In the Far Eastern Division, which is composed of five large unions—Chosen, Japan, Philippines, Netherlands East Indies, and Malaya—we have a thriving medical work.
It is represented by eight major hospitals and clinics, six dispensaries, and sixteen or more places in the field where workers are giving at least a part of their time to the medical ministry. This makes a total of thirty units where the health work in some form is going before or supplementing the regular activities of the mission organization.
Chosen (Korea).—Our oldest medical establishment is the Soonan Dispensary and Hospital in Chosen, which was under the energetic leadership of Dr. G. G. Innocent when I visited there. During the time Doctor Innocent has been located in Soonan, the medical work has had a strong revival. The business for the first four months of 1940 shows an increase of 175 per cent over the record of the previous year. Last winter in Korea was a season of epidemics, including pneumonia and diphtheria, and Soonan Hospital has done a wonderful work in bringing relief to the large rural population in the area in which it is located. Coming to the hospital on foot, carried by relatives, or in jolting oxcarts, patients found help in the skillful ministrations of Doctor Innocent and his helpers, all of whom are Koreans.
In Seoul, the capital of Korea, Dr. George Rue, assisted by Dr. S. Y. Chyung, Miss Ernestine Gill, R.N.,* and a capable staff of Korean nurses, is conducting an efficient medical service at the Seoul Sanitarium and Hospital. The institution has been very busy during the winter and spring. Doctor Rue is well known in Korea among all classes of people, and his generous efforts in behalf of the Korean people have endeared him to them and won their confidence.
Two Institutions in Japan.—In Japan we have two medical institutions. The senior institution at Tokyo is directed by Dr. Paul V. Starr, who is now assisted by Dr. Paul
Tatsuguchi. Miss Ruth Munroe, R.N., director of nurses, has recently joined the institutional family. Doctor Starr has become well known in the Tokyo district for his surgical and medical skill. The last winter has been a severe one, with prevalence of respiratory diseases, and the Tokyo Sanitarium has done more than its share in that large metropolitan area in bringing relief to those who have been dangerously ill. Our medical institutions in Japan and Korea have been full to overflowing many times, with patients accommodated temporarily in the treatment rooms.
Dr. E. H. Olson, who is building up a solid practice at Kobe, has won many friends through his quiet sympathy and medical skill. To his little institution of less than ten beds, many have come for help, and have gone away happy for the presence of this Christian physician. When I last visited Kobe, he was almost daily turning away patients who needed hospitalization, but for whom the institution could provide no space. Kobe needs a larger building, and the board is laying aggressive plans for the future development of the institution.
Work in the Phillippines.
largest institution is in Manila, where Doctors Herbert C. Honor and Vera Honor supplement each other's work, providing medical, surgical, and obstetrical service which is adding to the well-established reputation of the Manila Sanitarium as a fine Seventh-day Adventist medical center. Special features of the sanitarium are the hydrotherapy and dietetics departments. The president of the Philippine Commonwealth, who has been required to adhere to a special diet, has availed himself of the excellent facilities there to secure proper noontime meals.
During my recent visit in Manila, Hospital Day was celebrated in all the medical institutions in the city, and the management of the Manila Sanitarium was very happy to have that institution awarded first prize for hospitals of its class.
Penang Clinic and Sanitarium, Malaya
—In Malaya, the medical work is undergoing rapid development. A new building has been bought for the Penang Clinic, which has been in rented quarters since the days when Dr. J. E. Gardner established it in the busy downtown section of Penang. The clinic will move into its new building after it has been properly renovated and remodeled, and Dr. J. C. Hayward will direct its activities. Leading out in the medical work in this place is Dr. H. G. Hebard, medical superintendent of the Penang Sanitarium. The sanitarium is soon to be enlarged by the addition of a new wing. During recent months both the sanitarium and the clinic in Penang have enjoyed the best patronage of their history.
Rapid Development in Bangkok (Siam). —A medical work is developing in Bangkok which has been an astonishment to the mission, -and even a perplexity, because of the rapidity with which it has grown beyond its facilities. Beginning in two small shops in a crowded city district, Dr. Ralph Waddell has found so many patients coming that he has added shop to shop, and now the patronage has increased to the place where there is more than one doctor can properly handle. At the present time Dr. Arthur E. Geschke, who recently came to Siam, is assisting Doctor Waddell in that busy institution. On the staff are also Mrs. Waddell, Mrs. Ritz, and Miss Helen Phang, R.N., an experienced nurse, formerly connected with several leading medical institutions of the China Division.
One of the pleasing phases of the medical work in Bangkok is the emphasis which is placed upon spiritual contact with the patients. Doctor Waddell makes constant use of the tract rack which hangs beside his desk, and closes every interview with a word of encouragement or a pointed query, and the giving out of a timely leaflet.
Again and again we have met people in the churches connected with our medical institutions who were first interested in the truth through the influence of a doctor or a nurse. Time and space would fail us to tell of the quiet influence of our medical evangelistic workers in a number of the missions, who are ministering to the needs of the people on the little islands, in the jungle villages, and in the crowded metropolitan areas, dressing wounds, applying lotions to the terrible tropical sores, giving injections, pulling decayed teeth, and washing infected eyes. It is a work which calls for true consecration and loving sympathy, and which is really patterned after that of the Master Himself, who went abroad teaching and healing and pointing souls to the kingdom of heaven. We are thankful indeed for the excellent work our medical institutions and workers are doing in all parts of the Far Eastern Division.
*We regret to say that it has recently been necessary for Miss Gill to return to the States for health reasons.
