On the occasion of the 200th anniversary of the birth of Ignác Semmelweis, a statue was unveiled in Tokyo. The memorial of the mother’s saviour was placed at the Japanese Red Cross Medical Center.
The ceremony was attended by Dr. Ildikó Horváth, the Secretary of Health of the Ministry of Human Capacities and Micsikó, the Japanese empress. The Secretary of Health, the leader the Hungarian delegation, also held talks on the expansion of the Hungarian-Japanese health and medical relations in Tokyo.
Under the direction of Dr. László Rosivall, chairman of the Semmelweis Memorial Committee, the delegation of Semmelweis University also travelled to Japan for the occasion. The ceremony took place as a result of the co-ordination of the Embassy of Hungary in Tokyo in co-operation with the Memorial Committee, the Semmelweis memorial year and the Japanese Memorial Committee, the latter founded because of the unveiling of the statue. The unveiling ceremony of the statue, created by Istvan Madarassy, was accompanied by Kobajasi Kenichiro conductor’s composition, formed for this special occasion. After the event, the participants attended a private discussion with the empress.
The statue was placed in the Japanese Red Cross Medical Centre. The legal predecessor of the first opened Japanese Red Cross hospital was founded in 1886 and moved to its present location in 1891. More than two hundred of the 708 beds of the institution are kept for the maternity and paediatric units. More than three thousand babies are born in the hospital each year. The institution has also been given the UNICEF “Baby-Friendly Hospital Award”.
(MTI)