Rika Kayama (Mainichi)

       The news on the Taliban's recapture of Afghanistan and the collapse of the Afghan government made headlines around the world.

       I've personally never visited Afghanistan, but I have special sentiment for the country as it was the place where the late Dr. Tetsu Nakamura, whom I admire, spent many years engaged in medical care and irrigation works. Last year, I had the opportunity to attend a lecture by Chiyoko Fujita, a nurse who for many years had committed to the work carried out by Peshawar-kai, a nongovernmental organization that supported Nakamura.

       Although the physician was gunned down in 2019 in Afghanistan and is no longer with us, the "Afghanistan's Dr. Nakamura" that Fujita talked about sounded lively and the audience erupted in laughter many times during her talk.

       I was especially impressed by a story where Nakamura dug a number of wells with the locals before a major irrigation project and went down in such wells after their completion. Fujita showed us photos of him descending into a well in a slide show, and there he was on a simple basket, barefoot, being sent down the well by himself in the dark. On his face, however, was a big smile as he looked up. He must have been excited about the well's completion and completely trusted the locals who held onto the rope connected to the basket.

       Nakamura apparently used to say "We've got to do everything together." It means that you can't win someone's trust by just sitting on a chair telling others what to do, just because you're a doctor or are knowledgeable. It's when and only when you pick up a shovel and operate heavy machinery that you will be taken in as a companion, otherwise nothing will get started.

       We cannot fly to Afghanistan right now, but we can apply this teaching to situations around us. Those who are called supervisors or leaders in our community or workplace can't truly earn people's trust just by ordering others around, telling them what to do or what not to do using only words and emails. Rather, they need to actually get up, like "I'm going to do it with you," and make use of their hands and repeat trials and errors with their colleagues. If they can do that, those around them will think that this person "isn't a terrifying leader but is one of us," which will likely make a much better working environment.

       Today we're increasingly communicating with each other without directly facing each other amid the spread of the coronavirus. The opportunities to "create something together" are also diminishing. At the same time, lending a helping hand, saying to others, "If there's anything you don't know, I will work on it with you on the computer," isn't a hard thing to do. I am once again taking the meaning of Dr. Nakamura's "Let's do it together" motto to heart.

       (Japanese original by Rika Kayama, psychiatrist)

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