A Study of the Policy on Tuberculosis of the Government-General in Korea

In 1918, during the Japan’s colonial rule of Korea, Japan’s government-general in Korea announced the ‘Regulation to Prevent Tuberculosis,’ which was about placing spittoons in major public places and sterilizing them. It was a prevention measure based on the idea that tuberculosis is disseminated through body fluids of patients. It was, however, the 1930s when the government-general started to take active measures to prevent tuberculosis. Since the Manchurian Incident in 1931, the range of war that Japan started was growing bigger, and Japan was leading an all-out, total war basis not only in the front line but also in the home front. Under these circumstances, tuberculosis was designated as the most dangerous disease to harm health of its people A tuberculosis sanatorium was grabbing attention as an efficient policy to tackle the disease as a sanatorium isolates patients to stop worries of infection and makes it possible to naturally cure the patients by enhancing their resisting power through recuperation. A sanatorium, however, faced an obstacle, as residents of some candidate places for sanatoriums opposed the foundation of sanatoriums in their residence for fear of the disease. Even after a sanatorium was established, a private sanatorium demanded expenses that were too high for general citizens to afford. After all, in order to efficiently tackle tuberculosis, there was a need for public sanatoriums managed by the government that could accommodate patients living in poverty. Meanwhile, in the mainland Japan, a law to prevent tuberculosis was enacted in 1914, and the number of tuberculosis sanatoriums was on the increase although it does not mean that there were enough sanatoriums. Yet, in Korea, the law to prevent tuberculosis that stipulates a foundation of sanatoriums was not being issued. Furthermore, building tuberculosis sanatoriums that could hospitalize 40,000 patients demanded a budget that the government-general could not afford. After all, without the settlement of the financial issues, all government-general could do in tuberculosis policy was to emphasize prevention through individual health care and hygiene.ope