Japanese posters of times of the flu pandemic of 1918

Categories: Health and Medicine | History | World |

The flu epidemic of 1918 started in Japan in late August and has become a national epidemic in November of the same year. Experts believe that the flu came to Japan with a group of sumo wrestlers, who returned from Taiwan (a colony of Japan at that time). Because of this, some people in Japan call it "sumo flu" and later "Spanish flu".

Japanese posters of times of the flu pandemic of 1918
Japanese posters of times of the flu pandemic of 1918

This became evident later when the virus has spread so widely that it was impossible to ignore. 26 Oct 1918 headline in the Japan Times & Mail read:

Japanese posters of times of the flu pandemic of 1918
Japanese posters of times of the flu pandemic of 1918

A big part of the 455-page guide contained factual information about the disease. It contained text and a chart showing the number of infected and what were the symptoms.

Japanese posters of times of the flu pandemic of 1918

The guide also contained 4 steps that everyone can take to avoid the spread of infection or flu:

Japanese posters of times of the flu pandemic of 1918

We were attracted by the posters, which were produced at that time and spread throughout the country as a way of raising awareness about the disease.

Japanese posters of times of the flu pandemic of 1918
Looking at these posters, you'd think that over the last 100 years not much has changed.

Japanese posters of times of the flu pandemic of 1918
Japanese posters of times of the flu pandemic of 1918

Keywords: Influenza | Posters | Epidemic | Japan

     

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