Sacrifice and a development 

2012-98083 Hayashi, Daiki

It is ironic that human beings have been sacrificing their lives to make a better future human society. The scientist in the film examined to develop a warp machine by using his own body. And the consequence is that he turned to be a fly-man. The film was interesting for me simply because it describes scientists in the real life who sacrifices oneself for his achievement.

Hanaoka Seishū is recorded as a first surgeon who succeeded the surgery by using general anaesthesia (Ariyoshi, 1970). He devoted his life to innovate an anesthetic with his will to lessen the pain of patients during a surgery. He had examined an effect of anesthetic on animals but he could not proceed to an experiment on human because if he experiments it on himself,  so no one can succeed to achieve making an anesthetic. Thus, his mother and his wife offered themselves for his experiments. Finally, he was able to complete the anesthetic. However, as a consequence of the experiment, his mother died and his wife became blind.

The film is not a morality play because there is no good or no bad in the film. It simply describes the ethical issues on the development of science and technology. Today, plague is no longer an incurable disease. We now can avoid and lessen the risk of surgery by using anesthetic. Our great lives and knowledge now are the blessings from those who contributed for the future. Progress of the science often faces to ethical issues. Especially, the society now is quite strict about this ethical issue. In 1950’s, there were still human experiments that can harm their lives. The view of science and technology that time would have been viewed as something which can either be helpful or harmful to the human society. 

Reference:

Masumura, Y. (1967) The wife of Seishu Hanaoka. Tokyo, Japan. Shincho Bunko.