Gulf Crisis, confidential （４）　

４) Before departure, continued
　The departure date was determined November 3. Since there was a training course at the Ministry of Foreign Affaires in Tokyo, I had to stay in Tokyo from October 30. My title changed from technical official of Ministry of Health and Welfare to that of Ministry of Foreign Affairs on that day. There were a lot of misconceived arrangements due to a lack of coordination between the two ministries. For example, Ministry of Health forgot to reserve the hotel for me. The hotel reserved by the Ministry with my request was a miserable business hotel in Ikebukuro, of which the door lock was broken. I was outraged. How could they reserve a hotel like this for a national employee about to embark on a potentially dangerous mission? I decided move to the New Otani Hotel in Akasaka. I called the Ministry of Health and told them the change of the hotel. I didn’t forget to ask the Ministry to pay the bill.

　On October 31, I visited the Ministry of Health and Welfare and met with several people concerned. I was invited to the office of Mr. Teramatsu, the Director of the Division of Insurance and Medical Affairs. He was directly in charge of this mission at the Ministry.
Mr. Teramatsu told me quietly “Your buddy is a surgeon younger than you. Therefore you should realize that you are the leader of the team. However, you must not think of doing something heroic.
Never! You are a civilian doctor who has not trained to do medical activities in the war area. Everybody including the politicians understand this fully. So you just control any extreme activities of the other members of the team as their leader. The only thing I expect is to see you return safely.”

　On November 1, there was a training course at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. It consisted of lectures in which the rules of the Ministry and the present condition of Saudi Arabia, etc. were presented. In addition to the lecturer, a young career diplomat from the Ministry sat in front of us and took notes. When Dr. Teramoto, the leader of the vanguard from National Nagasaki Hospital came there for a lecture, he yelled at the young diplomat sitting behind him.
“Young man, why do you observe us like a spy? Don’t you trust people from another Ministry?” I was surprised by the comment, but understood and agreed with what he said.

　On November 2, one day before departure my teammate, a surgeon and I, paid an honorary visit to Minister of Health and Welfare, Mr. Tsushima and that of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Nakayama. A TV crew
followed us then, and there was a broadcast on the evening news on that day. I had many telephone calls from friends and relatives at night. Both ministers were very friendly, especially Mr. Nakayama
whose son was also a resident at Osaka National Hospital.

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