Doctors of Empire

In Doctors of Empire, Hoi-eun Kim recounts the story of the almost 1,200 Japanese medical students who rushed to German universities to learn cutting-edge knowledge from the world leaders in medicine, and of the dozen German physicians who were invited to Japan to transform the country’s medical institutions and education.

Hoi-eun Kim is an associate professor in the Department of History at Texas A&M University.

"Moving gracefully between European and Japanese archives, Doctors of Empire focuses on the emergence, evolution, and demise of one of the most innovative cross-cultural rendezvous in the history of imperial medical regime making… Meticulously researched and elegantly written, Doctors of Empire significantly enriches the historiography of medicine and imperiality."

James R. Bartholomew:

‘This excellent book deserves careful attention from modern historians of both countries as well as scholars in the history of medicine.’

Adam T. Roesnbaum:

‘An engaging account of intellectual exchange and occasional friction set in the universities, hospitals, boarding houses, and beer halls of two ambitious empires. This tightly structured book covers the origins, evolution, and implications of this intellectual exchange… Outstanding work.’

Susan L. Burns:

‘Doctors of Empire is an illuminating work that shows how imperial relations of power shaped the medical profession in Germany, Japan, and East Asia.’

John DiMoia:

‘Hoi-eun-Kim’s Doctors of Empire provides a new and welcome addition to the growing literature on Meiji Japan. Scholars have long acknowledged the Meiji fascination with German scientific models of practice; Kim is one of the first to investigate this relationship in detail.’

Erik Grimmer-Solem, Department of History, Wesleyan University:

“Kim explores the networks and relationships that made and changed the study of medicine in both Japan and Germany from a superb base of Japanese and German archival sources. A richly detailed and compelling picture of the globalization of German medical education and the socialization of the young doctors that benefitted from this exchange, Doctors of Empire is a groundbreaking work of transnational history.”

Deborah Neill, Associate Professor of History, York University:
“Doctors of Empire takes us to the cosmopolitan city of Berlin, showing it to us in the eyes of Japanese students, and shedding light on its universities, beer halls, rooming houses, and friendship circles. In doing this, Kim shows us an innovative way of looking at German-Japanese relationships outside the usual political and diplomatic discussions and reveals why transnational scientific exchanges are a vital part of larger stories.”