Newsmaker
Monday, September 15, 1997
Name: Dr. Osamu Fukuyama
Age: 48
Education: UC-Berkeley, UH School of Medicine
Occupation: Cardiologist
Hobbies: Jogging, biking, fishing
When student protesters took over the Tokyo University campus in 1968 and the school closed its doors for a year, student Osamu Fukuyama took the opportunity to travel. He never returned to live in Japan. Moved by protesters
He ended up visiting Hawaii and California, attending universities in both states and eventually working as a physician here.
"Medicine has changed drastically in the last 20 years, but it's still a very honorable profession," said Fukuyama, chosen as Kuakini Medical Center's physician of the year for 1997. "There is some meaning in the things I do every day. It's given me a lot of satisfaction."
When Fukuyama took his first U.S. trip, the prestigious Tokyo University was occupied by students armed with Molotov cocktails and protesting the Vietnam War and the U.S. military presence in Japan. He later attended the University of California at Berkeley, a center of student radicalism.
Because of family in Hawaii, he studied medicine here, married and had four children.
Fishing has been one of his favorite pastimes in Hawaii, although he admits he has no great fish tales to spin. His biggest catch weighed only 2 pounds, "and that's a little exaggeration."
Susan Kreifels, Star-Bulletin
