April Kam says it's impossible to understand the suffering caused by nuclear war without seeing its aftermath.
“In high school they teach you that World War II happened and, PS, we dropped a bomb on Japan,” says the final-year medical student at McMaster University.
Kam, 24, and 3 other Canadian medical students went to Japan in February to attend the Forum on the Abolition of Weapons of Mass Destruction, which was hosted by the Japanese affiliate of International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War. The forum featured discussions on nuclear disarmament and about peace on the Korean Peninsula, as well as visits to the Nagasaki and Hiroshima peace memorials. The students met Japanese medical students and physicians, as well as survivors of the WW II nuclear blasts that killed nearly 500 000 civilians.
Organized by Ottawa-based Physicians for Global Survival (PGS), the tour involved students from McMaster and Dalhousie universities and the University of British Columbia. “Given the current international crisis surrounding … weapons of mass destruction and the fact that there is little or no content on these issues in the medical curriculum, this is an extremely valuable learning opportunity for future doctors,” says PGS Executive Director Debbie Grisdale. — Jim Donnelly, CMAJ