Visiting the site of nuclear devastation

Later this month, Kian Madjedi will visit the exact spot where a nuclear bomb was dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945.

From Aug. 22-27, the Laurentian University student, who is entering his third year of studies in September, will be at a conference in Hiroshima put on by International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW).

“We're all going together as a congress for a walk along these grounds (where the bomb was dropped),” Madjedi said. “It's to sort of commemorate and remember.”
Opposing the proliferation of nuclear weapons is an issue that's come to mean a lot to Madjedi recently.

He first learned about IPPNW and its Canadian chapter, Physicians for Global Survival, after attending a London, Ont. conference on global health a couple of months ago.

While at the conference, the 19-year-old psychology and native studies student met Dr. Richard Denton, an Elliot Lake-based family physician and Northern Ontario School of Medicine (NOSM) professor.

Denton also happens to be the president of Physicians for Global Survival.
The group's message is that it's better to prevent the proliferation of nuclear weapons, as “there can't be meaningful medical treatment if you're a victim of a nuclear war,” Madjedi said.

Because he hopes to attend NOSM once he finishes his undergraduate degree, the student said he's learning as much as he can about what it means to be a doctor. That means looking at global issues affecting health as well as just the immediate needs of patients, he said.

IPPNW, which was started in 1980, is described on its website as a federation representing tens of thousands of doctors and supporters around the world “who share the common goal of creating a more peaceful and secure world freed from the threat of nuclear annihilation.”

For its role in decreasing the number of nuclear warheads in the world by roughly 10,000, the IPPNW received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1985.

But there's still roughly 23,000 nuclear weapons in the world, something which Madjedi said he finds “terrifying.”

“Before I was involved in this organization, it was something that was on the news,” he said.

“I said 'OK, nuclear war, whatever.' Now that I'm really engaged with these issues, I see that it's not just a political issue, it's a medical issue.”

Madjedi said he hopes to return from Japan with armed knowledge he can share with other people. He said he plans to start a chapter of Physicians for Global Survival at Laurentian.

For more information about IPPNW, visit www.ippnw.org. To learn more about Physicians for Global Survival, visit pgs.ca.