Selection Process of Preferred Places for Change of Air for Beriberi Treatment by the Japanese Army during the Early Meiji Era

Abstract

This study discusses places recommended for “changes of air” during the early Meiji era in Japan from the perspective of health and place, and focuses on the efforts of the Japanese Army, which adopted change of air as a treatment method for beriberi, which was then a relatively unknown disease. It examines the selection of the preferred places by the Army for a change of air through an examination of the medical discourse on beriberi. In the mid-1870s, hot spring bathing therapy was a distinctive feature of change of air for beriberi treatment. However, from the late 1870s onward, coastal, plains, and especially mountainous areas were also alternatively used as therapy sites, regardless of the presence or absence of hot springs. The major reasons for this change were the dominance of the Western medical viewpoint, such as the miasma theory, which considered polluted air and airborne bacteria to be the cause of beriberi, and accepted the theory that pure air was essential for its treatment, along with climate therapy, which assumed that the air quality at a specific site had a therapeutic effect. In particular, sanitoria for tuberculosis patients in mountainous and coastal areas were established at about the same time, even before those in highland areas. This indicates that changes in etiology can also change the meaning of health with relation to place.