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Dr. Okazaki, would
you tell us something about your childhood? |
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At Fujita Health University (2000)
(Courtesy of Takamasa Kawai) |
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I grew up in a family of six: my parents, an older sister,
and two younger brothers. My father was a surgeon who first worked for a
hospital and later set up his own practice. Japan went to war against the
United States when I was in second grade, and by fifth or sixth grade it
had become all but impossible to study, as homes and other buildings were
bombed to ashes and children were made to work in the fields to help with
the food and labor shortages. Many children were sent to the countryside,
away from their parents, for safety. After the war came to an end in the
summer of my sixth-grade year, we were required to censor the textbooks
we had been using up to then with black ink. I will never forget that experience.
The government was telling us, "Much of what you've learned up to now has
been a lie," and I felt I could never trust it again. |
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Why did you decide
to study science? |
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I enjoyed both math and science in junior
high school. But when I was a high school student, my father let me look
through a microscope to observe how an antibiotic prevented bacteria from
multiplying. It was just amazing to me. My father himself was awed by the
realization that infectious diseases like tuberculosis and cholera, which
had taken so many lives, could suddenly be cured with the antibiotics that
had become available in Japan shortly after the war's end. During the war,
my youngest brother had contracted dysentery and had been close to death,
but the only treatment available had been injections with saltwater. It
was these experiences that first stimulated my interest in biology.
I decided to continue my studies at the Nagoya
University School of Science. My father wanted me to study medicine,
but I was drawn to more basic scientific research. It may be that, after
experiencing the abrupt change in values that followed World War II, I was
unconsciously searching for a world of unchanging truths. |
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