Iraqi doctor learns from Hiroshima's past

Iraqi doctor learns from Hiroshima's past

Shinya Ajima and Shinsuke Takahashi
Japan Today August 4, 2004

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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