[Mb-civic] Iraqi doctor learns from Hiroshima's past

[ean at sbcglobal.net]

Japan Today - August 4, 2004
http://www.japantoday.com/e/?content=feature&id=706

Iraqi doctor learns from Hiroshima's past

Shinya Ajima and Shinsuke Takahashi

HIROSHIMA  An Iraqi doctor left his war-battered
country in April. His destination was Hiroshima, and
the purpose of his trip was to obtain knowledge and
data on radiation effects in the city once devastated
by the first atomic bombing in the world.

Hussam Mahmood Salih, 34, a pediatrician from Basra,
said the number of child cancer cases jumped eightfold
in the southern Iraqi city between 1988 and 2002,
suspecting it was caused by the 1991 Gulf War, in
which U.S. forces used depleted uranium shells.

There are also reports in Iraq about newborn babies
lacking limbs or craniums. Depleted uranium has been
long blamed for such birth defects in babies believed
exposed to radiation while in the womb.

"We don't have any decent facilities in Iraq to check
the amount of radiation in human bodies. But we can
see the incidences of cancer increased greatly during
the first four to five years of the 1990s," said
Salih, now studying at Hiroshima University Hospital
at the invitation of a Japanese civic group.

Under economic sanctions on Iraq that followed the
war, Iraqi hospitals were prohibited from obtaining
essential drugs as well as new medical equipment like
tools for radio therapy because the international
community feared they might be used for military
purposes, he said.

"So, death and disease, and death and disease...this
is the life of people in Iraq. I want to save Iraqi
children," said Salih.

The U.S. military uses depleted uranium-tipped shells,
known for their armor-piercing capability, against
tanks and other hard military targets.

Although Iraqi doctors allege DU weapons cause
leukemia and cancer, U.S. authorities deny direct
links between DU and the cancer on the rise in Iraq
since the 1991 war.

The medical community in Japan, a U.S. staunch ally,
is also reluctant to admit a connection.

"Even so, it is sensible for him to visit Hiroshima,
which has skills and knowledge on treating leukemia
patients," said Atsuko Oe, a representative of Save
the Iraq Children Hiroshima, the group that arranged
Salih's visit.

In August last year, when some Iraqi doctors visited
Japan to deliver lectures, they asked Oe and other
civic group members to look for Japanese medical
institutions that can train young doctors from Iraq.

Universities in Hiroshima and Nagoya then agreed to
accept some doctors from hospitals in Basra through
the civic groups.

Salih said he had never hesitated to come to Japan
when chosen as a trainee due to his background as an
expert on pediatric leukemia.

His visit apparently exposed a new face of Japan as
the sole A-bomb victim in the world.

"Hiroshima had suffered a lot from war, deaths and
radiation effects, and the Japanese doctors understand
about these diseases...and all strategies about
detection, treatment and follow-up. I think we cold
learn very much from Japan's experiences," said Salih.

He added there are more Iraqi doctors hoping to learn
in Japan and bring back advanced techniques, knowledge
and equipment that have been unavailable to Iraqis.

"This is a great chance, a very nice chance. They
could do better to save patients," he said.

Another civic group invited two other Iraqi doctors
for training at Nagoya University Hospital, as well as
a young patient whom Salih has treated.

The United States attacked Hiroshima with an atomic
bomb on Aug 6, 1945, and dropped another on Nagasaki
three days later. Japan surrendered to Allied forces
Aug 15.

The bomb dropped on Hiroshima contained high
quantities of highly enriched uranium. There are
reports that a number of microcephalic babies were
born in the western Japan city after the bombing, Oe
said.

Salih is learning from Japanese professors at the
university hospital, mainly about chemotherapy and
bone-marrow transplants.

He has been given access to data stored in many
facilities and organizations in this city, and has
opportunities to talk with radiation victims as well
as their families.

He is also going to attend the ceremony for the 59th
anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima next month.

"We wish Mr Salih could learn something by referring
to the stored data and comparing them with those kept
in Iraq," Oe said.

Salih will stay in Japan until the fall and return to
Iraq, where his wife and two children live.

Governments in Hiroshima and Nagasaki are concerned
about the aging of A-bomb victims. Their average age
was 72.2 as of March, and thousands of the registered
radiation victims die every year.

Both cities are forced to take measures to leave the
victims' messages and experiences of the atrocities to
succeeding generations.

Salih's stay in Hiroshima shows how Japan should be
the first and hopefully last country of A-bomb victims
in the world by taking on new roles no other country
can undertake, Oe said.

"Each of us has our own role," she said, adding, "If
we did not act, there would be a third following
Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It is important for us to
think how individuals can be involved in peace or
antinuclear activities." (Kyodo News)



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