Cross-cultural communication （55）　

55）Believe in the Force!
The Force, that's right. It's a concept rather than a famous phrase used in Star Wars. It's used in the sense of “May the Force be with you.”
The first screening of Star Wars in Japan was in 1977. This is a vivid memory for me. That year I graduated from Osaka Medical College and wanted to do the residency training in America as soon as possible. One day that year, I went to the American Consulate in Kobe at the time to ask about visas. On the way back, I passed in front of Hankyu Sannomiya Station and saw that they were showing Star Wars at the cinema in the station building. I had some time to spare, so I decided to go and watch it without thinking too much about it. As soon as it started, the opening scene with the impressive fleet of spaceships set to the Star Wars theme. It was the first time I had seen a film that pulled me in so strongly from the very beginning. The final highlight of the film is the scene where Luke Skywalker boards a one-man spaceship to destroy the Death Star. He dives into the interior of the Death Star at full speed, but he has no information about where to bomb it, so he has to rely on his own instincts. That's when he hears Obi-Wan Kenobi's voice telling him, “Trust the Force.” Of course, thanks to that, the Death Star is destroyed.

Thanks to my own belief in the Force, I was able to have invaluable experiences such as spending three years as a resident in Brooklyn, New York and then, after reaching middle age, spending two and a half years practicing medicine in Paris. During this time, the sequels to Star Wars were released one after another, and I was able to enjoy them in both New York and Paris. I enjoyed them all in their own way, but none of them were as good as the first film from 1977.

I also used the phrase “May the Force be with you” on a big stage of my own. In 2004, when I was asked to give a lecture at an international conference of medical students from Asian countries, I received a round of applause when I ended my talk with this phrase. So, the following year, at the WONCA (World Organization of Family Doctors) symposium in Kyoto, I even included a Star Wars video and ended with the phrase “May the Force be with us.” . Well then, to finish off, I would like to wish all the readers of this blog MAY THE FORCE BE WITH YOU!

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