Table Of ContentIn modern Japan, beriberi (or thiamin deficiency) became a public health BAY Beriberi in Modern Japan
problem that cut across all social boundaries, afflicting even the Meiji Emperor.
During an age of empire building for the Japanese nation, incidence rates in
The Making of a National Disease
the military ranged from 30 percent in peacetime to 90 percent during war. B
Doctors and public health officials called beriberi a “national disease” because e
r
it festered within the bodies of the people and threatened the health of the
i Alexander R. Bay
empire. Nevertheless, they could not agree over what caused the disease, b
e
attributing it to a diet deficiency or a microbe.
r
In Beriberi in Modern Japan, Alexander R. Bay examines the debates over i
the etiology of this “national disease” during the late nineteenth and early i
n
twentieth centuries. Etiological consensus came after World War I, but the
M
struggle at the national level to direct beriberi prevention continued, peaking
during wartime mobilization. War served as the context within which scientific o
d
knowledge of beriberi and its prevention was made. The story of beriberi
e
research is not simply about the march toward the inevitable discovery of “the r
beriberi vitamin,” but also the history of the role of medicine in state making n
and empire building in modern Japan. J
a
Alexander R. Bay is assistant professor of history at Chapman University. p
a
n
Cover image: The imperial army, Northern China
occupation forces, in the field. Ryōyū 12 (August 1937).
Cover design: Maureen Ballatori
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Beriberi in Modern Japan
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The Making of a National Disease
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Beriberi in Modern Japan
The Making of a National Disease
Alexander R. Bay
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Copyright © 2012 by Alexander R. Bay
All rights reserved. Except as permitted under current legislation, no
part of this work may be photocopied, stored in a retrieval system,
published, performed in public, adapted, broadcast, transmitted,
recorded, or reproduced in any form or by any means, without the
prior permission of the copyright owner.
First published 2012
University of Rochester Press
668 Mt. Hope Avenue, Rochester, NY 14620, USA
www.urpress.com
and Boydell & Brewer Limited
PO Box 9, Woodbridge, Suffolk IP12 3DF, UK
www.boydellandbrewer.com
ISBN-13: 978-1-58046-427-7
ISSN: 1526-2715
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Bay, Alexander R.
Beriberi in modern Japan : the making of a national disease / Alexander R. Bay.
pages ; cm. — (Rochester studies in medical history, ISSN 1526-2715 ; v. 24)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-58046-427-7 (hardcover : alk. paper) 1. Beri-beri—Japan—History.
2. Diet—Japan—History. I. Title.
RC627.B45B29 2012
613.2'5—dc23
2012036248
A catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library.
This publication is printed on acid-free paper.
Printed in the United States of America.
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To my mom:
She’s the greatest.
(My dad isn’t half-bad either)
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Contents
List of Illustrations viii
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction: Medicine, Power, and the Rhetoric of Empire 1
1 The Geography of Affliction: Beriberi in Edo and Tokyo 11
2 Putting the Laboratory at the Center 30
3 Beriberi: Disease of Imperial Culture 52
4 Empire and the Making of a National Disease 87
5 The Science of Vitamins and the Construction of Ignorance 106
6 The Rice Germ Debate: Total Mobilization and the
Science of Vitamins in the 1930s 128
Conclusion 152
Notes 159
Bibliography 205
Index 227
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Illustrations
Figures
2.1 Incidence rates from Ryūjō 44
3.1 Rice, barley, and beriberi incidence rates in the
Konoe Division, 1886–96 73
3.2 Manpower lost in the army due to disease, 1878–93 76
3.3 Overview of beriberi incidence rate and diet during the
Russo-Japanese War 82
6.1 Cross-section of rice grain 134
6.2 Rice mill diagram 142
Tables
2.1 Beriberi Hospital data (corrected) 35
2.2 Beriberi incidence rates in the navy, 1878–84 46
2.3 Beriberi incidence rates in the navy, 1878–86 47
3.1 Army diet in 1889 60
3.2 Mori Rintarō’s nutritional tests 61
3.3 Beriberi incidence rates in the navy, 1878–88 64
3.4 Sino-Japanese War disease incidence rates 66
3.5 Beriberi incidence rates in Taiwan, 1895–1902 69
3.6 Navy diet during Sino-Japanese War 70
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Acknowledgments
I can still hear the booming voice of the late Jeffrey P. Mass, who in his tough-
love mentoring drove home the point, “Only you can fi x your paper!” Upon
completion, I indeed have to shoulder the burden of any and all errors or short-
comings; nevertheless, I am indebted to numerous friends, colleagues, mentors,
and institutions.
I would like to thank my editor, Theodore Brown at the University of Roches-
ter Press, for his early interest in my work and constant support throughout the
writing process. James Bartholomew kindly read a semifi nal draft, and this book
benefi ts from his expertise concerning the history of science and medicine in
Japan. William B. Hauser provided important advice concerning late-game edit-
ing. The feedback from Sarah Cypher at The Threepenny Editor was invaluable.
The anonymous readers for the University of Rochester Press provided enlight-
ening suggestions for reshaping the manuscript into a publishable piece. I also
owe many thanks to Brett Walker for providing extensive feedback. My good
friend and classmate from Stanford Brett Whalen read and commentated on
almost every chapter. Through his comments and continued involvement in my
work, he has been a constant source of encouragement, exemplifying the aca-
demic spirit of camaraderie.
Suzuki Akihito acted as my faculty sponsor at Keiō University during a Japan
Society for the Promotion of Science postdoctoral fellowship that supported
research and writing throughout the 2008–9 academic year. I owe Suzuki-sensei
and his assistant Iwamoto Chiemi many thanks for arranging travel funds and
other logistical matters that made my sojourn truly productive. Ichikawa Tomō
facilitated several visits to the Research Institute of Humanity and Nature in
Kyoto under the auspices of Moji Kazuhiko for archival work as well as presenta-
tions of my scholarship. At Aoyama Gakuin, I presented research and received
important feedback from the Asian Association for the Social History of Medi-
cine, headed by Iijima Wataru. I continue to benefi t from an ongoing research
fellowship at the Kitasato Institute, sponsored by Kosoto Hiroshi, chair of the
History of Medicine Department within the Kitasato University Oriental Medi-
cine Research Center, which gives me access to the department’s library as well
as the archives at the Shirogane Library. James Baxter, former editor of the Japan
Review, helped me formulate an early iteration of this project, and I would like
to acknowledge that the Japan Review has kindly allowed for the reproduction of
material that appeared in Alexander R. Bay, “Beriberi, Military Medicine, and
Medical Authority in Prewar Japan,” Japan Review 20 (2008): 107–59.
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