Disease, Medicine and War in Modern East Asia

From the mid-nineteenth to the first half of the twentieth century, East Asian countries experienced dramatic political and social upheavals as they were forced to open their ports to foreign powers. Whereas Korea and China fell under colonial or semi-colonial rule, Japan emerged as an imperial power in its own right – a process which was intimately connected to its drive for industrialisation and modernisation. During this period, medicine had an important practical and symbolic role. Western medicine was simultaneously an instrument of colonial dominance and of liberation. While it could strengthen nations against foreign influence, it could also be used to control and subjugate colonised peoples. Since East Asian countries had well-established medical traditions of their own, the incursion and development of Western medicine also generated tensions between these systems, indicative of cultural displacement and alienation.

Simultaneously with the encroachment of colonialism, epidemic diseases spread across much of East Asia. These included seemingly new diseases like cholera and more familiar ones such as plague. To minimise transmission of these diseases, the authorities (sometimes foreign powers) imposed border controls in which human bodies were monitored, screened, filtered and sometimes excluded. Like other public health measures, these quarantines became an intrinsic feature of governance in East Asia, although one which proved contentious within and between the different polities operating in the region.

The health problems that convulsed East Asia during the colonial period were not confined to contagious diseases. Maladies such as malaria had long been present in the region but colonial exploitation in the form of agricultural and industrial development produced ecological disruption and mass movement of labourers, resulting in infections becoming more widespread and severe. Imperial rivalry and ambition also led to many conflicts which worsened social and economic conditions, including the deterioration of hygiene and nutrition. This was particularly evident during Japan’s wars of aggression which culminated in a clash with Allied forces across the Indo-Pacific region. This conflict presented grave medical problems for the opposing forces as well as for civilians in the region. The legacy of these troubled times persisted for some years after the end of the Second World War and defeat of Japan.