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This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) All Versions of this Article: AJPH.2008.150532v1 99/8/1364    most recent Submit a response View Shopping Cart Alert me when this article is cited Alert me when eLetters are posted Alert me if a correction is posted Services Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in Web of Science Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Google Scholar Articles by Nishimura, S. PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Nishimura, S. Related Collections Health Administration Health Law Health Policy Health Professionals Health Promotion

Sey Nishimura, PhD

Correspondence: Correspondence should be sent to Sey Nishimura, PhD, Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology, University of Toronto, 26-2 Higashi-tsukamoto-cho, Kyoto 606-0855, Japan (e-mail: nishim{at}cc.kyoto-su.ac.jp). Reprints can be ordered at http://www.ajph.org by clicking on the "Reprints/Eprints" link.

As soon as the authority of the Public Health and Welfare Section (PHW) of the Supreme Commander for Allied Powers waned in May 1951, the Japanese government overturned several measures it had implemented. Although the PHW contributed greatly toward improving public health conditions, not all of its activities were models of cooperative success. Many Japanese perceived some measures—terminated pensions for wounded Japanese veterans, lack of support for segregated orphanages for mixed-race children, and suppression of Japanese atomic bomb medical reports—as promoting US national interest at the expense of Japanese public health needs. Similarly, the PHW's upgrade of nursing education and separation of the professions of medicine and pharmacy were reversed because neither professionals nor the public saw these measures as urgent. Their reinstitution toward the end of the twentieth century suggests that the progressive measures were sound, but broke too sharply with Japanese tradition and were enforced prematurely.