COMPLETION REPORT
Ando Kozo and Medical Department of the Japanese Military Administration of Malaya, 1941-1945
Dr. Sandra Khor Manickam (+1)
Lecturer
Erasmus University RotterdamAndo Kozo and the Medical Department of the Japanese Military Administration of Malaya (1941-1945)
Japanese Title: 日本軍政下マラヤ・シンガポールにおける衛生医療：安藤公三を中心として
The research sought to combine English, Malay and Japanese archival materials in order to reconstruct the effortsof the Japanese Military Administration’s Medical Department when dealing with public health issues particularlyin the first year of the occupation. In doing so, the research uncovered many important elements hitherto unknown
about the Japanese occupation regarding health and medical interventions in a tense war situation with limited
resources.
The main question surrounding the occupation of Malaya was Japan’s state of preparedness to govern the area
after the withdrawal of the British. The ease with which Japan took over Malaya has been commented on
frequently and in the face of a lack of sources some scholars assumed that this planning extended to the areas ofadministration and governance as well. However, this research has shown that the Japanese structures ofgovernance in Malaya were inadequate to deal with the occupation conditions. The structure itself changed
numerous times in the short 1941-1945 period, and high-level personnel were transferred in and out of Malaya
offering little continuity. Moreover, personnel stationed in Malaya had little specific knowledge of the country andits people despite the presence of a long-standing Japanese community in Malaya.
This has particular implications for the medical and health conditions of Malaya. Before the war, health facilities
and medical interventions designed to keep malaria, beri-beri and other diseases at bay was at a complex level.
Focusing on malaria, the combination of malaria prevention measures, government and business intervention inorder to ensure the health of labourers sufficient to running plantations necessitated a high level of bureaucracy, theavailability of medicine and cooperation of the recipients.
Such conditions could not be replicated during war time, making it difficult to maintain a semblance of pre-war
production of raw materials or health of the population. Furthermore, the difficult communications status between
Malaya and neighbouring countries meant that medical expertise did not reach those that needed it the most andknowledge on malaria from other parts of the Japanese empire could not necessarily reach Malaya nor beimplemented.
In conclusion, the research has allowed for greater insight into the medical circumstances of Malaya during theJapanese occupation and the reasons for the poor state of health during this time. The Japanese, having conquered
Malaya, did not have much knowledge about the country and its running and much effort was spent on compiling
basic information about available manpower and resources. This is in stark contrast to newspaper reporting during
this time from inside Malaya which continually highlighted the medical efforts of the Japanese in Malaya. Most ofthese efforts concentrated in the cities while the main areas affected by malaria have typically been in plantations.
Only in 1944 were anti-malarial officers trained with a local handbook, but even then the resources needed, such as
anti-malarial oils and quinine, were in short supply and hoarded for military purposes. Continued research isneeded in order to fully map the medical conditions of the occupation period.

Publication of the Results of Research Project:
Verbal Presentation (Date, Venue, Name of Conference, Title of Presentation, Presenter, etc.)•S.K. Manickam, “The Japanese... had little or no knowledge of the disease”: Malaria as the site ofcolonial knowledge claims, ASAA 2018 Sydney conference, 3-5 July 2018•

S.K. Manickam, “The Japanese... had little or no knowledge of the disease”: Malaria as the site ofcolonial knowledge claims, HOMSEA 2018 Jakarta, 27 June 2018•

S.K. Manickam (2017, November 16). “Wartime imaginings of an archipelagic community: Fajar Asiaand the quest for peninsula Malayan and Indonesian unity”. University of Nottingham, Talk for theERC-funded project Cultures of Occupation in Twentieth Century Asia' (COTCA) project.

•S.K. Manickam (2017, Augustus 16). “Malaria in Malai: Health and Medicine during the Japaneseoccupation.” University of Oxford, EUROSEAS 2017.

•S.K. Manickam & N. IIoka (2017, May 18). “Rethinking 'occupation' and 'colonialism' in Malaya: Thecase of Japanese migrants and the medical profession in the Malay Peninsula.” Erasmus University ofRotterdam, Center for Historical Culture Talk.

Thesis (Name of Journal and its Date, Title and Author of Thesis, etc.)
Not applicable.
Book (Publisher and Date of the Book, Title and Author of the Book, etc.)
Journal article: S.K. Manickam, “Wartime imaginings of an archipelagic community: Fajar Asia and the quest
for peninsula Malayan and Indonesian unity”, Inter-Asia Cultural Studies 18:3 (2017):347-363. Corrigendum in
IACS December 2017.
Review article: S.K. Manickam, “Book review –Takuma Melber (2017): Zwischen Kollaboration undWiderstand. Die japanische Besatzung in Malaya und Singapur 1942-1945 [Between Collaboration andResistance: The Japanese Occupation in Malaya and Singapore, 1942-1945].” Bunron – Zeitschrift fürliteraturwissenschaftliche Japanforschung. Frankfurt am Main: Campus Verlag.