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Kangofu or Perawat? The Fluid Profession of Nursing in Wartime Java

Thu, March 16, 7:30 to 9:30pm, Sheraton Centre Toronto Hotel, Floor: 2nd Floor, Dominion Ballroom South

Abstract

During the early years of the Japanese occupation of Java and other areas of Indonesia, a limited number of doctors and nurses were sent out by the Japan Red Cross and the Japanese Imperial armed forces to help staff the most important hospitals in critical areas under military administration. Representing only a small percentage of the medical staff needed, most clinics and hospitals depended largely on locally recruited and trained medical staff, including many trained before the war in Dutch institutions. Accordingly, both a medical college and a nursing school were established in Jakarta and given substantial attention in Indonesian publications. Nonetheless, when the Japanese nursing professionals were suddenly withdrawn by the order of the Japanese Army HQ, a series of additional changes took place, with the military scrambling to find ways to deal with the local problems and opportunities this presented.
Following individual cases, hospital staffing data, and more general information gleaned from popular wartime publications, this paper seeks to explore the state of the nursing field in Japanese occupied Indonesia, the training and roles of nursing staff, as well as the gendered and ethnic roles in nursing. What were the racial and gender ratios within the nursing field, and when were different groups utilized? What were the tasks delegated to the nurses, and to what extent did this vary? Were there lasting effects on the field of nursing in Japan or Indonesia, or in the life-tracks of those women who became nurses during this period?

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