Table Of ContentSaving Lives in Wartime China
China Studies
Edited by
Glen Dudbridge
Frank Pieke
VOLUME 26
The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/chs
Saving Lives in Wartime China
How Medical Reformers Built Modern Healthcare
Systems Amid War and Epidemics, 1928–1945
By
John R. Watt
LEiDEn • BOStOn
2014
Cover illustration: the ABMAC Blood Bank saved combat soldiers in west China in 1944. Source:
ABMAC Archive.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Watt, John R. (John Robertson), 1934–
Saving lives in wartime China : how medical reformers built modern healthcare systems amid
war and epidemics, 1928–1945 / by John R. Watt.
pages cm. — (China studies ; volume 26)
includes bibliographical references and index.
iSBn 978-90-04-25645-3 (hardback : alk. paper) — iSBn 978-90-04-25646-0 (e-book)
1. Public health—China—History—20th century. 2. Medical care—China—History—
20th century. 3. China—History—20th century. 4. Health care reform—China—History.
i. title.
RA527.W38 2013
362.10951—dc23
2013027832
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iSSn 1570-1344
iSBn 978-90-04-25645-3 (hardback)
iSBn 978-90-04-25646-0 (e-book)
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For Anne
COntEntS
List of Photographs, Graphs, Maps, and tables ................................... xi
Foreword .......................................................................................................... xv
Preface ............................................................................................................... xvii
Acknowledgements ....................................................................................... xix
List of Abbreviations ..................................................................................... xxi
introduction: Saving Lives in the Context of Disease, Poverty
and War ............................................................................................................ 1
Communicable Disease .......................................................................... 4
Superstition ................................................................................................ 6
Patriarchal Oppression ........................................................................... 8
Conduct of Warfare ................................................................................. 9
Disregard for the Peasantry ................................................................... 10
the Argument ........................................................................................... 13
1. E pidemics, Wars and Public Healthcare Advocacy in
Republican China, 1911–1928 ...................................................................... 17
Epidemic Disease and Public Healthcare up to 1928 ............... 21
Lack of Scientific Rigor ...................................................................... 26
Government indifference .................................................................. 27
injecting Science-based thinking into Chinese Education
and Public Policy ............................................................................ 28
ill Health and national Weakness ................................................. 30
State Medicine and Gongyi Zhidu .................................................. 31
2. A dvances and Setbacks in nationalist China’s Public Health
Management, 1928–1937 .............................................................................. 35
Rise and Fall of the Ministry of Health, 1928–1931 ................... 35
Progress under the national Health Administration, 1931–1937 45
Getting Preventive Health into Rural and Urban Health
Agencies ............................................................................................ 50
nationalist Rural Health initiatives in Jiangxi Province ......... 57
nursing, Midwifery and Public Health ......................................... 63
the national Health Administration’s Summary of Public
Health Results during the nanjing Era 1928–1937 ............... 68
Conclusion: How the national Health Administration Made
a Difference during the nanjing Era, 1928–1937 .................. 70
viii contents
3. Red Army Health Services in Jiangxi and on the Long March,
1927–1936 .................................................................................................... 73
Creating Healthcare under the Stress of Civil War, 1927–1930 74
Healthcare during the First two Encirclement and
Suppression Campaigns, 1930–1931 .......................................... 82
Advancement of Healthcare during the third Encirclement
and Suppression Campaign, July to September 1931 .......... 86
Expanding the Scope of Healthcare: Red Army Healthcare
School and Medical Supply Workshops .................................. 89
Campaign against Epidemic Disease ............................................. 94
the Fourth and Fifth Encirclement and Suppression
Campaigns, June 1932 to October 1934 ................................... 98
Health Care during the Long March from Jiangxi to
northwest China ............................................................................. 104
Arrival of Red Army Forces in northern Shaanxi and Revival
of the United Front ........................................................................ 110
Summary ................................................................................................ 113
4. Japanese invasion, Army Medicine, and the Chinese Red
Cross Medical Relief Corps (CRCMRC), 1937–1942 ....................... 115
Part i: Constructing a Modern Military Healthcare System ... 116
Army Medical Services up to 1937 ............................................ 116
Army Healthcare Units in Wartime: the Early Phase ........ 117
the Chinese Red Cross and War Relief ................................... 121
Lin Kesheng and the Chinese Red Cross Medical Relief
Corps ............................................................................................. 123
Organization of Emergency Medical Service training
School (EMStS) .......................................................................... 127
Growth of Medical Relief Corps Work, 1938–1940 .............. 129
Part ii: Politics Prevail over Healthcare ....................................... 137
Reorganization of Chinese Red Cross Headquarters and
Downgrading of Lin Kesheng ................................................ 137
Lin’s Ambitions for the EMStS and the MRC ....................... 140
Problems in Army Medical Management ............................... 144
Lin’s Move to Convert EMStS and MRC into Centers of
Modern Medicine ...................................................................... 146
Political troubles Assail Dr. Lin ................................................ 147
Fights over Control of Assets, Lin in Burma and india,
and Lin’s Resignation from the MRC .................................. 151
Conclusion: Outcomes in the Balance ..................................... 157
contents ix
5. How Rigidity, Disease and Hunger Undermined nationalist
China’s Military Medical Reformers ................................................... 159
Eclipse of Lin Kesheng and the MRC ............................................ 160
EMStS, X Force and US Medical Services of Supply:
How Lin’s Organizations Continued His Work ..................... 168
EMStS, Y Force, and the ABMAC Blood Bank ........................... 170
EMStS Work in Central China ........................................................ 173
Campaign ichigo, Refugee Crisis, and Disease ........................... 177
Z Force and American Medical Aid .............................................. 181
the Alpha Plan triggers Changes in Military Medical Policy,
and Lin Kesheng Returns to Office ........................................... 182
Effects of the Alpha Plan on nationalist Army Medical Field
Commands ........................................................................................ 188
Food, the Key to Military Health and Performance ................. 189
Lin Aids in Upgrading China’s Medical Services of
Supply (SOS) .................................................................................... 193
Unsolved Problems of Army Conscription .................................. 194
1945: Reorganization of the AMA .................................................. 198
Conclusion: Unsolvable Problems .................................................. 200
6. Public Health Amid the turmoil of War, 1938–1949 .................... 205
Setbacks and Recoveries during Early War Years ..................... 207
Developments in Rural Healthcare in Southwest China ........ 209
More Crises and Recovery at the nHA ......................................... 215
Emergent Wartime needs: Epidemic Prevention and
Medical Relief .................................................................................. 217
Public Health Reconstruction: the Public Healthcare System 225
Hyperinflation and Survival during the Later War Years ....... 232
Heights and Depths of Rural Healthcare in Sichuan ............... 243
Postwar Challenges ............................................................................. 245
Postscript ................................................................................................ 250
7. Yan’an’s Health Services under Mao Zedong’s Leadership,
1937–1945 .................................................................................................... 253
Confronting Famine and Disease ................................................... 254
Significance of Healthcare for Mao Zedong ................................ 256
Setting up Central Medical Services and Strengthening
Party Medical Policy ...................................................................... 258
Military Medical Service: “Rescuing the Dying and Healing
the Wounded” with Limited Medical Capability .................. 263
