Gulf Crisis, confidential （７）　

７) visiting Al Kohbar
As Mr. Teramatsu, Director of the Ministry of Health & Welfare mentioned, we were dispatched here to show the presence of Japan, not to do something positively. We understood it logically, and we also knew that there was no medical demand in Saudi Arabia iat the end of 1990, before the war.

However, it was practically impossible to do nothing for a month as a team. Moreover, we Japanese are so workaholic that we felt very uncomfortable doing nothing. At the first Japanese Embassy meeting,
we determined the following things. We would visit Al Khobar and, and talk with the Health Ministry officials there in order to know their needs, and at the same time inspect the building which the vanguard team reserved for our future clinic.

In the early morning of November 7, 1990 two diplomats assisting the Japanese Medical Team, Dr A and I, left for Al Khobar by plane. The land of Saudi Arabia from the plane window was all but sand, quite different from the city of Riyadh which was full of green. I realized that it was a desert country.

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