Dr. Izutsu is presented the medal by Japan Consul General Koichi Ito. Deborah Manog photo.
By Tina Shelton JABSOM Communications Director
Dr. Satoru Izutsu, longtime Admissions Director and Vice Dean of the University of Hawaiʻi (UH) medical school, was presented a medal, “The Order of the Rising Sun,” by the government of Japan today.
The ceremony was held at the official residence of the Consulate General of Japan in Honolulu.
Dr. Izutsu led efforts by the John A. Burns School of Medicine (JABSOM) to assist Okinawa following World War Two. The island badly needed physicians, and the UH and the Chubu Hospital in Okinawa began an MD training collaboration that has lasted 50 years.
“Today there are over 130 staff physicians at the 500-bed Chubu Hospital of which 70% are graduates of the UH-Chubu program,” said Koichi Ito, Consul General of Japan.
