Fifty Years History of the WASP
Introduction
The World Association of Societies of (Anatomic and Clinical) Pathology (WASP) inaugurated the fiftieth anniversary during the 19th World Congress of Anatomic and Clinical Pathology in 1997 at Verssailles, France. It is my great pleasure and honor to present on the "50 Years History of the WASP" at the 20th World Congress of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine held at Sao Paulo, Brazil on September 17th, 1999.
I have been associated closely with the WASP activities for the past 30 years. In 1969 I had the first opportuniy to attend the 7th International Congress of Clinical Pathology held in Montreal, Canada. Then, in 1972, I attended for the first time the Council Meeting, representing the Japan Society of Clinical Pathology (JSCP) as one of the councillors. It was the year of 1975 when I began to serve in the WASP Bureau. Since then, I was elected a Director-at-Large (1975-1978), the Vice-President (1978-1981), the Secretary-General (1981-1991), the President (1991-1993) and the Immediate Past President (1993-1995). It was a special hard-working challenge, but an enjoyable one for me to serve as the Secretary-General for a period of ten years when neither facsimile nor internet were available for international communication.
The 50 years history of the WASP can be divided into 4 stages; (1) Prehistoric movement, (2) the International Society of Clinical Pathology (1947-1969), (3) the World Association of Societies of (Anatomic and Clinical) Pathology (1969-1997), and (4) the World Association of Societies of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine.