The oldest police pathologist in Aichi Prefecture retired in March, after performing autopsies on more than 4,000 bodies in his 50 year career.
Isamu Yamaguchi, an 87-year-old resident of Nagoya, says he continued to ponder the meaning of life and death as he faced the deceased, and tried to comfort the families of those who committed suicide, telling them they need not shoulder the blame.
Yamaguchi graduated from the School of Medicine at Nagoya Imperial University (now known as Nagoya University) and began work as a surgeon in 1959, the same year that the deadly Typhoon Isewan struck Japan.