The 2023 HOMSEA (History of Medicine in Southeast Asia) conference will be held in Singapore at Nanyang Technological University from June 9-11, 2023. Two of our project researchers will be attending and presenting papers. Brad Horton (me) will present “Obat Asli: Indonesian Doctors, the Jamu Commission and Alternative Medicines for Malaria from Local Indonesian Materials…Read more
William Bradley Horton
Associate Professor of Communication Studies at the Faculty of Education and Human Studies, Akita University, Japan
New article on malaria and international affairs in the WWII era
Takashi Sakata has published a new article discussing the Anti-Comintern Pact between Germany and Japan and the German-Soviet War beginning in 1941, as well as the capture of cinchona plantations and the Bandung Quinine Factory in Java on the distribution plans for quinine by the Japanese Army. Both production of cinchona bark and the derivative…Read more
EuroSEAS 2022: Medical Business at the Close of the Colonial Era
At the EuroSEAS 2022 conference held at the L’École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in Paris, one panel was directly related to this project: Medical Business at the Close of the Colonial Era. This panel sought to broadly illustrate some elements of business involvement in this shifting health-scape in Southeast Asia immediately before WWII,…Read more
Malaria Wars: The War Against Malaria in Japanese Occupied Indonesia
On September 12, 2021 a comprehensive workshop/symposium was held online to try to advance our collaborative project work as well as to engage a wider global audience. With attendees from several different countries, the discussion of different issues related to malaria in World War II was engaging, covering more than 6 hours of presentations and discussion. The following is the final presentation schedule.
Session I
Adrian Agahari Understanding Malaria Medication for Indonesians in 1930-1940s from Dutch Indies Malaria Medical Research
Takashi Sakata Production of Anti-malarial Drugs in Japan by the End of WWII
Mayumi Yamamoto Chrysanthemum as a Sword: Prelude to the Malaria War in Japanese Military Occupied Indonesia
General Discussion
Session II
Kaoru Kochi Promoting Public Health and Eradicating Malaria by Flicks: Screening Films in Indonesia during the Japanese Occupation
Makiko Sekiyama The Travels and Experiences of One Eiseihei in Indonesia
Isao Yamazaki Guru Besar Bangsa Nippon: The Lives and Careers of Jakarta Ika Daigaku Faculty Members from Japan
Brad Horton Japanese Medical Propaganda in the War
& Malaria and Medicines in the Wartime Indonesian Press
General Discussion
EuroSEAS 2021: A Tropical Disease Between Tokyo and Java – Intertwining Histories of Malaria
At the September 2021 EuroSEAS meetings held hosted by Palacký University Olomouc (in the Czech Republic), this project sponsored a double panel on the histories of Malaria in Asia. With its 5 presentations centered on Indonesia, this panel brought together discussions of medical and more “social” aspects of Malaria around the 1940s, with the goal…Read more
Japanese Diplomatic Policy and Differences in the Handling of Quinine Supply by the Japanese Government during World War II
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
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
Shifting Communication: Language learning during the Japanese occupation of Indonesia
As part of my efforts to understand society during World War II in Indonesia, this article provides a brief survey of some of the efforts in learning (and teaching) language during the war–both Japanese and Indonesian. These include things related to medicine, as during the occupation medical and other examinations could not be held in…Read more