Shinichi Ikejiri

Shinichi Ikejiri (池尻 愼一, Ikejiri Shin'ichi, 1909 – 1945), pen name Shinichi Ōra (邑楽 慎一, Ōra Shin'ichi), was a physician for Hansen's disease patients at Kaishun Hospital of Hannah Riddell and Tama Zenshoen Sanatorium and a writer. His book Itameru Ashi (Diseased Reeds) sold well. He was drafted into the Imperial Japanese Army in 1937 and again in 1941, and shot dead in Indonesia in 1945.

Shinichi Ikejiri
Born1908
Ukiha, Fukuoka, Japan
Died1945
Indonesia
OccupationWriter and physician
GenreEssays
Notable worksItameru Ashi, Gun-i Tensen Oboegaki

Life

Ikejiri was born in 1908 in Ukiha, Fukuoka Prefecture. He graduated from Private Kyushu Medical School (Kurume University), where he studied physiology. He was a convert to Lutheran Christianity. Unable to find a post in the Nagashima Aiseien Sanatorium, he became a physician at the Kaishun Hospital of Hannah Riddell at Kumamoto in April 1934. He gave his blood to a critically ill patient with leprosy through blood transfusion, an event which was written about in newspapers at the time. In August 1936, he was transferred to the Tama Zenshoen Sanatorium. In August 1937 he was drafted and sent to China.

In 1940, he published his book Itameru Ashi, which sold well; more than 30 printings were done within the year. Later that same year, he published Gun-i Tensen Monogatari (Memos of a Military Doctor in Battle). In 1941, he was again drafted, and went to Burma. In April 1944 he went to Jakarta University, to study leprosy under Professor Kentarō Higuchi. According to Higuchi's account, Ikejiri was shot dead in January 1945 by a third-country national.[1]

Selected works
  • Itameru Ashi 傷める葦 [Diseased Reeds], 山雅房 [Sangabō], 1940, JPNO 46044910.
    • It sold well, going through 25 printings by October 1940 and 30 by a month later.[2] It consisted of the following chapters: Memorandoms of a leprosy physician, Runaways, Stories from the hospital wards, Dawn, House of depressed ground, Valley with a rainbow, History of leprosy in Europe, Study of psychology of leprosy patients. Note that the NDL number cited is for the 6th edition.
  • Gun-i Tensen Oboegaki 軍医転戦覚書 [Memos of a Military Doctor in Battle], 中央公論社 [Chūō Kōronsha], 1940, JPNO 46050811
  • Shi-fu-go: Kindai Shina Densetsushū 子不語：近代支那伝説集 [Of What Confucius Did Not Speak: A Collection of Tales from Modern China], 長崎書店 [Nagasaki Shoten], 1941, JPNO 46014007.
  • Gun-i Tensen Oboegaki, Zoku 軍医転戦覚書・続 [Memos of a Military Doctor in Battle, Continued], 長崎書店 [Nagasaki Shoten], 1944, JPNO 46036690.
    • During a short stay, Ikejiri visited a Rangoon (Yangon) leprosarium which held roughly 420 patients. There, he found the signature of Fumio Hayashi, who visited it around 1933. He also met a French missionary; the missionary's knowledge of commentator Tōta Ishimaru impressed Ikejiri.

Footnotes
  1. Higuchi 1977; Higuchi's report of Ikejiri's death was also reprinted in Uchida 1964, pp. 192–195
  2. Uchida 1964, p. 253
  3. Uchida 1964, p. 209

References
  • Mamoru Uchida, ed. (1964), 傷める葦を憶う：池尻慎一追悼記念文集 [Thinking Over Itameru Ashi: A Collection of Papers Commemorating Shin'ichi Ikejiri], Kumamoto: Koronii Insatsu; the editor is a medical doctor and a man of letters who met Ikejiri
  • 内田守 [Mamoru Uchida] (1976), Yukari no Minoruomachite ユーカリの実るを待ちて, Kumamoto: Riddell-Wright Memorial Home for the Aged, pp. 301–305, JPNO 91030988
  • 樋口謙太郎 [Kentarō Higuchi] (1977), どんたーく [Dontag] (in Japanese), Fukuoka: 西日本新聞社 [Nishi-Nihon Shinbunsha]; the author was Ikejiri's superior in Jakarta
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