Dr. Willis in Japan, 1862-1877: A British Medical Pioneer
by Hugh Cortazzi
ISBN: 0485112647
Available on Amazon for a mere $60.00
***highly recommended for those who have access to a public/school
library***
Dr. Willis is -always- quoted in texts covering the seige and fall
of Aizu however he was also at Toba and Fushimi, where he treated
Aizu samurai, while accompanying Mitford. Those texts,
understandably, had to paraphrase his words and I'll tell you right
now that nothing tops the detailed original.
Dr. Willis was employed by the British Legation. The British at
this point had already chosen to support Satsuma thus Dr. Willis had
more than just a passing acquaintance with SAIGO TAKAMORI and OYAMA
IWAO (Saigo's cousin and future husband of Aizu's Yamakawa
Sutematsu). The biographer stated that he was VERY CLOSE to Saigo
however no detailed conversations or anecdotal stories have survived
in print.
Willis, after Boshin, lived in Kagoshima for many years and left in
1877 at the beginning of the SAtsuma Rebellion.
Back to the Boshin War--He pleaded with Satsuma atleast twice that
injured prisoners of war should be spared execution. It is not 100%
clear whether or not they were able to implement his ideas in a
uniform manner---it is implied that they tried.
Initially he *LOOKED* for enemy prisoners and did not find
any...alive. He promised to tell the world that the Japanese
conducted warfare "humanely" should they try their best to look
after their prisoners. It was common practice for -both- sides to
behead the injured enemy they came across. This was not just simply
being cruel but almost out of necessity. There were no such things
as well equipped medic teams ready to treat scores of injured
soldiers. Dr. Willis himself, working alongside Japanese physicians
noticed that due to the extremely high number of patients, doctors
sometimes failed to locate and extract bullets or bone fragments in
the wound and just simply sew up the patient. Thus the injured not
only died of infection, but also very likely of the bullet(s) doing
further damage in the body. Most of the wounds he treated were the
result of bullets, *not* sword or spear wounds.
He also taught Japanese doctors the use of chloroform to knock out
the patient however in one case he extracted a bullet from a boy's
neck without using chloroform.
Thus, in a situation where you cannot save the life of your own
comrade/friend---it may have been easier to just put a prisoner out
of his misery. This reflects upon the suicides in Aizu---the people
there not only understood this widespread practice in war they also
heard true accounts from the battle front of
executions/rape/brutality thus rather than die by the sword of the
invaders they chose self destruction.
His description of travelling to beseiged Aizu, with the invading
Imperial army is graphic complete with looting and plundering on
both sides due to the lack of supplies. Thus, what he heard and saw
first hand corroborated the information Katura Kogoro (Kido) noted
in his diary. One sentence here and there on what he saw firsthand
was very illustrative. He asked to be recompensated for the money
he had to pay out of pocket to feed Aizu people huddling in the snow
(November 1868) with just a blanket for cover.
True, he did not explicitly meet nor mention Shinsengumi, that we
know of, however he did see the wretched state of prisoners after
the war, one of whom was Yamaguchi Jiro (Saitou) and recorded
Matsudaira Katamori escorted out of his domain.
I cannot stress the importance of this text enough it needs to be
read along with Shiba Goro's Remembering Aizu and Akiko Kunos
Unexpected Destinations, keep in mind that Dr. Willis was very
very "pro" Satsuma what he wrote did not grow out of a *bias* for
Aizu in any way.
Pics (this file can go offline anytime)
https://mywebspace.wisc.edu/tnamwong/web/Drwillis.zip
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Visual Supplement to Tokio.htm in the <
> section of the
mailing list (also temporarily hosted)
https://mywebspace.wisc.edu/tnamwong/web/JapaneseGirlsandWomen.zip