President’s Address to the Entering Class

I will now give an address to mark the occasion of the Niigata College of Nursing entrance ceremony for the 2009 academic year.

I would like to express to you and your family our heartfelt congratulations upon your entry to the Nursing Course and to the Graduate School of Niigata College of Nursing.

Now we are living on the planet Earth which is blessed with abundant water, but it did not have such a mild environment when it was born four billion and six thousand years ago.  After the surface of the newborn earth was covered with magma ocean, an enormous volume of rain, however, fell from the thick layer of cloud.  Due to the rain, magma cooled to become rocks, which formed the surface of the earth.  After billions of years, large-sized creatures were borne.  That was just 0.5 billion years ago.

There are many volcanoes on our earth, and they sometimes extrude molten lava.   Japan especially, has an abundance of volcanoes, leading to this country being called a volcanic wonderland. 

It was November 15, 1986, 22 years ago that Mt. Mihara in Oshima in the Izu islands, which was sleeping quietly for 220 years, erupted suddenly issuing forth lava and volcanic gases.  The 10,000 islanders had to flee their land. 

When we looked at the aerial photographs of that time, we found that there was a crater like a large gaping hole spewing out volcanic gases and a huge amount of flowing lava like balls of fire.  The entire island, including the green surface of the mountains and the residential areas, had been completely changed by the volcanic product.

Over time the volcanic material cooled, and seemed to become just rugged rocks.  The surface of the rocks appeared so jagged that if people were to walk on them, their shoes would have soon worn-out.  Though the rain fell on the surface of the rocks, it just ran off the surface without soaking into the ground.

Mt. Mihara has erupted many times in the past. Every time it erupts, the island’s surface is thus altered, and yet through the influence of the sun and rain, the rugged rock surface is broken down and now it exists as soil.   The soil contains air and water, and has changed into a surface that people can live on.     

This very ‘soil’ on the ground is in fact the benevolent interface between human beings and the earth.  This interface ‘soil’ soon brought back life, residents have returned to Oshima in the Izu islands and they are living in good health now.  ‘Soil’ tenderly holds water and gives as much as is needed to human beings.  Moreover, ‘Soil’ grows the food that we need.

Though this is the story of the earth, such an interface is indispensable for our life in the present day.  It is said that man appeared, having diverged from chimpanzees, several million years ago.  Humans, it is said, are taken care of by others from birth, as they grow up they contribute to support others, and upon reaching old age, are taken care of by others again.

Ideally, being healthy is best for people throughout their life, but in reality, they sometimes fall ill.  When they fall ill, they are looked after with medical care.  Modern medical science has made great progress.  The technology of medical science has made rapid progress as well.  Thanks to modern medical science, many diseases are now completely treatable.

People, however, suffer anxiety while they are fighting against disease. Even if the symptoms of the disease are controlled by medical science, nothing is more effective than people’s healing power to cure the disease.  The thing affecting a person’s healing power the most, is that person’s mental condition.  One person’s heart is supported by another person at his side.  The support of the person whose place is between the patient and the doctor is important.  This interface has a similar role to the aforementioned ‘soil’ after a volcanic eruption. This very thing is the power of nursing.

Our College of Nursing fosters people who will become such a benevolent interface.  And through this, it is a university that supports the very foundation of Japan.  The field of nursing that you have chosen is widely sought after in society these days.  I would like you to start your college life with pride.  We, the teachers and other staff of this college, are going to support you with all our might. 

I wish to convey to the families of these new students too, that you can confidently entrust us to look after your children and they will, with all our combined efforts, assuredly complete their studies and graduate.  Look forward to their success. With that I would like close my address.  Thank you.

 

April 6, 2009

 

Takashi Watanabe,

President

Niigata College of Nursing