By Khawaja Fahad Iqbal
He was such a strange guy. He had no regard for his own future, his career and his comfort. Ever since I have come to Japan to pursue my PhD, my friends and relatives have been trying to convince me that look! This is golden opportunity for you! Don’t go back to Pakistan after completing your studies. Find a well-paying job in Japan, establish yourself here and live a comfortable life. Whenever I hear such advice from people, I start thinking about this strange guy.
He was born and raised in Japan, became a doctor, and then left everything here for the life of hardships in the mountains and deserts of Afghanistan.
He was born and raised in Japan, became a doctor, and then left everything here for the life of hardships in the mountains and deserts of Afghanistan. Didn’t he have any friend or family member who could have stopped him from this madness? Someone should have told him that leaving the life of comfort and safety in Japan for the life of struggles and danger in Afghanistan is such a stupid idea. The poor guy is dead now. He was shot down by some unidentified assailants. His blood was spilled on the same land that he had been serving for so many years.
He was looking for butterflies. He first came to Pakistan in 1978 as a doctor for a team of mountaineers from the city of Fukuoka. He later told that he was interested in insects since his childhood and he thought that he would get to see some rare species of butterflies in Pakistan. He didn’t think of serving the humanity at the time.
With hundreds of research papers to his credit, he has written 10 books on health and economic recovery of Afghanistan. In 2003, he won the Ramon Magsaysay Award in recognition of his services to humanity.
But when he started travelling in the northern areas of Pakistan with his team of mountaineers, he saw that whenever they enter a village, upon knowing that there is a doctor in the team, the people of that village would come to see him and request him to treat their sick. But Dr. Nakamura had not brought his whole clinic with him. He could only give those people first aid medicine. This left him with a sense of guilt and shame. He said that the more warmly he was welcome by village, the more he felt guilty that he couldn’t even treat their diseases and injuries properly.
In 1983, he founded an NGO called Peshawar-kai with his friends. Next year, he started working in a hospital in Peshawar where he would treat lepers. With time, his institute started expanding its activities and started giving medical aid to the Afghan refugees. A few years later, the institute shifted its activities from Pakistan to Afghanistan. Dr. Nakamura opened his own clinic in Afghanistan in 1991.
Dr. Nakamura treating patients in Pakistan during the 80s.
Afghanistan went through a severe drought in 2000 which resulted in a sudden spike in deaths due to thirst and hunger. Dr. Nakamura told the people of his area that I can’t treat thirst and hunger with medicine. I’ll treat your diseases later, for now I have decided to leave the field of medicine and I am going to do something that will bring sufficient food and water to the people of Afghanistan. He started digging wells in the drought affected areas and started an agricultural irrigation plan in 2003.
He didn’t believe in just issuing orders like a common manager. Even though he was a medical doctor by profession, he learnt how to make blueprints of irrigation systems and learnt how to operate heavy machinery. He would often say that the process of rebuilding begins with agriculture, not with an army operation. Dr. Nakamura dug more than 1600 wells in Afghanistan.
Dr. Nakamura first came to Pakistan in 1978 as a doctor for a team of mountaineers from the city of Fukuoka. He later told that he was interested in insects since his childhood and he thought that he would get to see some rare species of butterflies in Pakistan. He didn’t think of serving the humanity at the time.
His biggest project was the development of a 25km long irrigation canal on Kunar river. This canal made 16,000 hectares of land cultivable brought food to 600,000 people. It converted the barren deserts of Nangarhar province into lush green fields. Because of such services, the Afghans started regarding him as their hero and started referring to Dr. Nakamura with the nickname Kaka Murad (Murad uncle).
Crops have been cultivated on both sides of the 25km long canal of Dr. Nakamura
The picture at the top is from 2009. And the picture at the bottom is from 2013.
This green revolution only took 4 years.
Dr. Nakamura has hundreds of research papers on his credit. Moreover, he has written 10 books on the health and economic recovery of Afghanistan. In 2003, he won the Ramon Magsaysay Award by Philippine in recognition of his services to humanity. This award is considered the Nobel prize of Asia. In October 2019, the Afghanistan President gave him an honorary citizenship of Afghanistan. He is the first foreigner to get an honorary Afghan citizenship.
On 4th December 2019, there was an attempt on his life in Jalalabad. Four armed personnel surrounded his car on both sides and opened fire on him. This attempt resulted in the death of five people on the spot which included Dr. Nakamura’s driver and his body guard. Dr. Nakamura himself was severely wounded. He received bullet wounds on the right side of his chest. He was taken to a hospital in Jalalabad where an operation was conducted immediately to remove the bullets from his body. But because of his critical condition, it was decided to shift him to the American hospital in Bagram airbase via a helicopter. He could not complete this journey and died on the way. He was 73 years old at the time.
Even though he was a medical doctor by profession, he learnt how to make blueprints of irrigation systems and learnt how to operate heavy machinery. He would often say that the process of rebuilding begins with agriculture, not with an army operation. Dr. Nakamura dug more than 1600 wells in Afghanistan.
Dr Nakamura is no longer in this world but he has left a lot of questions for us. How great he was that he left a life of comfort and luxury in a developed country to serve humanity in a backward, underdeveloped and dangerous country. And how selfish and materialistic we are that we start dreaming about moving abroad even at our early age. Our aim isn’t serving the people. No! far from it. Our only concern is about our own selves. We just want to earn a lot of money, have a lavish and opulent lifestyle, live in spacious mansions, drive around in the big luxurious cars, and have all the latest gadgets and accessories that money can buy. But may be its not just us. A majority of the people in the world thinks along the same lines. They have the same selfish ideals, dreams and aspirations that we have. There are very few people who can rise above their own selfish desires and pursue the welfare of all humanity. People like Dr. Nakamura are very rare indeed. But it is because of such strange people that this world continues to exist and we keep believing in the goodness of people. I salute you Dr. Nakamura! I really love and admire strange people like you.
People in Jalalabad are mourning the death of Dr. Nakamura
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