Book cover for Beriberi in Modern Japan
History Professor Alexander Bay
recently published a book titled, Beriberi in Modern Japan: The Making of National Disease with University of Rochester Press.

The book is about modern Japan, beriberi (or thiamin deficiency) becoming a public health problem that cuts across all social boundaries, afflicting even the Meiji Emperor.
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In addition to his new book, Professor Bay had an article published titled, “Nation from the Bottom Up: Disease, Toilets and Waste Management in Prewar Japan,”  in the
Historia Scientiarum: International Journal of the History of Science Society of Japan
(Special Issue: Social History of Medicine in Modern Japan) and will be spending some time at the
University of Hawaii East this summer
as he was just accepted to the multidisciplinary, three-week Institute that fosters faculty and program development aimed at enhancing undergraduate teaching and learning about Asian cultures and societies.