23. Crossing the Medical Divide: Continuity and Change in Medicine in Japanese-Occupied Indonesia

Session Submission Type: Organized Panel

Abstract

The Japanese Occupation of Indonesia is traditionally characterized by a lack of information, but a complete set of stereotypes which reinforce an assumption of difference with the prewar and postwar periods. The arrival of the Japanese armed forces in early 1942, and Japan’s surrender in August 1945 are divides across which historians rarely traverse.
Whether in war or in peace, new rulers and new contexts produce different problems, different responses, and different systems; certainly in the critical field of medicine, qualified continuities with other periods, and similarities with other areas should be expected. This panel juxtaposes four very different subjects related to medicine and public health, but with particular attention to the earlier “divide” of 1942, and conditions during the more stable colonial period, with the aim of elucidating both the state of the field of medicine, as well as the more general conditions of the early 1940s. Whether dealing with selection and screening of films containing medical knowledge, production and distribution of the critical malaria drug quinine, research into venereal disease and interest in prostitution, or changes in acceptable training of nurses and staffing of hospitals, the field of medicine represents an understudied but critical area which can help us understand changes during this critical period of Asian history.
In order to stimulate active discussion during the limited time allotted, the panelists will briefly present their papers (12 minutes), and each presenter will comment on one other paper (2-3 minutes), before allowing responses and opening discussion to the floor.

Area of Study

• Southeast

Session Organizer

• William B. Horton, Waseda University

Chair

• William B. Horton, Waseda University

Individual Presentations

• From Hollywood Flicks to Eradicating Malaria and Visiting the Doctor: Screening Films in Indonesia during the Japanese Occupation - Kaoru Kochi, Univ. of Tokyo

• Bittersweet Flowers in Java: VD and Prostitution during the Transitional Period from Dutch to Japanese Rule - Mayumi Yamamoto, Miyagi University

• Pharmaceutical Empire: Continuity and Change in Quinine Manufacturing in the Japanese Empire during the Pacific War - Andrew Goss, Augusta University

• Kangofu or Perawat? The Fluid Profession of Nursing in Wartime Java - William B. Horton, Waseda University