Book ID: CBB001213525

Beriberi in Modern Japan: The Making of a National Disease (2012)

unapi

Bay, Alexander R. (Author)


University of Rochester Press


Publication Date: 2012
Physical Details: x + 230 pp.
Language: English

Amazon: Beriberi, a disease that we now know is caused by vitamin B1 deficiency, cut across social boundaries and threatened public health in Japan, even afflicting the Meiji Emperor. In The Beriberi Debate, author Alexander R. Bayexamines the medical and scientific debate about the etiology of the disease as it played out between diet theorists and contagionists from 1880 to 1940. The Beriberi Debate is first a story about Japanese modernization, examining the transition between Edo and Meiji era medical practices, and revealing how western science functioned within the ""civilization and enlightenment"" enterprise of nation-building. Second, this book considers thehistory of science and medicine in Japan; the story of this disease exemplifies the rise of scientific medicine and the shift from the clinic to the laboratory. The book also focuses on the nexus between medicine and power in modern Japan. Specifically, it argues that the authority wielded by the medical elite at Tokyo Imperial University was ""colonial"" in nature. The beriberi debate ended in 1926, but the competition over controlling the direction of beriberi prevention at the national level continued into the Showa era (1926-1989). In 1939, the state institutionalized a law -- the consequence of ten years of debate between National Nutrition Institute doctors and professors of medical at Tokyo Imperial University -- legalizing a form of rice milled specifically for beriberi prevention to be sold on the market. Ultimately, the history of this debate is about more than the march towards the inevitable discovery of ""the beriberi vitamin""-that is vitamin B1 or thiamine-but rather about the history of science, medicine, and power in modern Japan. Alexander Bay is assistant professor of history at Chapman University.

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Reviewed By

Review Padilla, Roberto, II (2014) Review of "Beriberi in Modern Japan: The Making of a National Disease". Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences (pp. 333-335). unapi

Review Otsubo, Sumiko (2014) Review of "Beriberi in Modern Japan: The Making of a National Disease". Isis: International Review Devoted to the History of Science and Its Cultural Influences (pp. 448-449). unapi

Review Arnold, David (2013) Review of "Beriberi in Modern Japan: The Making of a National Disease". Bulletin of the History of Medicine (pp. 483-484). unapi

Review Low, Morris (2013) Review of "Beriberi in Modern Japan: The Making of a National Disease". Health and History (pp. 123-125). unapi

Review Liu, Michael Shiyung (2014) Review of "Beriberi in Modern Japan: The Making of a National Disease". Medical History (pp. 454-455). unapi

Review Kim, Hoi-eun (2014) Review of "Beriberi in Modern Japan: The Making of a National Disease". Social History of Medicine (pp. 179-180). unapi

Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB001213525/

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Authors & Contributors
Seyed Amir Hossein Golshani
Tina Travagliante
Babak Daneshfard
Fabio Montella
Mohammad Ebrahim Zohalinezhad
Seyyed Alireza Golshani
Concepts
Medicine
Public health
Disease and diseases
Epidemics
Modernization
Medicine and society
Time Periods
19th century
20th century, early
Meiji period (Japan, 1868-1910)
20th century
Taisho period (Japan, 1912-1926)
18th century
Places
Japan
Sicily
Guatemala
Valencia (Spain)
Americas
Central America
Institutions
University of Tokyo
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