CHOLERA EPIDEMICS IN MODERN KOREA AND JAPAN：
THE BIOPOLITICS OF HATRED

Jeongran Kim (University of Oxford)

WHAT IS CHOLERA?
• Cholera is a water-borne disease and an acute diarrhoeal
infection caused by eating or drinking food or water that iscontaminated with the bacterium vibrio cholerae. It causes thehuman body to quickly lose valuable fluid• Cholera has largely been beaten in the west, but it still kills tensof thousands of people in poorer countries every year
• The World Health Organization (WHO), (2013), “There are anestimated 3–5 million cholera cases and 100,000–120,000
deaths due to cholera every year”• The majority of these cases are located in developing nations
with poor sanitation and water resources• More than 80% of cases could be treated and cured using justoral rehydration salts (WHO, 2012)• The lack of public health services and availability of these salts
results in deaths for many children and elderly individuals
because they are most impacted by the illness

CHOLERA: FROM ENDEMIC TO PANDEMIC• Cholera became pandemic during the first era of globalisation
which was produced by imperialism in the nineteenth century:
movement of military, creation of a global market, abolition ofslavery and the development of labour-intensive industries, etc• In 1817, cholera spread out of its supposed 'home' in deltaic
Bengal and then throughout most of India• Between 1817 and 1824, cholera spread from India throughAsia and the Middle East and into eastern parts of Africa• The disease arrived in European Russia in 1830
• By 1831 cholera had arrived in Hamburg, and the first case inEngland was reported in October 1831 in Sunderland“A treatise on Asiatic cholera”, edited and prepared byEdmund Charles Wendt, 1885, The Wellcome Images

A NOVEL DISEASE• A ‘novel disease’ cholera emerged in many partsof the world in the early nineteenth century• “Blue death”: because the victims show a blue
tint on their skin after being affected with thebacteria• The most terrifying aspect of cholera was that it
could cause death within hours after thesymptoms first appeared if left untreated• Very high mortality made people tremble, too“A young woman of Vienna who died of cholera,depicted when healthy and four hours before death,1831?”, The Wellcome Images

A DISEASE OF THE POOR
• In the nineteenth century, many parts of Europe had a suitableenvironment for cholera epidemics: overcrowding, poor water andsewage systems, contaminated food, and lack of sanitary facilities,etc• Miasma theory: Many people in the early to mid-nineteenthcentury believed that cholera (and other diseases such as malaria)
were caused by bad air, arising from decayed organic matter ormiasmata.

• Believers in the miasma theory stressed eradication of disease
through the preventative approach of cleansing and scouring• Due to poor living and working conditions, many urban poor were
exposed to cholera and other diseases• Therefore, cholera came to be seen as ‘the disease of the poor’• Most of the middle and upper classes thought that the highincidence of cholera among the poor was due to their uncivilised
lifestyle or carelessness• On the other hand, from the mid-nineteenth century in Europe,
the health issues of those vulnerable to cholera and other diseases
began to be discussed in the public sphere“A Court for King Cholera”, Punch, or, theLondon Charivari, Henry Mayhew, 1812-1887,
The Wellcome Images

EPIDEMIOLOGIC AL ORIENTALISM• “Asiatic cholera” was used by Westerners to describe a new (tothem) disease that originated in Bengal, and that was particularly
virulent and deadly• The Indian origin of cholera and its almost global dissemination fromBengal made the disease a convenient symbol for much that the Westfeared or despised about a society so different from its own• One of the strongest expressions of this antipathy arose from theepidemiological connection between cholera and Hindu and Islamicpilgrimages• “Epidemiological orientalism”: Eurocentric narratives about diseases’
oriental origin• This concept is the totality of discursive practices of how Westerners
viewed, experienced, imagined, reproduced, and represented Asia andAsians• The West viewed Asia as a breeding ground for infectious diseases
and a threat to the safety of Western society• The West viewed Asians as who “could not understand and solve
their health and hygiene problems even when they were exposed tolife-threatening diseases”“The kind of 'assisted emigrant' we can not affordto admit.”, PUCK,1883.

THE EMERGENCE OF CHOLERA IN KOREA AND JAPAN• Korea: from China by a land route in 1821
• Japan: from Korea via Tsushima or Ryūkyū in 1822

• In 1858 in Japan: The opening of ports and the second occurrenceof cholera (From Shanghai to Nagasaki by US Navy’s shipMississippi)• In 1877 in Japan: Cholera was brought to Nagasaki by a British
naval Ship (Aug) and spread throughout the country• In 1879 in Japan: A bigger cholera epidemic began in Aichi
prefecture and spread to the whole nation• Following the precedent of the Kurofune, Japan raised Unyōgō Jiken(Ganhwado Sageon) to urge Korea to open its ports in 1876

• In 1877 in Korea: Cholera was brought to the port of Busan by aJapanese naval ship but it was not spread to the country• In 1879 in Korea: Cholera spread to Busan from Nagasaki andthen throughout the whole nation“Disposal of the dead, under police supervision during acholera epidemic in Japan”, Reproduction of drawing by
Meisenbach after C. Fripp, The Wellcome Images

CHOLERA OF THE ‘UNCIVILISED’
平素不潔を極めたる彼（朝鮮人）に伝播候上は害毒侵入を予防するは流行中一時彼と交通を拒絶し当居留地へ出入せしめざるの他良術無之と思考候得とも是又商
法上一大難事に付固より居留人民熟議を遂さるべからず…
公便第十一号上申書に陳述之通り七月二十一日全羅道漁舟之船にコレラ病患者有之に付海関へ申入出港を相命候處其後伝承候に該船古館に到着せしに同所にてはすでに患者之あるを知り入船を許さざるにより釜山鎮に着船上陸候趣に有之候左すれは此般該船より該鎮に病毒を伝播候儀にして我人民より伝播候理由に無之と思考仕候且去る十年当公館在勤住永九等属全羅道え出張之節も同所において吐しゃ三四時間にして死亡せし
韓人数名有之旨了知せし証も有之事により恐らくは全羅道に固有之コレラ病因之存する儀と被存候此段御含迄に上申仕候也「韓人虎列刺病ニ感染之景況申上ノ件」、釜山在勤
前田管理官ヨリ寺島外務卿宛、1879.8.5• The British Envoy Harry Smith Parkes
concluded that cholera occurred becauseof the mismanagement of the cleansing of
the temporary naval hospital in Nagasaki.
He even insisted that a British sailor diedfrom cholera due to the unhygienic
condition of the hospital. Consistently, heemphasized the importance of cleanlinessin preventing cholera rather thanmaritime quarantine.

(A meeting between the Minister of theForeign Affairs Terajima andthe British Envoy Parkes, 1877.9.18)

CHOLERA IN JAPAN, 1946
• At the end of WWII, about 6.9 million Japanese were scatteredthroughout the islands of the Pacific and on the Asian mainland• After Japan’s surrender, a mass movement between Japan and its
former colonies and battlefields started• In spring 1946, cholera was spread to Japan by repatriate ships
from China and other parts of Asia after WWII

• In April, from Guangdong to Uraga• In May, from Bangkok to Sasebo, from Shanghai to Hakata• In June, from Gunsan and Huludao to Hakata• In July, from Manchuria to Maizuru• Cholera had spread across the country: cases 1,245 and deaths
560• Brigadier-General Crawford F. Sams: “As for the American
theatre surgeon of the China theatre who failed to carry out
the quarantine processing agreement, I have never forgiven him
for his responsibility for this episode and for so many needlessdeaths.”

CHOLERA IN KOREA, 1946
• In May 1946, cholera spread to Busan via a repatriate ship fromGuangdong• An American military doctor who was taking charge of quarantine
in Busan determined that the disease was not cholera• This misjudgement delayed cholera preventive measures in the port
• The disease spread to other parts of the country rapidly• In June, severe flooding occurred• Many people suffered from food and housing shortages• From that time on, the number of Korean illegal entrants to Japan
increased rapidly• Most of them were Korean repatriates who returned to Korea
from Japan after Japan’s defeat• About 80% of Korean stowaways chose to go to Japan because of
their severe poverty• Among Korean stowaways, there were some cholera patients andcarriers of cholera bacilli

New Zealand soldiers apprehend Korean boat people, 1946

CHOLERA AND KOREAN STOWAWAYS• “最近に至りましては一たび帰国したる彼ら、特に朝鮮人の如きは、さらに集団的にある種の組織力を以て、再び日本に密航潜入せんとする者が、日を逐うて其の数を増加し、九州、山陰方面におきましては、其の数実に数万に及ぶと聞き及んでおるのであります。しかも彼らは日本警察力の微弱に乗じて、凶器を携へ、徒党を組み、驚くべき凶悪性を発揮して、当該住民の生活を脅かすこと実に言語に絶するものがあると聞いております。しかも尚恐るべきは是のみにとどまりませ
ぬ、彼らの中には「コレラ」、「チフス」、「赤痢」などの保菌者が多数あって、之が内地に伝播されて、今や内地におきましては各所に夥しき罹病者を出して居る事実があります”（椎熊三郎（しいくまさぶろう）, 「密航取締並ニ治安維持ニ関スル緊急質問」, 第90回帝国議会 衆議院 本会議 第30号 1946年8月17日）

New Zealand soldiers apprehend Korean boat people, 1946

表2) Summary Report of Notifiable Diseases in 1945 in JapanDiseaseJan-Jun(Inc)

JulAugSep

1 Oct to13 OctTotal

41,263

2,847

2,539

2,324

1,904

50,877

15,947

7,849

18,52010,7784,617

57,729

3,363

126

45

72

18

3,624

2,417

739

971

1,247

581

5,955

1,268

146

135

142

46

1,737

10,993

3,822

5,094

5,742

3,136

28,787

1,457

238

71

122

12

1,900

ジフテリア
赤痢
脳膜炎
猩紅熱
天然痘
腸チフス
発疹チフス

Summation of Non-Military Activities in Japan and Korea Number 1. September-October 1945

SUMMARY• Cholera pandemics in the nineteenth century were created by the first wave of globalisation, which wasfacilitated by imperialism• Cholera pandemics, like the Covid-19 pandemic, were experienced unequally with higher rates ofinfection and mortality in the most disadvantaged communities and countries• The prevalence of these novel diseases caused great fear and anxiety• Exaggerated fear and anxiety beyond the biological risks of diseases: unnecessary conflicts anddiscriminations• Accusations of blame exacerbated existing social divisions/tensions in society, whether caused byreligion, race, ethnicity or class• During the age of imperialism, Japanese, like their Western counterparts, consistently blamed theircolonial subjects for a host of diseases such as cholera, typhus and smallpox rather than recognizing
endemic foci within their own country or the role played by social conditions in generating epidemics• Scapegoating deflects attention from social factors that determine the prevalence of disease and which
explain why certain groups were/are more vulnerable to the disease than others