| Date | Time | Location |
|---|---|---|
| Friday, September 17, 2010 | 2:00PM - 4:00PM | Seminar Room 208N, Munk Centre For International Studies 1 Devonshire Place |
East Asia Seminar Series
Lecture Abstract:
The Public Health and Welfare Section of the General Headquarters, Supreme Commander for the Allied Forces (SCAP, 1945-1952) in Occupied Japan promoted several health projects which remain controversial in the minds of the Japanese public, SCAP’s elementary school lunch implementation in 1946 is now seen to be a scheme to sell excess American flour. There is also a widely held view that SCAP-directed medical experiments in 1947 to distinguish between typhoid fever and murine typhus were unethical human body practices utilizing Japanese prison convicts.
Brigadier-General C. F. Sams, Chief of Public Health and Welfare Section of SCAP, would have disagreed with the current interpretation, but not vexed. In his 1952 letter addressed to a Japanese friend, Sams stated that there is always opposition when one conducts major reforms; but one must carry on and take the responsibility for the outcome.
Speaker Bio:
Dr. Yasko Sey Nishimura is an Associated Scholar of the IHPST. Her area of specialization is the history of public health in Japan during American Occupation (1945-1952), and her research is greatly facilitated by the University of Toronto’s library research facilities. She is currently completing her third book, Kyoto under the American Occupation – SCAP’s Public Health Offensive.
Dr. Nishimura has been active in her field internationally, recently delivering a keynote Lecture at the 74th Annual Meeting of the Japanese Society of Health and Human Ecology at Kyoto University, and assisting Prof. Anne-Emanuelle Birn of the School of Public Health at the University of Toronto with a seminar at the University of Tokyo Medical School, and the 56th Annual Meeting of the Japanese Society of Child Health, held in Osaka
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