 YOSHIMURA Yoshimasa, the author, was admitted in 1951 to Osaka
University Hospital as an experimental patient.
It mean the government paid for his treatment
for research purposes but the status was
a peculiarly humiliating one, resulting in
years of sorrow and frustration.
Mr. Yoshimura suffered from muscular
dystrophy.
He was still able in his twenties to
walk
a little with effort but his disease
worsened
steadily till in 1970 he had a bone
fracture
while engaged in rehabilitating exercise
and became bedridden for the rest of
his
life. The pain and the discrimination
inflicted
by the hospital on a 'human guinea
pig' left
him only one consolation in his life
and
that was writing down whatever crossed
his
mind. The incision of the windpipe
in 1993,
we are told, made him even more dependent
on this means of self-expression.
'Writing' was for Mr. Yoshimura not
just
sitting at a desk with pen and paper
before
him. First he would have his legs kept
wide
apart by his caregiver, his cushions
secured
with a belt so he could collect some
strength
into his back. Then his desk would
be moved
into place and his bedhead raised until
he
was in a sitting position while the
two cushions,
placed behind his back, helped him
to keep
it steady.
To make it even easier for him to keep his
balance, a wooden armrest hung from the desk
for his left hand. It was only when all (his
body, his legs, his desk) were in exact place
that Mr. Yoshimura Had his special paper
(he could not move his hand at all so that
he needed large-size paper) before him and
his special pen (the bush type because he
could not exert enough Force on the tip)
in his right hand with the help of his caregiver.
The entire procedure, Before it was
over
with adjusting his pen between his
fingers
and putting his spectacles on his nose,
would
have taken at least fifteen minutes.
Then
he would start to write but There were
days
when his condition would not allow
him to
write a word. It was his idea of rehabilitation
to urge himself to go on writing bit
by tiny
bit.
For all The pain he suffered that none
of
us has ever experienced or known, he
never
lost his hope but kept on burning the
light
of his life for tomorrow.
We caregivers have compiled this voiceless
talk of Mr. Yoshimura's into a book with
the kind co-operation of the Seifudo Publishing
Company.
An old man of seventy-five who had
lost
the movement of his body and limbs,
lost
even his voice, did not stop burning
the
way for people who need such a guide.
It
is the wish of us caregivers that many
people
will find the joy life in the battle
Mr.
Yoshimura fought for life and that
his book
and the way he lived will reach as
many people
as possible.
Group of Caregivers
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