The Role of Medicine in the Construction of a Modern Japanese Identity, 1868-1912 Disse
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Science, Nurses, Physicians and Disease: The Role of Medicine in the Construction of a Modern Japanese Identity, 1868-1912 Dissertation Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Roberto Ramon Padilla II Graduate Program in History The Ohio State University 2009 Dissertation Committee: James Bartholomew, Advisor Cynthia Brokaw Philip Brown Copyright by Roberto Ramon Padilla II 2009 Abstract This is a history of the emergence of a modern Japanese identity in the latter half of the nineteenth century as seen through the lens of scientific medicine. This study makes the argument that Japanese physicians’ construction of a modern identity was a two-fold process that identified Japan in line with Western imperialism and Western fields of knowledge, while conceptually distancing the island nation from nearby Asian neighbors. This perspective, which reflected the growing understanding among Japanese of their country’s emerging place in the world in the Meiji era (1868-1912), occurred within the context of the broad social, political, economic and military reforms that defined this period. Western medicine based on the rational proofs and perceived universality of scientific inquiry, positioned Japanese physicians as agents of modernity. I examine the way scientific medicine informed Japanese modernity in two ways: I begin by looking at how the Japanese Red Cross Society nurse came to be perceived as a national heroine, then I explain the Japanese Army Medical Bureau’s struggle to prevent beriberi, a nutritional deficiency illness in its ranks. These case studies offer a window into the interplay between modern medicine and traditional social values and underscore the reality that a field of knowledge is not adopted, but rather adapted and negotiated. In this case identity formation in Japan was not merely the result of scientific ii medicine transforming Japan, but was also influenced by Japanese society’s impact on scientific medicine. For Japanese physicians it was not enough to assert a modern identity they were also compelled to draw clear distinctions between a modern Japan and what they perceived to be a “backward” Asia. They did this by using disease categories related to cholera and other contagious illnesses to define the Asian continent as a particularly dangerous epidemiological space. In addition, Japanese practitioners of scientific medicine examined, studied and reported on Chinese and Korean food items, sanitation habits, medical practices and body types to demonstrate what they understood to be social, cultural and physical differences between Japanese and other Asians. This study is supported by the qualitative analysis of an array of primary source materials related to nineteenth century medicine in Japan. These include writings in medical journals, Army Medical Bureau reports, Japanese Red Cross Society reports and the Home Ministry’s Central Sanitary Bureau reports, as well as the writings of influential physicians like Ishiguro Tadanori, the founder of the Japanese army’s system of military medicine in the period, and Mori Rintarō, Ishiguro’s protégé who rose to the rank of Surgeon-General of the Japanese army. iii Acknowledgements Dissertations are collaborative efforts that reach fruition only through the patience, guidance and insight of others. I will try to acknowledge the contributions and efforts of the many individuals and institutions that have been instrumental throughout the life of this project and have left their imprint on me as a scholar. To begin with I would like to thank my instructors and graduate school colleagues here at The Ohio State University who spent time reading drafts of chapters and teaching me the craft of the historian. I am indebted to my advisor, James Bartholomew, for his strategically offered advice and willingness to give a plodding student the time and freedom to produce at a decidedly modest pace. This project would not have been possible without the personal attention of Richard Torrance in the Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures, who over the better part of two years forfeited more lunch hours than I dare to recall to teach me to read nineteenth century literary Japanese. I learned to read history under the careful instruction of Christopher Reed. He tirelessly improved my workman- like approach to historiography through a combination of gentle prodding and thorough appraisals of my work. I benefited in many ways from my studies with Philip Brown, foremost among all others was his careful and meticulous approach to grant writing. Without his assistance I would never have received the funding necessary to complete this project. I am also grateful to Cynthia Brokaw for her willingness to write letters of iv support on my behalf from far away internet cafes in Yunan, China. My initial foray into the field of scientific medicine in Japan came in a seminar held by John Guilmartin, who generously offered that I may be on to something. His comments and suggestions placed me on a course that has brought me to this point. I am also grateful to John Burnham for his patience, wisdom and guidance throughout my tenure here at Ohio State and his unceasing interest in my project. There is a host of graduate student colleagues that contributed intellectually, as well as socially to the completion of this project. Emre Sencer and Yu Li are two good friends who read my work and offered careful comments, both have moved on to careers in academia and continue to serve as inspirations for me. My dissertation was improved by the time Steven Hyland and Christianna Thomas spent reading and commenting on drafts of chapters. I would like to extend a special thanks to Steven for his critical eye in keeping me in between whatever lines exist when applying theoretical frameworks. This project would not have been possible had it not been for the generous funding I received over the years from a number of sources. I am thankful to the Ohio State University for granting me a fellowship year while I was writing the dissertation. I would also like to acknowledge the following campus institutions for providing funds for my initial research trip to Tokyo; these include the Office of International Education, the Mershon Center and the Department of History. I am grateful as well to the US Department of Education for two Foreign Language Area Studies Grants, one year each v in the advanced reading of Chinese and Japanese respectively. Lastly, this project could not have been pursued without generous funding from the US Department of Education in the form of a Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Grant, which provided me with a year in Tokyo. While in Japan I benefited from an affiliation with Juntendo Medical University in Tokyo thanks to the kindness of Sakai Shizu, who freely offered to assist a graduate student that had the temerity to initially contact her in a brief introductory email. Sakai and her staff in the Department of the History of Medicine were tireless in guiding me in my research during the year and three summers I spent in Tokyo from 2003 to 2007. I am also thankful to Sakai for so graciously introducing me to each and every collection in Tokyo, all of which proved essential to my project. I will never forget sitting in her office the first day we met. After discussing my research interests she picked up her office telephone and began to call collections introducing me as her researcher. When she finished she handed me a set of her personal cards, which I was to give to each institution I was slated to visit. On the back of each card was a note to the head of the collection requesting their full assistance in my pursuit. Her assistance opened doors that otherwise might have remained shut. Here I should also thank the staff at the library of the Red Cross Nurses College in Tokyo for their help in finding a long forgotten cabinet filled full of dusty Meiji period documents and reports that I had been told by others no longer existed. I am also thankful to Dr. Kuwabara, the Director of the Self Defense Forces vi Central Hospital, who took the time to introduce me to the staff at the Self Defense Forces School of Hygiene in Ikejiri, Tokyo. In the reading room at the School of Hygiene I was granted full access to the collection, and on hot summer days they provided me with a continuous supply of iced green tea and popsicles. My time in Tokyo was made all the more bearable thanks to the many kind individuals I encountered from all walks of life, but here I would like to extend a special thanks to Wu Jinrong, then a graduate student at Juntendo Medical University and now a Post Doctoral candidate there for her perpetual good cheer, lively discussions and friendship. In the United States my academic odyssey was book ended by two trips to the National Library of Medicine (NLM) at the National Institute of Health in Bethesda, Maryland the first in 2002 and the most recent visit in 2007. There I found a number of key materials I could not locate in Tokyo, and the staff, at all levels, was gracious and helpful to a fault. I would also like to recognize the efforts of Peter North at NLM for readily granting me access to rare documents, as well as giving me Sakai’s contact information. Finally, I would like to thank Hiromi for her tireless and consistent support during this process that took far longer than either of us ever imagined possible. vii Vita 1987………………………...B.A. International Relations, San Francisco State University 1998…………………………M.A.