【Memorial】Dr. Tetsu Nakamura's last talk, “Water for Life in Afghanistan”

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Hi, Dear Folks!

A really interesting article has been recited in the Choshu news paper site.

This seems to be very helpful for people all over the world to know what happened in the Afghanistan society during Dr. Tetsu Nakamura has worked for them and after.

So, I translated it into English by using the Google translator with some corrections as memorial for Dr. Nakamura.

If you find some awesome place, please compensate by yourself and guess it.

Med. Dr. Tetsu Nakamura, “Water for Life in Afghanistan”, reprinted from a lecture in 2015

InternationalDecember 5, 2019

A lecture by Peshawar Tetsu Nakamura, who is engaged in water projects for rural reconstruction in Afghanistan, was held on August 30, 2015 at the Watanabe Memorial Hall in Ube City.

The event was hosted by students from the Yamaguchi University International Medical Research Association, the largest student group at Yamaguchi University School of Medicine, and was packed with about 1,000 audiences.

Who was sacrificed and what happened under the Afghan airstrike of the US military?

It became clear what the security legislation that the Abe government is promoting through the local facts.

In the following, I would like to introduce the contents of the lecture at that time in the form of reposting it on the website with the meaning of memorializing Dr. Nakamura.

Photos and maps to be posted (only printed on paper media from four years ago) were provided by Dr. Nakamura after the lecture.

Agricultural multi-ethnic nation rich in high mountain water

Afghanistan is one of the most difficult to understand for Japanese people. Afghanistan is a high mountain of about 7000 to 6000 km in the Hindu Kush Mountains, a corner of Central Asia at the eastern edge of the dry zone in the Middle East.

Geographically, it is a strategic point for east-west traffic.

The mountains of the Hindu Kush Mountains occupy most of the country, and most of the population of 20 to 30 million people make a living from agriculture.

In Afghanistan, there is a saying that “you can eat without money, but you cannot eat without snow”.

The snow that falls on the high mountains melts out little by little in the summer and promises rich fruit along the river.

Thanks to this, people and animals have lived thousands of years and tens of thousands of years.

Rainfall is said to be 1 / 20th or 1 / 50th of Japan, and the sun is strong, but if there is water, the breeding of the plant is thriving, and it was an agricultural country that once boasted a food self-sufficiency rate of nearly 100%.

Afghanistan is a multi-ethnic country.

In the era of the Silk Road, various ethnic groups passed through and were settled so as to be called “Ethnic Crossroads”.

It can be said that the valley is deep and there are different ethnic groups.

It is said that “every non-African people can be turned into Afghans,” forming a country called Afghanistan as a collection of almost independent municipalities.

I want you to understand that it is an area where more than 20 ethnicities and languages are mixed up to create a unity.

Islam is a bunch of people who have a high degree of autonomy and, to put it worse, a strong proportion.

There are mosques in each village and town, and sometimes they have more power to decide than the government.

The news you see may have a bloody impression, but it's not really strange.

Afghans are the most conservative Muslims in the world as far as I can see.

The difference between rich and poor is significant.

The first thing I feel helpless as a medical person is to go to London, Paris, New York, Tokyo for treatment even though the rich have a little illness. There is no such thing as being unable to buy medicine and dying.

I made a clinic ... Water and food are vital issues

The start of our activities was the participation in the “Five Years Eradication of Leprosy” launched in Peshawar in 1984.

At that time, a global plan to eradicate leprosy was underway, and activities were underway.

Hansen's disease has many complications and requires medical care from various specialists. My duty was to create a treatment center for it.

There are only 14 beds, one stethoscope that is injured when it is heard, and several tweezers.

There were no decent medical equipment.

Because there was no disinfection facility, oven toaster was used to disinfect gauze.

At first glance, our activities have used energy in parts that are not related to medical care.

Among them, what I am most concerned about is how to understand the feelings of patients.

It is a mistake that foreigners are likely to make, but if you look at something that you are not familiar with, you will see and judge a mere difference between good and bad, “lagging”, “advanced”, and superiority.

And I've seen it collide with the field and have to go home.

Whether a woman ’s head covering is something that the person in that country can solve.

Regardless of whether you like or dislike local culture, religion, and customs, as a rule to the present, we will resolve within the framework of that culture as much as possible.

When I went, I was in the midst of the Afghan war.

About 100,000 Soviet troops were invading.

The civil war continued for about 10 years, and 2 million people died, one in 10 people died and 6 million became refugees.

Ten years ago, the invasion of the US and NATO forces continued to cause further confusion, and the “war” has become a very serious issue for the local people.

In the civil war we were doing medical care at a refugee camp, but we decided to make a major shift in policy because it was not very accurate.

The “Hansen Disease Eradication Plan” was an idea developed by developed countries and was very wasteful locally.

The area with the most leprosy is a burial site for all types of infectious diseases such as typhoid fever, tuberculosis, dengue fever and plague.

As a medical person's morals, a patient who is dying of malaria cannot be said to be “not diagnosed because it is not leprosy”.

We will establish a clinic in the mountainous area where Hansen's disease is frequent and other infectious diseases when the civil war goes down, and treat Hansen's disease as one of various infectious diseases. Moved towards policy.

At that time, it was in the midst of a civil war, but sometimes entered the Pakistan jurisdiction.

Since the same people live in different countries, I deepened the relationship with people while freely crossing the mountains.

The Soviet army withdrew in less than 10 years, and we next opened a clinic.

Then, in April 1998, we set up a hospital where we were responsible for seeing our patients.

From now on, Afghanistan was hit by a drought of the century.

The drought that struck the Eurasian continent was ongoing on a scale never before experienced by mankind, but the drought in May 2000 was particularly severe.

Among them, Afghanistan is the most severely affected, and the World Health Organization (WHO) said, “12 million people, more than half of the population, were affected, about 4 million people on the hunger line, and 1 million on the hunger line. "Is a warning."

At that time, the civil war was picked up by the Taliban administration, and security was recovered even after turning, but no relief was finally given for political reasons.

Around us, the villages where there were green and people lived disappeared one after another in a desert where less than a year did not grow.

I have an obligation to tell you that this is the most serious problem for Afghans.

Hundreds of thousands of hectares have been desertified, and many refugees have occurred. Young mothers hold children and walk for days at the clinic.

It was still better to get alive, and the sight of getting cold in your arms while waiting in line was very common.

Afghanistan is a self-sufficient country, but if it runs out of water, it becomes diarrhea with sewage as its mouth.

Since crops don't grow, they suffer from chronic malnutrition and die with a simple disease.

I think most patients didn't die with clean water and enough food.

We said, “No matter how much medical equipment or medicine, there is no use.

He thought that hunger and thirst could not be cured with medicine, and from around August 2000 he started digging dead wells around the clinic with "clean drinking water and enough food".

After that, activities expanded, and we were able to secure clean drinking water in 1600 places in 5 years.

Hundreds of thousands of people worked in the village and developed into big businesses.

Another challenge was to secure agricultural water.

In the traditional well, a horizontal well called a kaleido, groundwater was drawn to secure water. However, it was withered, and even if it was regenerated, it was repeatedly withered and about 40 were regenerated.

US forces killed women and children Distributing food during air strikes

On September 11, 2001, a New York terrorist attack occurred, and from the next day, people in a country called the international community began to say, “Afghanistan stole the mastermind” and “bomb retaliate”.

"We now need water and food, not bomb rain, for Afghanistan." "Afghanistan is not a single country but a collection of different countries. The government is bad and not all Afghans are bad." But it was not a big public opinion.

However, foreign people, perhaps hundreds of thousands of people from all over Japan, supported us and cooperated in fund-raising and engaged in food assistance.

Air strikes were carried out in October.

The local area was winter, and the capital Kabul was full of drought refugees escaping from the countryside, not the original citizens.

About 10% of those hundreds of thousands lived and could not go through winter.

We brought in 1800 tons of flour and distributed it with 20 staff.

The air strike was intense.

The memory of Japanese airstrikes is probably interrupted by the Pacific War, but recent wars use more sophisticated, clever and inhumane bombs.

A large number of ball bombs and cluster bombs that killed and injured only humans were scattered.

On the other hand, they drop food as “humanitarian” assistance, but drop it in the same yellow packet as the cluster bomb.

The children who went to pick them up were sacrificed, and the victims were weak people such as children, women, and the elderly.

When I came back to Japan, it was a strange atmosphere.

It was very unpleasant to give a name such as Kabul and Kandahar, which I don't normally know, and to see what would be done next.

A military critic came out and said, “Aerial bombings in the United States are pinpoint attacks, defeat only bad ones, and humane attacks that do not touch the general public.”

I wanted to say, "If you have such a safe bomb, stand under it and give a comment."

The Japanese showed me the image of the side that dropped the bomb, and I think that there was almost no image of the side dropped.

There are things that don't fit when the war is justified globally and who has been sacrificed.

During the indiscriminate bombing, distributing food was a difficult task.

Since there was a good chance that 20 staff would be annihilated with a single bomb, the team was divided into three units, so that even if one team was annihilated, the other two teams were tasked.

It was the brave Afghan who did not save his life for his brothers, which supported our activities.

After the US military stationed, drug and prostitution appear freely

The Taliban administration collapsed in November and US troops were stationed.

Around the world, `` Citizen's figure to defeat the evil Taliban of villainy evil, absolute freedom and justice ally, the United States and its allies with a cheering voice '' The image of “the women who sang freedom” was shed repeatedly.

The people who were against this war also said, “Wouldn't it be good if such bad people were done?” And Afghanistan was forgotten.

What did you actually do?

It's a poppy field.

Although the Taliban administration may have had some bad aspects, it was almost extinct due to strict control of poppy cultivation by a strict religious system.

It revived enormously, and without waiting for years, Afghanistan became a drug powerhouse supplying over 90% of the world's drugs.

It is a mistake to say that `` freedom of poppy cultivation '' `` freedom of women prostitution to foreigners '' `` freedom of people who lost their workers beggars on the streets '' `` freedom of poor people starve to death '' I don't think so.

In fact, at that time, the population on the hunger line was said to be 4 million, but it has now increased to 7.6 million.

Afghanistan is increasingly remote.

"Green Earth Plan" To construct a lifeline irrigation channel

The desertification has been progressing without war, and it is still ongoing.

First of all, how to solve the food shortage was put first, and "Green Earth Plan" was made.

We are a medical organization, but we thought it would be much more effective to build one irrigation channel than to build 100 clinics.

Therefore, in 2003, with the slogan “Reconstruction of Deserted and Unmanned Villages”, we started construction of a waterway.

Eventually, a irrigation canal that could accommodate about 160,000 people with a total length of 27km and an irrigation area of 3,000 hundred hectares was completed.

Creating a plan is very easy, but when I tried it, I encountered various problems.

There is enthusiasm, but first there is no tool.

Only pickaxe and shovel.

I thought that I could save a little more money and call a good Japanese technology and engineer, but in the long run, when I thought about who would use the water and maintain the irrigation canal, local people would also build to be a facility that could be maintained by locals and used for generations, it had to be fixed by locals.

Eventually, a irrigation canal that could accommodate about 160,000 people with a total length of 27km and an irrigation area of 3,000 hundred hectares was completed.

Creating a plan is very easy, but when I tried it, I encountered various problems.

There is enthusiasm, but first there is no tool.

Only pickaxe and shovel.

I thought to save a little more money and call a fine Japanese technology and engineer. But in the long run, when thinking about who would use the water and maintain the irrigation channel, local people could build it and it should be maintained by the local people .

To make the facility usable for generations, it had to be repaired by the local people.

Japan and Afghanistan look like very different countries, but there are a lot of similarities regarding water.

Both of them are mountain rivers with many rapid rivers, and the water level difference between summer and winter is severe.

And farming in narrow mountainous areas and small plains is the mainstream, and there are similarities to water intake technology.

The current rural areas are similar to the medieval rural autonomy in Japan.

For this reason, I searched around thinking about incorporating old Japanese technology into Afghanistan.

The Chikugo River in Fukuoka Prefecture where I was born and raised is called the “Japan's Three Great Rampage River”, and there are many old facilities for flood control.

In Japan, hundreds of years ago, drought, famine, and floods were commonplace, and the countryside was created with hundreds of thousands and millions of victims each time.

The Yamada Barrage on the Tsukigo River was created 220 years ago, and is still active in many areas.

I thought it was this.

There were no heavy machinery or dump trucks at that time.

"We can't do anything that we can't do," he actively adopted this technology.

Even though it mimics Japanese weirs, the tributaries of the Indus River are five to ten times larger than the major Japanese rivers.

In line with this geographical condition, it has only recently been successful over the last 10 years.

The revetment technique was also superior in that the old technique was easier than using concrete, and at the same time it could be repaired immediately even if it collapsed somewhat.

A very tough irrigation canal can be made by filling stone piles made of iron wire called “Jakago(gabion)”) and stacking them and planting willow trees there.

The wisdom of the old man brilliantly controlled the torrent of the Indus River.

No one can cast concrete, but any Afghan is good at building stones.

This was also a very suitable method for the local area.

Anyway, it was our rule to make ourselves.

Several percent of the pumping facilities can use electricity, and electricity sometimes comes.

Using water turbines that do not use oil or electricity, water facilities have been enhanced.

There were many irrigation channels, and each time the irrigation channel was extended for about 10 years, the green space revived.

The last place we reached was the Gamberg Desert, which was the most difficult area.

The construction will be in midsummer, up to 53 degrees Celsius.

Of the hundreds of workers, dozens of people fall daily due to heat stroke.

Still, they were unable to rest their work because they had these two strong wishes: “Eating three times a day” and “Living with their family in their hometown”.

For those who have become refugees without being able to do it, the original refugee life is awaited if this canal is not made.

A healthy desire to survive somehow became a major strength in the construction of irrigation canals.

They were overjoyed when the first trial watering was successful in 2009, saying that the most open-minded teacher “I can live with it”.

Irrigation channels continued to exist as a vital lifeline for local people.

However, it was not enough to draw water, and how to prevent sandstorms became the next problem.

We decided to make a windbreak, but this also takes years.

Finally, it grew into a forest a few years ago, and about 800,000 trees prevent sandstorms.

The business is progressing steadily.

Security for hundreds of thousands of people

If water comes, you can make crops, and animals gather around the water.

The energy problem was solved at once.

Speaking of energy issues in Japan, there are talks about nuclear power, electricity, and oil, but what is necessary locally is to use it for cooking and cold protection.

By using a large amount of thinned wood from 800,000 trees, this area is becoming almost self-sufficient.

If people gather, there will also be a trap.

A mosque was built as a means to solve this.

The region where we operate has been revived as one of the richest regions.

The number of people who know that it used to be a wilderness that did not grow as a single tree has decreased.

The irrigation canal is 27km long and has an irrigation area of over 3,000 hectares.

It is not only about reviving the lives of about 160,000 people, but prospering in the surrounding areas.

The appeal to other regions is that "If you have time to war, make an effort to supply yourself with food."

Drought is ongoing.

As the snow accumulated in the Hindu Kush Mountains melts all at once from the early spring to the summer due to warming, flooding occurs, there is no room for water to soak into the low mountains, and the snow falls every year, so the groundwater is reduced and the curry is withered. Then, the water level of the river drops and water can no longer be taken, causing drought.

At the same time as an unexpected flood occurs, droughts occur, which increases the number of refugees.

There is no job even if you go out of the country or town, and there is an unavoidable increase in the number of armed forces and government mercenaries.

Under these circumstances, we are continuing our activities aiming to establish and expand water intake technology suitable for the local area.

In order to control the stormy rivers, it is important to make a good deal with nature. If a flood comes, the damage will be kept to a minimum, and some water will be taken in even if it becomes drought.

We are promoting activities that incorporate the skills and ideas of old people.

The plan is progressing little by little with the aim of restoring agriculture with a stable supply of water and bringing refugees back to the village, and an environment where 16,500 hectares and 600,000 people can live.

I want to expand this into a model.

Regardless of politics or war, we are caught up in the problems of humans and humans alone, but humans and nature live together, and if we make a mistake, some scholars say that the earth will not have a century There are so many people.

I feel a sense of crisis, and I think that we can give us a huge implication by thinking about how we should live, medical care, peace and war.

◆ Q & A

Q: How did you gain knowledge on making irrigation canals?

Nakamura: Nobody will tell me the knowledge.

Learning how to make basic hydrological calculations is not so difficult if you have the feeling of how to make it.

Start by visiting the actual water facility, observing, and copying.

Old people are not making precise calculations, but probably only experience.

I think it was finally completed with a lot of trial and error.

There is hardly any remaining in the local history how it was made.

That means that it is a manufacturing process that ordinary people can do.

Proceeded from imitating this.

River construction was a process of trial and error.

Q: What is the driving force for continuing activities for decades?

Nakamura: You can't just say “Let's stop because we are tired”.

There have been many times I wanted to withdraw from work quickly, but the reality that hundreds of thousands of people are in trouble if I stop here is very heavy.

Many people donate billions of dollars with hope for my work.

I can't disappoint them.

Above all, the local people will be rebelled against the promise that if everyone works hard, they can eat rice three times a day in their hometown.

In Japan, even the prime minister is an irresponsible era, but the heavy pressure of keeping the lives of more than a hundred thousand people is not very personal.

I am glad that everyone is pleased, and I think it is the driving force to make efforts toward it.

Q: What is the food?

Nakamura: Nan is a staple food and eats something like curry without curry.

There are a lot of beans, and ordinary poor people eat meat only once or twice a year.

Q: Is there a school?

Nakamura: There is now a national school.

Education has been carried out for a long time, and traditional madrasas, centered on mosques, are still the center of education in the countryside in parallel with national education.

Education is thought to be "providing a way to live independently even if a parent dies." In rural areas, helping a house is education itself.

Most people think that they should be able to read and write.

Since there are many students for school and the enrollment rate is increasing, we have adopted a three shift system.

In urban areas, it is a problem that children who have received modern education leave their villages and leave the city.

I think the contents are more important than the education itself.

Q: What do Afghan people think of Japanese people?

Nakamura: They feel Japan the most intimate.

I feel intimate enough to think that the Independence Day is the same.

For them, Nagasaki, Hiroshima, and the Russo-Japanese War are reminiscent of “Japan”.

Every one knows it wherever you go.

In the Asian world 100 years ago, all Asian countries except Japan, Afghanistan and Thailand were colonies and semi-colonies of Western powers.

At that time, a small country in the Far East, Japan, did not lose because of a war with Russia, a great power.

This is very encouraging and has been handed down from generation to generation in Afghanistan.

There is a misunderstanding that "Japan is a tiny country, but for unreasonable things, it doesn't yield even if the opponent is big, it is an inflexible country."

For Hiroshima and Nagasaki, it is not just compassion.

Afghanistan itself is a country that has fought against Russia, repelled the United Kingdom and has established its current system.

Japan is also a country that has risen from post-war devastation, but it is a confidence that it has never sent troops to foreign countries.

It was common until a long time ago that Japanese were safer than UN staff.

However, the current situation is that the plating is peeling off little by little.

Q: What are the current trends of Japanese active pacifism from the perspective of Afghans and what do you think about Japanese people?

Nakamura: I feel like I came to another planet when I return to Japan.

First, I'm not feeling well.

He has received close to the best medical care in Afghanistan.

Afghanistan is a poor country, with many other killings but no suicide.

There is no such stupid government in Japan.

There is a feeling that it is not obedient to power over there.

In contrast, I feel that no country is as weak as power.

If the current administration appears in Afghanistan, it has been assassinated several dozen times.

That is the difference from Japan.

Personally speaking, I have an obligation to follow the constitution, but I don't have an obligation to follow the administration.

Q: I think there are differences in position and values when working locally, what have you done to deepen your friendship?

Nakamura: Although there was nothing special, I gained experience through trial and error.

Rather than emphasizing the differences, finding common ground.

I'm a Christian and an enemy religion, but they don't have that narrowness.

Q: What kind of crops can be taken?

Nakamura: Rice and wheat for cereals.

Most of the vegetables you see in Japan originate from Afghanistan.

Most vegetables with cucumbers such as west vegetables and sesame seeds and peppers are native to Afghanistan and Central Asia.

You can also get vegetables from South American origin.

The difference is meat.

It takes protein, mainly soybeans and beans, and sometimes animal protein.

Q: What are your thoughts on developing the next leader?

Nakamura: I would like to work with the expectation that leaders will grow up locally.

The field is a thorough localism based on educational background.

If you make sure that human resources are brought up in the field, a real leader will appear naturally.

Moreover, it is a matter of living or dying.

Even those who do not speak English or Japanese have a shining person.

I am convinced that a leader will come out of that soon.

Q: I hear that the security is bad, but is the police taking care of the newly established rural areas, irrigation facilities, hospitals, and teachers?

Nakamura: There is no strict police organization in Japan.

It is a community that turns around.

The rule is to protect yourself.

Japanese people often say that they are active in a circle, but there is no distinction between a farmer and a soldier.

If there are 500 workers and there is a group that interferes with the work, they can gather together with rifles and rifles and form a company immediately.

Normally, it does not show off its guns, but it is a semi-armed group with potential armed forces.

All fight to protect the canal.

But in order to avoid that need, we are trying to negotiate peacefully.

I am protected by everyone.

Because irrigation can be life-threatening, they are valued by saying “Nakamura is a fateful community”.

As long as you are a helpful person in the area, I don't feel dangerous.

There are many Islamic countries and Taliban among the workers, but many of them are inevitably becoming mercenaries.

Whether they are enemies is closely related to whether they are a fateful community with them.

As bomb incidents are increasing on the streets, be careful, but there is no safer area than the workplace.

As I have read this article, I found that Dr. Nakamura was a Christian and he loved Afghanistan's people who share the same characteristics with the old Japanese Samurais.

So, I think why he frequently went to there and lived there for a long time is what he disliked the recent Japanese who obey the authorities of Japan without showing anything to protest.

This is an interesting problem.

I think the way he developed Afghanistan is very universal method to do so in the undeveloped countries as well as those in Japan.

To build up infrastructure such as canals and water roots and sustain them is most important technology.

However, he never used the modern present technology such as concrete buildings and electronic systems.

He used the low technology that they can maintain by themselves the infrastructures that they made.

One of such technology is Jakago that seems very low technology nowadays, but it was high technology at that past time in Edo era in Japan.

He found it when he was walking in his birth town to look for some technology that can be applicable to Afghanistan broken by USSR and USA and UN.

Jakago is an old irrigation technology that was popular in Japan of Edo era.

It is made by rocks and iron wires or ropes so that a cage or basket is knitted by iron wires or ropes to make a big tube, and then many rocks or stones are closed inside the cage or basket tube.

So, we need not use any concrete that is expensive.

We can gradually make it by ourselves case by case.

Just weave iron wires by using Kagome(Grid) pattern that is honeycomb and easiest to make and strongest and throw rocks into it.

This was his key technology to build such a huge and long River weir.

I think we can apply this Jakago method in the undeveloped countries all over the world.

Second, I think the most important fact that he found in this Earth is the relationship between poverty and war.

War makes poverty. Poverty makes war. Therefore, War makes war and poverty makes poverty as infinite loop.

He found this in Afghanistan.

In Japan, it was very well known up to now since the era of War time about 500 years ago.

War needs young men to make battles.

Many young men would die and many infrastructures would be destroyed.

Nothing survive there.

People loose their jobs and industries.

They have no jobs to live there.

The place they live become dangerous and have to move out to another unknown place.

This is the war.

If the war is still going on, they have to work and therefore they have to either immigrate to other countries or become soldiers for survive.

The former is the cause of the African immigration to EU countries.

The latter is the cause of Middle East countries.

The difference lies on only whether or not they are coward or brave.

Therefore, if they are coward then they evacuate to other countries while their land is taken over by Terrorists.

If they are brave then war never ends up.

This is the present stage of the Earth.

So, what Dr. Tetsu Nakamura found is very profound for our planet to be sustainable.

Salute to Dr. Tetsu Nakamura!

Iyasaka! Cheers！