In 1965, Akira Kurosawa directed "Akahige" ("Red Beard"), the story of an Edo Period doctor who teaches his arrogant intern the importance of compassion, responsibility, and empathizing with his patients. Ophthalmologist Tadashi Hattori has seen this movie, but he insists that he was not thinking about it when, 10 years ago, he threw away a promising career in Japan to help poor people in Vietnam instead.

"It was my father that, before dying, told me to 'live for the people,' " says Hattori. "Later on, one of my sensei taught me that a doctor should have not only the skills but also the heart. That's why my motto is, 'Treat your patients as your parents.' "

Since 2002, Hattori has treated thousands of patients for free, while training other doctors and teaching them the latest techniques of vitreous body and retinal surgery. "Actually I didn't want to become an ophthalmologist," he confides. "I wanted to be an abdominal surgeon because my father died of stomach cancer when I was in high school. At the time I heard a doctor's rude and thoughtless comments about him. That was the main reason why I became a doctor."