Hello Hello! I hope everyone is doing well!
Today, we’ll be learning about The Great Kuroo Hazama!
So to start it all off, we’ll be diving into The (Young) Black Jack series. This anime and manga series covers Kuroo Hazama an aspiring/actual ‘master’ surgeon practicing in Japan.
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One of the most remarkable things about Kuroo’s design is his scars and hair. As a child, Kuroo and his family lived in an abandoned military base. On one occasion, Kuroo was walking on the beach with his mother and accidentally triggered a forgotten landmine. The explosion separated Kuroo’s body into nearly 18 pieces leaving him essentially dead and blew of his mother’s limbs and left her mute. Under the surgical care of Dr. Jotaru Honma, Kuroo was able to make a near-full recovery, but there was a snag during the surgeries. Kuroo needed a skin transplant and there were no donors available, so Dr. Jotaru ending asking his students if they’d be able to help out. One student, Takashi, obliged and gave some of his skin to Kuroo. Initially, I thought that Takashi was more just a melanin-gifted medical student, but it turns out that he’s actually half-Japanese and half-African, which explains Kuroo two skin tones. Kuroo was given the chance to correct his darker skin, but he refused the treatment out of respect for his friend. Part of Kuroo’s hair became white due to the physical and mental stress of his circumstances and his mother. TBH, I can’t imagine being asked by a head surgeon who’s also my teacher to donate my skin to a patient I’ve never met. Although it’s important to know that this takes place not only in Japan and pre-90’s but also in a fictional universe. Anyway, after the surgeries, Kuroo gradually recoveries from a lengthy, difficult physical therapy process. His process was additionally hard due to the lack of care from the hospital staff and the realization of his mother’s demise. Because of the explosion, Kuroo also suffered from a pneumothorax, which left him with lung damage. A pneumothorax occurs usually when something damages the outer sac that protects our lungs. This sac helps help our lungs clinging to our ribs (more or less), so when that when we breathe our lungs expand on inhaling and retract on exhale. Kuroo’s lung damage not only physically affected him but left him with an “acute phobia” related to meeting patients who experienced similar pulmonary damage. He struggled with intense anger towards his father, feelings of helplessness during the rehabilitation, and depression as a whole. The spark that kept Kuroo going was the resolve to become a doctor just like Dr. Honma who saved his life.
Before I get into Kuroo’s schooling and how he got to where he ended up it’s important to talk a little bit about Japanese medical education. So, here in the U.S. to become a physician with the medical degree and all, you have to go through four years of medical school at an accredited institution. Typically, one graduates from high school, graduates from a 4-year university, and then graduates from a 4-year medical degree program. I would like to emphasis that while this is a general process, it is not necessarily the standard because everyone’s life situations are different! Considering medical education in Japan, it is slightly different (but similar to the process of medical education in other countries). Typically, you graduate from high school in Japan and attend medical school afterwards (almost like a mixture between a university and medical school), but the process lasts 6 years rather than 4. I wanted to highlight this difference just to clarify any confusion related to Kuroo’s training. Kuroo attended medical school and acquired his degree, BUT he refused to obtain his surgical licensure. Essentially, despite having the knowledge and capabilities to practice surgery and medicine, he was not legally capable of doing so. Why would do that you might ask? It involves his sense of justice, not wanting to partake in a corrupt medical system that established arbitrary rules and bureaucratic process that hurt more patients then it helps. This is pretty commendable imo but would definitely not pass in today’s society.
Dr. Hazama went to develop his own medical practice and clinic near the beach where he operates on any and all patients that come to him. He also engages in travel where he meets different types of patients and offers them surgery. I learned that Dr. Hazama has an interest “personal code” regarding his patients. Firstly, he will treat any and all patients. Secondly, he comes up with a charge prior to giving the procedure. Thirdly, he desires to hear the stories of all his patients prior to surgery and given how powerful a patient’s experience might be, he may forgo the charges. Lastly, in situations of complex treatment or misjudgment on his end he works to make sure that his patients are taken care of as best as possible. Funny enough, Dr. Hazama is known for his exorbitantly high prices for treating patients, but he gives a lot of his profits to community and environmental services and charities.
Now that we’ve got a lot of Dr. Hazama’s story out of the way, on to some fun facts!
The first thing I wanted to address was some of the interesting romance that vaguely exists in the series. I want to particularly focus on one of Hazama’s loves, Megumi Kisaragi. This woman was a fellow intern with Dr. Hazama during his medical training. Dr. Hazama fell in love with her, but she eventually developed ovarian cancer. Fortunately, she was survived having her ovaries removed, but that left Dr. Kisaragi in a tough position. Given the complexities of gender identity and sexual organs, Dr. Kisaragi chose to live the rest of their life as man under the new name Dr. Kei Kisaragi. Interestingly enough, the character used for Dr. Kisaragi’s name is the exact same Megumi and Kei (恵) meaning favor, blessing, grace, and kindness.
During his medical training in the series, Young Black Jack, you can often see Kuroo studying in various parts of his campus. One thing he does quite a lot is practice suturing techniques in the air. He actually has a scene speaking with a classmate while practicing sutures. I wonder if actually surgery students, interns, and residents do this in their free time? Kuroo has also practiced his surgery skills on animals, seemingly similar to a veterinary, but with the intention of live practice before performing on a human. He’s practiced surgical techniques on over 10 different animals both in living and dead, before finishing his medical education.
Kuroo can also fight. It was noted that he prefers fighting with his fists, but he’s also pretty good at throwing weapons. If I am remembering correctly, there are scenes within the anime where he throws a scalpel to scare a foe. He was also known to have superb dart skills in high school. This amazing dexterity was one of his many assets that helped him earn the recognition as a genius surgeon.
Despite all of the ideal and fantastical parts of Dr. Kuroo Hazama, I would like to address the realism of his character. Being someone who loves his profession, Dr. Hazama often expresses emotional disturbance whenever his patients are taken or face death (whether preventable or inevitable). Medical professionals, especially depending on the field, are constantly dealing with the scent of the death (trying to keep people away from it, if that wasn’t clear). At his essence, Dr. Hazama is a man who encountered great physical and mental suffering in his life, and it was through a surgeon that helped him regain his life, both figuratively and physically. There are numerous physicians who have been inspired to learn the art of medicine because of similar life experiences they had.
Something that I found very interesting was an analysis of Dr. Hazama’s scars. According to the Black Jack wiki page, “His scar embodies the principle of the flawed hero: his half-black, half-white face foregoes any claim to ‘purity’—be it cultural or ideological—and betrays the complexity of the character”. (1) I think that this idea also hearkens to the way that we view healthcare workers as heroes. From an outsider’s perspective, we see all the amazing things that physicians do on a daily basis, but its important to know that physicians are humans too. It can be great to be treated like a hero, but its also important to recognize the humanity of those who choose to help us in our times of need.
Overall, it’s clear that Dr. Hazama is a surgeon. I believe he’d be a true general surgeon dabbling in all the other major surgical areas due to his confidence with anatomy and surgery. What do you guys think?
Well, I hope you all enjoyed! If you haven’t already, please take a look into the black jack series! I will see you tomorrow!!
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