nagasaki University remains determined to make further contributions to local society and the world, ever recalling the calamity of 62 years ago.
Ladies and gentlemen, I do hope that all the participants from overseas will take this opportunity during and after the symposium to enjoy the charms of Nagasaki, Japanfs former window to the world.
Thank you very much for your attention.
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