[Historical Re-evaluation of the System of Sending Psychiatrists to Okinawa and the Activities of the Japanese Society of Psychiatry and Neurology].

The Okinawa Psychiatric Committee, which was established as a part of the Japanese Society of Psychiatry and Neurology, has been cooperating in securing psychiatric medicine in Okinawa by sending psychiatrists to the region as well as assisting in other ways. The Committee, however, was disbanded in 1967 after its final meeting in Kanazawa. The Okinawa Psy- chiatric Committee was newly launched in 1971 to replace the previous committee, and I was appointed the Director in charge of this concern, along with Nagasaki University Professor Ryo Takahashi, who was serving as the Committee Chairperson. Since then, I have been involved with the matter of dispatching psychiatrists to Okinawa. Specifically, we began our activities by visiting Okinawa to gain a grasp of the actual sta- tus of various problems affecting dispatched psychiatrists, and to draw up future plans. We made an investigatory trip to Okinawa on December 21-27, 1971. On the main island of Oki- nawa, we visited the then Ryukyu government office, the Japanese government's local office, public and private mental hospitals, almost all public health centers, as well as the Ryukyu Mental Health Association. We also visited relevant facilities on Miyako and Ishigaki islands. Through visits such as these, we made an effort to find out on the actual status of local psychiatric medicine at the time, and the roles that the dispatched psychiatrists had played up to that point. We also worked on learning to what extent the people concerned in Okinawa were aware of the current situation, and what they hoped to gain from our Society. We tried to hold as many meetings as possible with our Society's local members as well as those who were already working as dispatched psychiatrists, and set up opportunities to exchange opinions. What became clear through our visits was that the dispatched psychiatrists were eager to go out and practice in the field, as needed, without being tied down to treating patients inside hospitals. Based on local inspections such as these, we drew up a written report that helped to resume and re-establish the system of sending psychiatrists to Okinawa. Besides playing the public role described above, I took a personal interest in the system of resident nurses, which had disappeared after the return of Okinawa to mainland Japan, as I felt, that they had played a significant role. In any event, I feel it worth mentioning that the system of sending psychiatrists to Okinawa not only helped support psychiatric medicine in Okinawa, but also became a model for volunteer activities in the wake of earthquakes that occurred later on in other areas of Japan.