Vol. 70, No. 2

Yuki FUKUSHI
The League of Nations Health Organisation and public health in Shanghai: the cholera prevention movement of the 1930s

In the 1930s, a massive cholera prevention movement was carried out by the three Shanghai public health authorities (belonging to the International Settlement, the French concession and the Shanghai city government respectively). The movement was part of the collaboration between the League of Nations Health Organisation (LNHO) and the Nationalist Government of the Republic of China, and the main goal was mass inoculation.

This paper examines the steps which made the movement possible and the way it was carried out. It also explores the political ties between the three authorities and the characteristics of public health administration, especially in the International Settlement and Shanghai City.

The analysis shows that from the late 1920s, the political relations between the three health authorities were in a delicate state. However, Ludwick RAJCHMAN, the LNHO delegate, encouraged each authority, and finally they agreed to cooperate in the prevention movement. Even so, the International Settlement and Shanghai City differed over how to prevent cholera. The attitudes of each authority in carrying out the movement reflected both such differences and differences in the legal systems of the three districts.

Akihiro ITO
The formation of an association of salt field owners in Yamaguchi prefecture in the early Meiji period, 1872~80

In the early stages of the Meiji period, the industrial development strategy of the Yamaguchi Prefectural Office followed the policy laid down by the Department of the Interior. Therefore, there was an attempt to introduce new industries such as sericulture and stock raising. When this was not successful, however, the Prefectural Office changed its strategy and from 1877 began to focus on important traditional industries, such as agriculture, and salt and paper manufacturing. It systematized the various industries, and ordered them to introduce technical improvements and quality control.

In the salt manufacturing industry, salt field owners organized an association which they called Bocho Enden Kaisha. This organization adjusted the quantity of salt production, and controlled the tenant salt producers. The salt manufacturing industry at that time was experiencing a severe depression. The business situation of the tenant producers was not good, and many were leaving the industry. The salt field owners were also facing difficulties as their rental income decreased. This was why they needed to form a new organization.

Chikashi TAKAHASHI
The U.S. and European market and the emergence of traditional Japanese fish fertilizer as an export product during the interwar period

The purpose of this article is to examine why Japan began to export fish meal (fish guano) rather than import it during the interwar period.

Japan imported fish meal in the 1920s, but exported it during the 1930s. There were both domestic and foreign factors behind this. During the 1920s, the domestic factor was the high price of Japanese fish fertilizer, and the foreign factor was the confusion in the German economy following World War I. On the other hand, during the 1930s, the domestic factor was the strong competition between fish oil cake, which was the raw material for fish meal, and other fertilizers ( such as bean cake and ammonium sulfate), and the foreign factor was the increase in demand for fish meal in Europe, especially Germany, and the U.S.

Most of the fish meal exported from Japan was made of fish oil cake, which was produced by a traditional method that had been developed in the Edo period (1603~1867). Only a small amount of fish meal was produced by modern machines. Japan's success in exporting fish meal was achieved through an improvement in the production of traditional fish oil cake.

Katsuhiko KAWAHARA
The Chinese communist government's dissolution of associations for people from the same local area

This paper clarifies the process of transformation and dissolution of associations for people from the same local area that took place in Shanghai from 1949 to 1956. It uses unpublished records from the Shanghai Municipal Archive.

In the period immediately following the liberation in 1949, the Chinese Communist Party adopted a moderate policy toward the associations. But after the outbreak of the Korean War in 1950, they were subjected to such harsh treatment that they were unable to survive. Policies such as the 'triple elimination movement' (eliminating corruption, waste, and bureaucracy from society) involved harsh measures against the associations, such as tax systems which in many cases made them bankrupt. My assessment is that from the time of the Korean War, the regime changed its policy toward the associations and decided to bring about their dissolution. Ultimately this enabled the Party to develop roots at the base of Chinese society. In short, the regime had started to perceive the associations as obstacles to the spread of its power into the deepest reaches of Chinese society.