The Dr. Ikkaku Ochi Collection: Medical Photographs from Japan Around 1900

Rating:
Summary: Beautiful and disturbing
Review: This collection of photographs is remarkable for several reasons: 1) the photos document the final stages of horrendous diseases (many of which are rarely seen these days); 2) the images are portraits of real individuals in great pain, but presented with stoic dignity; 3) it provides an insight into the remarkable level of surgical skill at work in Meiji-era Japan; and 4) the very survival of these photographs at all is something of a miracle when one considers they were sitting near ground zero when the American atom bomb exploded over Hiroshima.

Truly, this is not a volume for the squeamish. In these pages one finds a startling array of diseases, from smallpox to the bacterial infections that ravished faces and limbs. Tumors, conjoined twins and leprosy each receive equal billing, and with often startling clarity. Also here are the before-and-after shots where one sees how Japanese surgeons excised tumors or reconstructed a missing nose, which is especially poignant when one considers the very rudimentary level of sterility and anesthesia available at the time.

One can't help but be moved by these documents of human suffering and triumph, and then thank one's lucky stars that they live in an era of modern antibiotics and surgical practice.

My one reservation (hence the four out of five stars) is that the captions for the photographs don't actually appear in the book itself, but rather on the publishing company's website. A bit more explanation readily at hand would have made many of the photographs less mysterious - or perhaps even more compelling.