Speaker: Victor Seow, John L. Loeb, Associate Professor of the Social Sciences, Department of History of Science, Harvard University
Discussant: Eugenia Y. Lean, Professor, Chinese History and Vice Provost Faculty Affairs, East Asian Languages, Columbia University
Moderator: Kavita Sivaramakrishnan, Co-Director, History Center, Sociomedical Sciences, Mailman School of Public Health
This panel discussion focuses on Professor Seow's paper on the case of “forklift disease” (fōkurifuto-byō) in postwar Japan, where he explores how occupational illness came to be conceived and contested in an era of logistical capitalism. The paper reconstructs how labor activists, physicians, and engineers framed these complaints as a distinctive work-related disorder that stemmed from the bodily burdens of mechanized cargo handling. Forklift disease would soon travel beyond Kobe, spurring further medical investigations at other Japanese ports, experiments with seat and suspension design, and epidemiological studies on whole-body vibration. By the 1980s, the diagnostic label was increasingly eclipsed by international categories of vibration-related musculoskeletal disorder, even as the underlying injuries persisted and expanded to new groups of logistic workers. By situating this trajectory within concurrent developments in port labor relations, containerization, and state regulation of industrial health, this paper shows how postwar Japan’s pursuit of industrial rationalization reshaped both dockside workscapes and the diagnosis terrain of occupational disease.
For non-Columbia affiliates, registration is required to access the Morningside campus. After registering you will receive an email with a QR code that must be presented along with a government-issued ID (your name must match exactly the name registered for the event) at either the 116th Street & Broadway or 116th Street & Amsterdam gates for entry. Please register using a unique email address (one email address per registrant) by 4:00 pm on Apr. 30 for campus access.
Names will be submitted for QR codes 1-2 days prior to the event. Registrants will receive an email from CU Guest Access with the QR code before or on the day of the event. NOTE: You cannot access campus using the QR code from Eventbrite.
This event is hosted by the Weatherhead East Asian Institute and co-sponsored by the History Center at the Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University Medical Center.
