Japanese Public Health Concerns in Treaty-Port Manchuria

Abstract

Scholars often portray colonial medicine either as exemplifying the triumph of progress or as a means of expanding imperial authority. Adding to these views a consideration of the range of activities present on the ground reveals activities consistent with both perspectives, but points also to limitations inherent in perceiving these efforts in these two ways. A more focused view also acknowledges the inherently abusive side of the colonial project, underscoring the potential to become categorically worse should the historical context shift. The Japanese imperialist effort in Manchuria in the first half of the twentieth century exhibits this range clearly, resulting as it did in particularly extreme behaviour.