The War And Medicine:The Japanese Dojinkai In China During The Wartime (1937-1945)

After the Meiji Restoration, the Japanese government’s ambition of colonization had been expanding. Many medical communities participated in the activities in foreign countries, especially in China. In 1902, the Dojinkai Foundation was established in Tokyo, for spreading advanced medical knowledge to Eastern Asian countries and helping to improve the conditions of medical and health allegedly. It planned to set up hospitals and medical schools in these countries, also to send medical experts there.Until the July 7 Incident of 1937, the activities of Dojinkai in China can be divided into three stages. During the first ten years from 1902 to 1912, the early days of Dojinkai, it scattered so many medical experts around China, and ran two hospitals in Andong and Yingkou. From 1912 to 1925, the facilities in Northeast China were delivered to the South Manchuria Railway Company. Dojinkai put all of its energy into mainland China, and built two hospitals in Beijing and Hankou serving for Japanese and Chinese. From 1925 to 1937, Dojinkai took over the hospitals in Qingdao and Jinan, then it developed medical visiting, investigation, medical education, personnel exchange and publication based on the four hospitals’operation.In 1937, Japanese War of Aggression againstChina broke out. Dojinkai transformed the activities of medical exchanges before into "medical treatment" soon. Under the arrangement of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan, many medical relief teams of Dojinkai were sent to the occupied area in North China and Central China, applying free or cheap medical service in collaboration with Japanese army. At the same time, Dojinkai practised the epidemic prevention programs on a large scale. At first, it organized two epidemic prevention teams.Then the North China Epidemic Prevention Office and the Central China Epidemic Prevention Office were opened. By this, Dojinkai had finished the epidemic prevention system in China. The epidemic institutions had been engaged in all aspects about epidemic prevention, such as quarantine, vaccination, research, medicament making, epidemic preach, education and training. They became the dominant epidemic force in the occupied area.During the 8 years, Dojinkai also worked on medical education, investigation and publication. Its medical education were segmented into medical personnel training attached to the medical relief teams, and medical school teaching. There were two medical schools in China, East Asia Medical College in Qingdao and Dojin Medical College in Shanghai.The research activities were headed by the epidemic institutions at first, but they were separated since the institutes of health were set up. On publication, Dojinkai stopped the publishing of its Chinese magazine soon after the war’s breakout, and reformed its Japanese magazine’s contents.It became much more interested in carrying the medical investigation reports about China.Dojinkai’s activities in China during the wartime has temporal and spatial characteristics. The stage development resulted from the change of its superior responsible department. From the Cultural Affairs Bureau in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, to Asia Development Board and its branches in China, finally to the Ministry of Greater East Asia, Dojinkai’s operation became more and more orderly, systematic and large-scale. On the other hand, Dojinkai built the North China Branch Office and the Central China Branch Office at first, and then extended to Mongolia-Xinjiang and Hainandao.Through the four branch offices, it made a kind of partition management. Dojinkai also expanded from big cities to remote villages.In cities, it engaged in hospital management, but in villages the main activity form was medical visiting. The different forms were decided according the special features of town and county.The medical activities of Dojinkai during the wartime were not isolated. This community was closely bound up with the local Japanese army, other Japanese communities, and the Japanese puppet government. At the beginning of the war, the Japanese army administered Dojinkai immediately. It directed Dojinkai to work on pacification. While the trusteeship ended, Dojinkai took over western hospitals in China under the supervision of the special service department. The Japanese communities such as Shanghai Science Institute also collaborated actively for "pursuing development together".On the other hand, the puppet goverment cooperated with Dojinkai to set up hospitals and make medical surveys through Japanese officials.During the wartime, Dojinkai had helped Japan to practise its exploration of colonial medicine essentially. As the Philanthropic Association, the Association for Good Relations of neighborhood and the South Manchuria Railway Company, Dojinkai played an important role in Japan’s medical control over China, deeply in the society. In the context of Japan’s aggression against China, Dojinkai had monopolized medical resources in the name of spreading advanced medical knowledge, and violated China’s medical administrative sovereign rights and Chinese people’s interests.