Japanese posters of times of the flu pandemic of 1918

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".

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:

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.

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

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.

Looking at these posters, you'd think that over the last 100 years not much has changed.