Doctors of Empire : Medical and Cultural Encounters Between Imperial Germany and Meiji Japan

In __Doctors of Empire__, Hoi-eun Kim recounts the story of the almost 1,200 Japanese medical students who rushed to German universities to learn cutting-edge knowledge from the world leaders in medicine, and of the dozen German physicians who were invited to Japan to transform the country’s medical institutions and education.

The history of German medicine has undergone intense scrutiny because of its indelible connection to Nazi crimes. What is less well known is that Meiji Japan adopted German medicine as its official model in 1869. In Doctors of Empire, Hoi-eun Kim recounts the story of the almost 1,200 Japanese medical students who rushed to German universities to learn cutting-edge knowledge from the world leaders in medicine, and of the dozen German physicians who were invited to Japan to transform the country’s medical institutions and education.

Shifting fluently between German, English, and Japanese sources, Kim’s book uses the colourful lives of these men to examine the impact of German medicine in Japan from its arrival to the pinnacle of its influence and its abrupt but temporary collapse at the outbreak of the First World War.

Transnational history at its finest, Doctors of Empire not only illuminates the German origins of modern medical science in Japan but also reinterprets the nature of German imperialism in East Asia.

Contents Illustrations Acknowledgments A Note On Names And The Romanization Of Japanese Language Doctors Of Empire Introduction: Weaving Germany And Japan Together With The Thread Of Medical Science Chapter 1. Same Bed, Different Dreams Chapter 2. Borrowed Hands: German Physicians’ Teaching Of Medical Education In Meiji Japan Chapter 3. Socialized Intellect: Intellectual And Communal Journeys Of Japanese Doctors In Germany Chapter 4. Bedazzled And Bewildered: Cultural Journeys Of Japanese Students In Germany Chapter 5. Japan Through The Stethoscope: German Physicians As Anthropologists Of Meiji Japan Chapter 6. Promises And Perils Of Encounters: Influences Of German Medicine In Japan Epilogue Fatal Affinities? The Long-Term Legacies Of German–Japanese Medical Relations Notes Selected Bibliography Transnational history at its finest, Doctors of Empire not only illuminates the German origins of modern medical science in Japan but also reinterprets the nature of German imperialism in East Asia."--Pub. desc