Dreams of Prevention and Control: Policing and Public Health in Colonial Asia

by Takeshi Onimaru (Editor)

Overview

The European and Japanese empires that colonized much of Asia in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries faced numerous challenges in public health and social order. They sought to prevent disturbances and rebellions, suppress crime, improve hygiene, and curb the spread of infectious diseases. In the process, they developed apparatuses of modern ‘surveillance,’ particularly in the realms of policing and public health. Dreams of Prevention and Control outlines the development and limitations of the colonial states’ security and public health measures, spanning from Aden in the west to the Korean Peninsula in the east. This volume examines the colonizers’ perceptions of threats and the methods adopted to combat these threats and highlights the colonized peoples’ responses to these efforts to control. This collection of studies offers timely insights for twenty-first-century societies, which are increasingly monitored by state and private actors using advanced technologies, including GPS, AI, and vast amounts of data gathered via the Internet.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781920850548
Publisher:	Trans Pacific Press
Publication date:	07/30/2025
Pages:	364
Product dimensions:	(w) x (h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Takeshi ONIMARU is a Professor at the Faculty of Social and Cultural Studies, Kyushu University, Japan. His research interests cover political history and modern state formation processes in East and Southeast Asia, mainly focusing on colonial surveillance and policing.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements Introduction Dreams of Prevention and Control: Policing and Public Health in Colonial Asia Takeshi ONIMARU Chap. 1 A System of Sanitary Surveillance: Disease, Prostitution, and Regulation in the Settlement of Aden, 1872– 1932 Mark HARRISON Chap. 2 Surveillance and Subversion: Reporting of Medical Statistics in Colonial Burma Atsuko NAONO Chap. 3 A Province Behaving Like a State: The Expulsion of Offenders Act (1926) and the Territoriality of Colonial Burma Noriyuki OSADA Chap. 4 Policing and Repressive Devices: Surveillance of Communists in the Indochina Colonial State Tomokazu OKADA Chap. 5 In Search of “Invisible” Targets: Policing and Surveillance in Colonial Singapore from the late 19th century to the early 20th century Takeshi ONIMARU Chap. 6 Political Management, Policing, and Nationalist Politics in the Dutch Indies Takashi SHIRAISHI Chap. 7 Independence and Public Health: Technologies of Rule in the Colonial Philippines, 1900s to 1930s Ma. Mercedes G. PLANTA Chap. 8 Surveillance, Policing and Filtration: Quarantining Repatriates in Busan after WWII Jeong-Ran KIM Index