Highlights from the life of Shigeaki Hinohara, one of Japan’s most famous doctors, who has died aged 105.
Shigeaki Hinohara, one of Japan’s most famous doctors, has died at the age of 105.
Dr Hinohara continued seeing patients until months before his death and frequently offered advice on how to live well.
Described by his colleagues as Japan’s national treasure, he headed five foundations in addition to being the president of St Luke’s International Hospital in Tokyo.
Here are some highlights from his remarkable life.
Dr Hinohara began his working life as a doctor at St Luke’s in the 1940s.
During the war he helped to treat victims of the firebombing that destroyed large parts of the Japanese capital.
In 1970 Dr Hinohara was a passenger on a Japan Airlines plane hijacked by the communist militant group, the Japanese Red Army.
The hijackers, who were armed with swords and pipe bombs, took 129 hostages on the flight from Tokyo to Fukuoka, later releasing them at Fukuoka and the South Korea capital Seoul before flying on to North Korea where they were offered political asylum.
In a 2008 interview with the Japan Times, Dr Hinohara said the hijackers had explosives strapped to them « and we were terrorised, wondering whether the negotiations might break down ».
A great music lover, Dr Hinohara, at the age of 88, wrote a script for a Japanese musical entitled The Fall of Freddie the Leaf.
The show was first performed in 2000 and Dr Hinohara also acted in the production, dancing with children, the Japan Times reported.
Dr Hinohara frequently appeared on Japanese television, urging audiences to have more fun in their lives and to ward off illness by always giving themselves something to look forward to.
