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KMID : 0857920200230020063
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Yonsei Journal of Medical History
2020 Volume.23 No. 2 p.63 ~ p.83
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The Development of Medical Discussions on Vaccination against Typhoid Fever during the Japanese Colonial Period
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Baek Seon-Lye
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Abstract
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This article examines how professional discussions on the typhoid vaccine, the latest medical technology during the Japanese Colonial Period, evolved in colonial Korea (Joseon), focusing on articles published in Japanese and Joseon medical journals at the time. I attempt to describe vaccination not as “complete knowledge,” but as knowledge that was being constructed, as well as compare the knowledge construction process between the Japanese Empire and Joseon. In Imperial Japan, there were various studies on typhoid vaccination. Generally, most of them agreed on the vaccine’s effectiveness, but other opinions also appeared. Certain studies mentioned that it was difficult to consider the reduction of typhoid incidences in the Japanese Army and Navy an effect of the vaccine. Moreover, some suggested that more attention should be paid to oral immunity, as vaccination was difficult to popularize, and incomplete vaccination was no different than not getting vaccinated at all. In addition, Japanese researchers conducted studies with variabilities in vaccination methods and amounts that assessed post-vaccination morbidity and mortality to improve the vaccine’s effectiveness. Contrarily, Joseon’s medical journals primarily communicated observational statistics from clinical studies that mainly involved Japanese participants, focused on post-vaccination reactogenicity, and conveyed potential opportunities for oral immunity that had less reactogenicity. While the Japanese and Joseon medical journals were similar in that they both acknowledged the typhoid vaccine’s effectiveness and how to improve it, their directions were quite different. In Japan, as vaccinations were implemented on a large scale and statistical data regularly accumulated, the studies mainly strove to reduce the number of deaths after vaccination. Meanwhile, the Joseon medical journals included studies on lowering post-vaccination reactogenicity in an attempt to increase the number of vaccinations, as resistance to vaccinations remained strong among Koreans. In summary, the contents of the Japanese and Joseon discussions regarding typhoid vaccination were different and limited based on their location, even though these studies were conducted in the same time period. Such differences demonstrate the impact of the colonial situation, which was evident even in medical journals limited to a small number of readers and in a field of knowledge that was distant from the public. Even so, both Japanese and Joseon medical journals shared similar relative and hierarchical methods in hygiene ideology. In addition, this study defends the view that although preventive medicine, such as vaccination, is a field closely related to policy, it cannot exist as a “field of objective knowledge” independent from social and political contexts.
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KEYWORD
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Vaccination, Typhoid Fever, Medical Journals, Reactogenicity, Oral Immunity
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Listed journal information
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