Presentations -

Medicines and Advertisements in Indonesia, 1930s to the post-war era

ホートン ウィリアム・ブラッドリー

EuroSEAS Conference 2022  2022.07  -  2022.07 

“Basmilah Malaria!”: The Long War Against Malaria in 20th Century Indonesia

William Bradley Horton

Health Infrastructure and Asia's Epidemiological Transitions: Historical Perspectives  2022.04  -  2022.04 

A Malarial Romance: Japanese Medical Propaganda in the War

ホートン ウィリアム・ブラッドリー

First International Workshop--Malaria Wars: The War against Malaria in Japanese Occupied Indonesia  2021.09  -  2021.09 

Malaria and Medicines in the Wartime Indonesian Press

ホートン ウィリアム・ブラッドリー

First International Workshop--Malaria Wars: The War against Malaria in Japanese Occupied Indonesia  2021.09  -  2021.09 

Our Medicine: Alternative Medicines for Malaria from Local Renewable Resources during the Japanese Occupation of Indonesia (1942-1945)

William Bradley Horton

EuroSEAS Conference 2021  (Palacký University in Olomouc)  2021.09  -  2021.09  European Association for Southeast Asian Studies (EuroSEAS)

While Java was the world’s leading producer of cinchona bark, the vital ingredient for quinine, World War II resulted in both local and widespread shortages of quinine even within Indonesia. There were shortages of many other kinds of medicines and medical supplies as well. Even before the war, cost of medical treatment, availability of medical professionals, confidence in untested traditional medicines, and even suspicion of Western medicine were obstacles to improvement of public health.
In the days after the declaration of independence, with Japanese troops still present in Jakarta, a small 31-page booklet was published by the government publisher, Balai Poestaka. Entitled Obat-obat dari Bahan-bahan Negeri Sendiri [Medicines from Our Own Country’s Materials], if taken at face value, this book’s authors were seeking to find a way for both individual citizens and whole regions to become more medically independent through utilization of local renewable natural resources and traditional knowledge. Included were two recipes for treatment of malaria. This was not a sudden event, as efforts to develop and test alternative medicines for different illnesses were eagerly spread throughout Indonesia, even crossing Japanese administrative borders and dangerous stretches of ocean. This paper will discuss these two medicines, their development, potential effectiveness, as well as this publication itself.

Digital Humanities in the Covid Era: The Perspective of a Historian of Modern Indonesia from Northern Japan

William Bradley Horton  [Invited]

The 6th International Conference on Education & Social Sciences (ICESS 2021)  2021.04  -  2021.04 

Morning Star: Guy Pauker’s ‘Pre-CIA’ Days and Indonesia

ホートン ウィリアム・ブラッドリー

AAS-in-Asia Conference 2020  2020.09  -  2020.09  William Bradley Horton

Litera(ture)ly Changing History: Around and About the 1940s in Indonesia

ホートン ウィリアム・ブラッドリー  [Invited]

International Seminar on Language Cultures and History (ISLCH), “The Development of Arts, Language, Culture, Literature, and History in Southeast Asia”  2020.09  -  2020.09 

America in Indonesian Historiography [Amerika Dalam Historiografi Indonesia]

William Bradley Horton  [Invited]

America in Indonesian Historiography [Amerika Dalam Historiografi Indonesia]  (Faculty of Cultural Studies, University of North Sumatra (online))  2020.09  -  2020.09  Faculty of Cultural Studies, University of North Sumatra

Guy Pauker, the CIA, and Indonesian Studies in America [Guy Pauker, CIA, dan Kajian Indonesia di Amerika]

William Bradley Horton

AreaScape vol. 4  (LIPI (online))  2020.06  -  2020.06  Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI)

From Hero to Criminal (and Back Again): The Yellow Adventures of Baroness Orczy’s Scarlet Pimpernel in Indonesia

ホートン ウィリアム, ブラッドリー  [Invited]

秋田英語英文学会 2019年度大会  (秋田大学)  2019.12  -  2019.12 

A Cautionary Tale of Arrogance: The Harry Benda Translation of The Military Administration of Indonesia and the US

Horton, William Bradly

東南アジア学会2019年度大会  (静岡県立大学)  2019.11  -  2019.11 

In the course of research in the Hoover Institution archive related to the Rumanian-born political scientist and Rand Corporation analyst Guy Pauker, I discovered a letter by Harry J. Benda, the famous historian of Indonesia. This letter related to the Waseda University study of Japanese Military Administration of Indonesia written by a team of researchers led by Koichi Kishi and Shigetada Nishijima and the possibility of an English translation of this work. In his letter, Harry apologies to Guy for possibly stepping on his toes, as he had not been aware of Guy’s interest in this book, and inquiring if he intended to continue, or if they could work together.
Examining the files at Yale, it quickly was apparent that Benda subsequently had done the hard work of preparing a translation for publication in conjuction with the Rockafeller Foundation, the original authors, and translators. I then found another document—a short letter from the director of Yale University Press. The basic information was clear: publication of a translation with Yale University Press was being abandoned by Benda. But why was there “no point going on with the project”? What did the words of sympathy, and the reference to “a crushing blow” mean?
On November 22, 1963, Benda discovered that JPRS had published their translation and immediately telephoned the JPRS office, accusing them of copyright infringement. The JPRS head legalistically defended their decision; Benda sarcastically agreed with them. How had the US government’s JPRS come to initiate this unethical translation project, and what were its effects? Much remains hidden to the eyes of historians, but the impact on Benda was tremendous, and the impact on non-Japanese scholarship on the wartime period substantial as well, as this inferior, quick translation was subsequently the only version available to future generations of scholars.
Other questions also remain, such as whether there was any influence on the feelings of Japanese scholars towards the US. Shigetada Nishijima, an old Indonesia-hand from the prewar and wartime periods and another young Waseda-based scholar mentioned in Benda’s correspondence, Ato Masuda, had come from different leftist streams of thought. Such an obvious injustice at the hands of the American government would presumably not have been appreciated. Or would they merely rejoice in its publication? Would the publication have left a critical feeling towards American scholars, perhaps even those unrelated to the original book?
Because one of the “victims” in this case was a US-based academic, records remain of this case of arrogance in the space between production of academic knowledge and the US government at the peak of US imperial power. This case allows us to imagine how many other cases may have existed, and of the impact on the individuals and institutions, whether citizens and institutions of a US ally and former enemy like Japan, or those of less influential enemy nations.


Health for Indonesians: Public activities of Japanese medical practitioners and public health efforts on Java (1942-1945)

ホートン ウィリアム, ブラッドリー

Other Facets of Medical Studies on the Japanese Occupation in Indonesia  (国際文化会館)  2019.10  -  2019.10 

Wartime Experiences, Colossal Blunders and Renewed Friendships: Putting Faces and Historical Context into the Reestablishment of Japanese-Indonesian Relations in the 1950s

ホートン ウィリアム, ブラッドリー

EuroSEAS  (Humboldt University-Berlin)  2019.09  -  2019.09 

"Reverberations of an Occupation: Indonesian Wartime Connections Between Postwar Societies" panel. This paper seeks to examine the backgrounds of some of the key Indonesians involved in the San Francisco Peace Treaty Conference as well as some of the many individuals more generally involved with the reestablishment of normal relations between Japan and Indonesia as a step towards understanding how the experiences and networks of the Japanese period, or even in the 1930s, could have influenced events in the critical 1950s.

“Djiwa Baroe”: The Malay Language Press during the Japanese Occupation of Java

ホートン ウィリアム, ブラッドリー

ICAS 11  (Leiden University)  2019.07  -  2019.07 

"European Shadows in Japanese Occupied Indonesia" panel. This paper explores the dynamic, changing world of newspaper publishing during the first two years of the occupation, examining the regulations, the publically visible activities of journalists and the publications themselves.

Patjar Koening dan Misteri Kematian Thamrin: Sastra Populer Terbitan Jogja pada tahun 1930an-1940an [Patjar Koening and the Mystery of Thamrin's Death: Popular Literature Published in Jogja in the 1930s-1940s]

 [Invited]

Gadjah Mada University, Faculty of Cultural Sciences (FIB)  2019.03  -  2019.03 

Berkembangnya Sastra Populer di Indonesia: Beberapa Contoh dari Tahun-tahun Terakhir Jaman Penjajahan [The Development of Popular Literature in Indonesia: A Few Examples from the Last Years of the Colonial Period]

William Bradley Horton  [Invited]

Language and Book Development Agency (Badan Pengembangan dan Pembinaan Bahasa), Republic of Indonesia  2019.03  -  2019.03 

Readers and Taman Batja: A Short History of Popular Libraries in the Netherlands Indies

ホートン ウィリアム, ブラッドリー  [Invited]

Indonesian Cultural Heritage  (Andalas University)  2018.09  -  2018.09 

“Perhatian! Siapa jang pindjam djangan di bikin sobek dan kotor!”: Taman Batja and Literate Culture in Yogyakarta in the Pre-independence Period

ホートン ウィリアム, ブラッドリー

Literary Culture and the Culture of Literacy in Indonesia  (Gadjah Mada University, Faculty of Cultural Sciences)  2018.09  -  2018.09 

Accepted for presentation

‘Kehidoepan Njamoek Malaria’ and ‘Obat-obatan Asli’: Wartime public health efforts seen through Indonesian print materials on Java

ホートン ウィリアム, ブラッドリー

“Colonial Medicine in Post-Colonial Times: Continuity, Transition, and Change.” Joint conference, Asian Society of the History of Medicine and History of Medicine in Southeast Asia  2018.06  -  2018.06