Takashi Sakata has recently published a fascinating study related to malaria medicines and international affairs, this time related to the use of Indonesian quinine by the Japanese government as part of its wartime diplomacy. The three primary examples discussed in this article are Thailand, Bulgaria, and most importantly Afghanistan. In the later case, shipping of…Read more
April 2021
Djiwa Baroe: The Japanese Occupation of Java and the Indonesian Press
One of our windows onto the Japanese occupation is the local press. These local papers present a lot of information, far beyond what is generally imagined once the label “propaganda” is attached. This includes a fair amount of information about malaria and medicine, but such information is not evenly spread. This short article provides a…Read more
Medicine and Money: Advertising for Malaria Medicines in the Final Years of the Netherlands East Indies
In March 2021, I published a short paper on advertising for malaria medicines during the immediate prewar period, but continuing into the Japanese occupation period. In exploring this subject, I was hoping to get a better sense of who might be using the various medicines, and perhaps when changes took place. In fact, it was…Read more