Influential by Example

This is from the Japan Times online, about one of the many people who did his/her best for others during the March 11 tsunami.

"— A Japanese doctor who was recently chosen as one of Time magazine's 100 most influential people said Tuesday he believes he was picked as a symbol of all the people who have been courageously fighting against difficulties after being affected by the March 11 disaster in his homeland.



Takeshi Kanno




Takeshi Kanno, a 31-year-old internist, spoke with media outlets in New York, where he was visiting at the invitation of the magazine. He was noted for helping evacuate patients at his hospital in Minamisanriku, Miyagi Prefecture, after the tsunami alert and waiting until the last of his patients had been helicoptered out before he too left.

Then on March 16, Kanno attended his wife's delivery of a baby boy.

Asked about the latest conditions, Kanno said, "Needs for goods and housing are being met to a certain extent, but (the survivors) still cannot fully live like humans. The question used to be how to survive. Now it has shifted to how to live and be independent."