The Cholera-Prevention Activities of the Shanghai Epidemic Prevention Committee in 1946: A Study on Vaccination and Citizen Response
Authors:   The Korean Association for the Social History of Medicine, Yu Yon-Sil 
Published: November 2024

This paper focuses on the cholera epidemic-prevention activities of the Shanghai Epidemic Prevention Committee (上海市防疫委員會) in 1946 and discusses the limitations of the vaccination-based epidemic prevention policy and the reactions of citizens. At the end of World War II, Shanghai faced a serious public health crisis due to rapid population mobility and post-war chaos. Specifically, in 1946, the large-scale spread of cholera caused great panic among the citizens of Shanghai. The epidemic began with 6 cases on May 23 and rapidly spread from June to September, resulting in a total of 4,415 infections and 353 deaths. As a response, the Shanghai Health Bureau organized the Shanghai Epidemic Prevention Committee on May 31. In collaboration with public institutions, charitable organizations, and medical groups, the committee played a central role in responding to the epidemic. It consulted and reviewed epidemic prevention policies, raised funds, mobilized human and material resources, and coordinated epidemic-prevention measures. However, due to its chaotic command system, insufficient budget, and the lack of organic cooperation between civilians and officials, the committee was severely limited in implementing its activities.
The committee carried out epidemic-prevention activities centered on providing cholera vaccines. It used fixed injection stations and mobile injection teams to administer extensive vaccination from individual households to mobile populations, issuing certificates to vaccinated individuals. From May to October 1946, it vaccinated 2,087,599 people, representing 54.5% of the population of Shanghai at the time. In addition, from July 5, 1946, the committee dispatched the military police (軍警), child scouts (童子軍), and security guards (保甲長) to inspect the vaccination certificates of residents and pedestrians one by one, requiring those who did not have them to be vaccinated on the spot. However, out of distrust of vaccine efficacy and concerns about its side effects, some residents were unwilling to go out, forged vaccination certificates, or engaged in illegal buying and selling activities. The committee replicated the tactics of the Japanese imperialist authorities in implementing its epidemic prevention policy, imposing mandatory vaccination, issuing vaccination certificates, and completely restricting the passage and travel of citizens. It resorted to the very means by which Japanese imperialist forces strengthened colonial rule, applying them more thoroughly and widely, controlling citizens’ daily lives in the name of public health. From this perspective, it can be said that the purposes of the committee’s mandatory vaccination had to do more with “monitoring” and “control,” rather than “health” and “disease prevention.” During the Japanese occupation and Kuomintang rule, “hygiene” promotion and vaccination were closely related. The bacterial management through “injection,” ostensibly aimed at protecting citizens’ health, was consistent with the “discipline” aimed at controlling citizens’ bodies and behaviors.