The Starting Point of My Medical Profession
Memories of My Mother, Part IV

The Moment of Death:
The late autumn of November 26, 2004, with its clean air and gentle sunshine, remains unforgettable. A call came from my brother telling me to come home immediately.
My mother’s departure, being watched by all the family members, was something extremely tranquil. Her facial expression was that of an old person above 90, thin and rawboned, obviously because of prolonged struggle with her illness. I threw my arms around her neck, kept my cheek to hers, shedding tears for an hour or two. Then I looked at her, and saw a change in her expression, now appearing astonishingly younger
even with some plumpness, and with a gentle smile in her eyes and around her mouth. Her body and expression felt soft and glossy. “What? Is she still breathing?” My brother and I looked at each other, asking such a question. There we saw the great victory that she accomplished in life. Every time I recollect her face of that moment, a feeling of tenderness gushes up in my heart.

Some Thought on the Treatment of Cancer:
For some reason, after the death of my mother I’m meeting with many precious opportunities to come into contact with patients suffering from cancer. All these people are courageously fighting with cancer and living respectable lives. I cannot help taking my hat off to their spiritual strength.
Engaged in this acupuncture profession, I am blessed with abundant opportunities to observe the fears and anxieties of the patient, and to look back and think about my own past objectively. The acupuncture and moxibustion treatment serves to endlessly enhance the spiritual and physical power to alleviate the raging cancer. The treatment is given based on the assessment of the patients’ capability to cope with the disease.
Of course, it is not an easy task, but the focus of the treatment is on the life power of the
party giving the treatment, fighting against the evil power such as cancer or anything that invades and corrodes the life of the treated.
In the so-called three major remedies for cancer in modern medicine, namely, the anticancer drug, radiotherapy, and surgical removal, such a ‘leisurely’ stance I mention might be derided. But then, how should we face cases in which patients die while the cancer has disappeared?
The question cannot be answered unless we look at each human life as a whole, comprising both his/her spiritual and physical sides, and stop observing only the cancer itself that affects the physical entity. Actually this observation points out the problem now faced in modern medical care. I am not alone in this observation and there are many who doubt the merit of concentrating only on the three major remedies and ignoring the role played by the spiritual approach. The essential spirit of medicine emanates from the love toward the patient, compassion for the person who suffers, and the highest respect for life itself. This of course includes the attention to correctly prescribing anticancer drugs, their proper dosage, and the length of use, etc. This is the basic and ideal stance of medicine being yearned for by everybody today.

Taking on My Mission:
Mr. Rempu Fujimoto, my acupuncture-moxibustion mentor, is treating a number of people who have cancer and achieving remarkable results. His overall method of checking the patients’ conditions ranges over the state of mind, tongue, abdomen, and the pulse. It does not give too much burden to the patients’ physical strength, while being very effective in obtaining necessary information on their conditions.
I cannot help but believe that by making me meet such a great mentor and by dying from cancer herself, my mother entrusted me with the mission of helping people not to contract cancer (preventive medicine) and to fight successfully against cancer, if affected.
I do firmly believe that the acupuncture/moxibustion treatment has the astounding power to save cancer patients in the terminal stage, helpless and given up by medical doctors. That is because the acupuncture/moxibustion treatment does not regard the physical body as something detached from its soul.
This is an area that no doctors are able to reach and no dexterity or technology can help. It is in this area that Oriental medicine, which can reach the soul and spirit of the patient, is proving effective. It is the touchstone of the individual human being who is giving the treatment. The thought makes me feel gravely serious.

On the occasion of the 7th anniversary of her death, both my brother and I would like to dedicate my brother’s book “Introduction to Meterology (Daikei Kishogaku Nyumon)” based on his 20-year research, and my determination to pursue my mission as described in this column, to our late mother, Kazu Hashimoto, the great acupuncturist.