ARTHUR'S GIFT
OTSUKA Toshiya   Medical Doctor


Importuned Importuned by my daughter, I took her to a hit movie, entitled "Arthur Christmas." Don't look down on this film as just a kids-oriented animation; Adults can feel something too.

The Santa Claus family reside in a fortress-like place at the North Pole. They have a secret mission every Christmas Eve: distribution of Christmas gifts to two billion kids before dawn. Santa flies around the world in the fast, gigantic, invisible spacecraft with nimble diminutive fairies that descend and sneak into each child's house to leave gifts behind. Steve, Santa's elder son, is an ambitious elite, controls the mission from the high-tech operation center and feels self-gratification by perfecting his job, whereas na?ve and clumsy Arthur, younger son, is alienated and relegated to a responder to children's cards. One Christmas Eve, a technical glitch happens; A single gift fails to be delivered. Steve pretends it's just a one-in-two-billionth error and negligible, but Arthur insists, "There is no kid on the earth who can be neglected!" Then, Arthur decides to take on an adventurous twist-and-turn trip (to England) in a flying reindeer-sled to bring a promised bicycle to the kid.

You can really enjoy the story through 3D-glasses: A funny, farfetched secret of high-tech operation and the flying reindeer-sled going astray, beleaguered by lions in Africa, and dropping by a wrong address in Mexico. Aside from the hilarious part, a short line, "No children are negligible," really twang on my heart strings.

Indeed, every kid is born with the right to be protected impartially by adults. If that is the case, shouldn't we mull over the worst presents we have sent after March 11th to children in Fukushima? Internal exposure to radioactive cesium affecting the children's sensitive DNA and radiation showers relentlessly falling over the earth of schools and kindergartens - the list goes on and on. The mind boggles. Some economists are nevertheless claiming in a condescending way, "Naysayers to nuclear power are helplessly na?ve idealists and they know nothing about the economy." It's all about money. Then, tell me the price of a child's life and put the price tag on the rueful faces of children who were deprived of their precious places. Don't even get me started on the lassitude, ineptitude and irresponsibility of the government. I cannot see what the government really wants to do for our children and posterity. Can you?

The March 11th earthquake was no doubt a once-in-a-thousand-years disaster. However, I don't like to be Steve who said, "Just a one-in-two-billion probability," but like to be Arthur who never neglected even a single kid. If we learn something from Arthur's determination, bravery and fortitude, the answer to what we should do for the future generations becomes clear. As Arthur did, why don't we make a tough, but far-sighted decision for the sake of our children just now? We could do worse than invest our wisdom and last dollar in the quest for a truly safe, clean and reliable energy, in lieu of profligate, self-destructive money games.

Would you like to know the finale of the movie? Of course, Arthur made it and succeeded his father to become Santa who never failed to live up to the children's hopes.

Toshiya Ohtsuka, MD
Cardio Cardio-vascular surgeon

December 21, 2011

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