Dr. Kenichi Shoji, the director of Shoji Naika Ichoka
(Shoji Internal Medicine and Gastrointestinal Hospital) of Mizuho Healthcare Corporation,
contributed an article in the 260th issue of the Ishinomaki Medical Association Bulletin.
The article introduces Syed Tahir from our Foundation, and with Dr. Shoji's permission we post his article.
Dr. Shoji had been of great assistance when we dedicated and
built the Angel Statue at the site of Okawa Elementary School in Ishinomaki on March 11th of this year,
from arranging the accommodation for our staff and obtaining the tents and setting them up,
even hosting a dinner on the evening of March 10th in Ishinomaki for the 25 people involved plus providing lunch on the 11th.
We take this opportunity to thank Dr. Shoji again for his kind assistance.
Ishinomaki Medical Association Bulletin
September 2013
No. 260
Charms of people in Tohoku
Kenichi Shoji
On a Sunday three months after the Great East Japan Earthquake, I received a strange phone call.
"My name is Syed Tahir. I'm a volunteer from Nagoya who is working in Iwate. I am calling because Dr. Masamoto told me to say hello to Dr. Shoji.
I was wondering if I could visit you some time when convenient for you..."
Dr. Masamoto is an internal medicine specialist who is my senior at the university.
He runs a kidney dialysis centre in Handa, Aichi prefecture. He has bought a hospital where he used to work as a part-timer and is now its manager.
Currently he has acquired several clinics and is busy managing business rather than treating patients.
On the following Sunday, Mr.Tahir drove his car with no car navigation system and made great efforts to find his way to my house all the way from Senmaya, Iwate.
He came to Miyagi by car full of rescue supplies immediately after the earthquake.
First, he worked as a volunteer at Minato Primary School in Ishinomaki for 2 months and now is based in Hiraizumi, Iwate, working in various disaster-affected areas.
Mr. Tahir is a Muslim and belongs to a minor Islamic sect called Ahmaddiya.
In his home country, Pakistan, Ahmaddiya followers are often suppressed by larger sects such as Sunni and Shi'ite.
Perhaps because of that, he came to Japan 20 years ago as if following his brother, who is running a trading company in Nagoya.
Since then, he has helped his brother's business. Now at the age of 46, he has a wife and three children.
One is a second grader at junior high school and the other two are the 6th and 4th graders of primary school.
There is a teaching of Ahmaddiya that one must help those who are in need.
As he has been grown up in an environment where this attitude is naturally accepted,
Mar. Tahir almost reflexively rushed for Tohoku by a truck full of rescue supplies provided from Ahmaddiya.
I cannot forget his puzzled reaction when he was asked why he was involved in volunteer activities by an elderly man in Iwate.
He seemed to suspect that it would not be convincing enough for the old man if he had said
that it was only a natural thing to do and tried to explain his reasons logically.
However it was not easy to have his religious belief understood.
According to Mr. Tahir, the universe is regulated by the plan of God and nothing can be irrational or incidental.
He sounded as if he were a Christian. Later, Mr. Yasuhiko Sata, president of TKB Corpotation
whom I met through Mr. Tahir, told me that Islam is based on the Old Testament and has much in common with Christianity.
TKB is a company whose former name was Tokibo Co., Ltd. As a major dealer of medical devices such as ventilators,
it is well known amongst healthcare professionals.
The present president Mr. Sata's father was a medical doctor and involved in a medical device related business.
The experience led him to set up his own company called Tokibo.
Mr. Yasuhiko Sata took over his father's business and expanded the company into an enterprise group with many affiliated companies in the US and Europe.
Mr. Stata created a juridical foundation called "Rentai Tohoku-Seinan"
in May 2011 with a view to supporting the 311 victims in Tohoku to re-establish their lives.
Mr. Tahir met Mr. Sata through his volunteer activities and now works as the board director of "Rentai Tohoku-Seinan".
On a Saturday in July, Mr. Tahir visited our home after some while.
"As I'm so busy with my volunteer work that I cannot spend any time with my family,
I decided to move to Sendai and bring them with me. My wife and children agreed to my decision."
The announcement came out of the blue and I tried to convince him that he had done enough work as a volunteer already
and suggested to go back to Nagoya and focus on his own work.
However he seemed to be totally determined.
After he came to Tohoku, he had a chance to meet various people.
Perhaps it was because many people were still caught up in the heat of the moment after the Earthquake,
but he made a lot of friends to whom he could open up and let himself out amongst those living in temporary compounds and fellow local volunteers.
He did not wish to lose these precious relationships by going back to Nagoya.
This made him decide to move to Sendai with his family and continue to work for Rentai Tohoku-Seinan,
making his new home a base for volunteer activities. For him, his friends in Tohoku are dear to him just like his family.
Mr. Tahir being nervous every time a camera is pointed at him
Tahir was born and brought up in the Northern Pakistan near the Karakorum.
As he had occasionally contacted with Japanese tourists since he was very young, Japan has always been a place he felt an affinity with.
Though this is merely my wild guess, the people in rural Tohoku and those in rural Pakistan may have something in common.
Generally speaking, people in Tohoku may be hard to approach at first but once warmed up,
they are more open and candid than people in Nagoya and tend to build an honest and unreserved friendship.
I am confident in this view as I spent 6 years in Nagoya when I was a university student.
Mr. Tahir is a simple and straightforward man, more like a Tohoku local compared to a Nagoyan.
He may have had some feeling of strangeness during 20 years of life in Nagoya.
But in Tohoku, he felt as if he were included and started to see this place as his home to be.
Last week, Mr. Tahir and his family moved into a house in a leafy residential area in Sendai.
The children are going to go to new schools from the second semester.
The girl in the 4th grade of primary school is going to enter a Catholic school.
Mr. Tahir negotiated with the school insisting on impossible conditions that the girl would not attend a mass or a religious class.
Surprisingly, the principal consented willingly. This would never happen in countries other than Japan.
Mr. Tahir was extremely grateful to Japanese tolerance (perhaps insensitivity) for other religions.