Fatma Korkut
Middle East Technical University
Ankara, Turkey
A Japanese physician, Tetsu Nakamura (1946-2019), devoted 35 years of his life and professional career to saving lives in Afghanistan, a land stricken by constant droughts and warfare. In 1984 Nakamura started to practice in a small clinique in Northern Pakistan; noticing that his patients were mostly refugees from the neighboring country, he relocated his practice to Afghanistan. In his early years in the field, he desperately witnessed his patients of various ages suffering from illnesses mainly caused by a lack of hygiene and food. To save lives, Nakamura decided to focus on two areas: providing water and reviving agriculture. His reinterpretation of the problem and his professional practice resulted in a life-long project to raise funds and human resources for digging wells, constructing damns, and revitalizing agriculture. Despite the language barrier, significant logistic challenges, and harsh conditions caused by the armed conflict (Shimizu, 2021) between the Taliban and the international coalition led by the U.S. as part of the “Global War on Terror,” Nakamura adopted a bottom-up strategy for developing and implementing solutions that empowered local users. He engaged local people and volunteers from Japan as co-workers towards shared goals (NHK, 2021); considering maintenance and repair, he prioritized local materials, knowledge and skills in construction work; he respected the local culture, understood the importance of social and spiritual needs, and supported the local community in building a cultural center (madrasa). Nakamura refused to characterize his work as a peace movement; he insisted that it was about saving lives, and in that sense, it was part of his medical practice (NHK, 2017). Nakamura and five Afghanis accompanying him died in a shooting attack in Jalalabad in 2019.
This paper investigates the extraordinary career journey of Tetsu Nakamura based on documentaries, news articles, reports, and scholarly articles. The investigation is further fed by the insights gained through in-class discussions on the case over several years in an undergraduate introductory design course offered by the author. The paper attempts to develop a perspective through which Nakamura’s vision and practice of medicine can be appraised as design interventions. Would such a perspective play a meaningful role in deepening our understanding of design literacy? What lessons can we draw from Nakamura’s case concerning design literacy as transdisciplinary? What is the meaning of the total absence of women as actors in this case, reconsidering the case with respect and a pinch of criticism?
References
NHK. (2017, September 27). Tetsu Nakamura Water, Not Weapons [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YcR8L4vjuL8
NHK. (2021, May 15). Hearing the Voice of Nakamura Tetsu [Video]. YouTube. https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/ondemand/video/3016097/
Shimizu, H. (2021). International Entanglement of Drought, War, and Rehabilitation in Afghanistan: A Sketch from the Viewpoint of Dr. NAKAMURA’s Irrigation Project. University of Tokyo IFI-SDGs Unit Working Paper No.2. https://api.lib.kyushu-u.ac.jp/opac_download_md/4476145/4476145.pdf
Fatma Korkut is an associate professor at METU Department of Industrial Design. She holds a bachelor’s degree in industrial design from METU (Ankara), an MSc from IIT Institute of Design (Chicago), and a PhD from Mimar Sinan University (İstanbul). Her research has ranged over design history, design education, and design protection. Her recent research supervision has focused on design pedagogy, design thinking and value transfer through generative practices.
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