New Books from Japan #1: "Medicine and Christianity: American Protestant Missionaries and their Medical Work in Japan"

Presenter: 藤本大士 (Hiro Fujimoto, Kyoto University)

Discussant: Garrett Washington (University of Massachusetts Amherst)

This book is the first comprehensive study of the medical activities of American Protestant missionaries in Japan. Beginning in 1859, they offered medical care and education to Japanese people and established several hospitals, some of which still survive today, such as St. Luke’s International Hospital. However, historians have tended to overlook these activities since they have assumed that the Japanese medical community was strongly influenced by German doctors rather than American doctors. Medicine and Christianity situates these American missionaries in the history of medicine in Japan and considers the full range of their activities, including medical education for women, nursing training, postgraduate training for doctors, public health programs, and charity medicine.

幕末からアジア・太平洋戦争後に至るまで、多くの医師資格をもつプロテスタント宣教師がアメリカより日本に派遣され、医療を通じて人々にキリスト教を広めていった。ドイツの強い影響下にあった明治期以降の日本医学界において、アメリカ人医療宣教師たちはいかにその活動を拡大していったか。日々の診療のみならず、医学・看護教育、慈善事業・公衆衛生事業など多岐にわたる彼らの活動とその変遷を検証する。