Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Category: War & Veterans

  • Atrocities in Asia: Japan’s infamous Unit 731

    Howard FischerUppsala, Sweden In 1931 the Japanese army occupied the province of Manchuria in north-east China and continued to invade and occupy more of China as well as Southeast Asia and the western Pacific islands. The Japanese war machine needed the natural resources of these conquered territories in order to continue to expand its sphere…

  • Prisoners on leave: Vietnam veterans and the Golden Age Western

    Edward Harvey Missoula, Montana, United States “I think we all died a little in that damn war.”—The Outlaw Josey Wales “So…what have you been up to?” When screening combat Vietnam veterans for post-traumatic stress disorder, I will often ask them about their hobbies or interests, since PTSD often manifests as an inability to find pleasure in…

  • George Orwell and the Spanish Civil War: A brush with death

    James L. FranklinChicago, Illinois, United States Robert Capa’s “The Fallen Soldier” is the iconic photograph of the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939). The original title was “Loyalist Militiaman at the Moment of Death, Carro Muriano, September 5, 1936.” The photograph captures a Republican soldier at the very moment of his death. Dressed in civilian clothing, a…

  • African American contract doctors in the military

    Edward McSweeganKingston, Rhode Island, United States In the spring of 1898, the United States rushed into a war with Spain but lacked adequate troops, training, weapons, transport, supplies, food, landing craft, and medical personnel. One deficit that could be corrected before the shooting started was the lack of doctors. George Sternberg, the Army Surgeon General,…

  • Battle of Gettysburg

    Reed Brockway Bontecou (1824-1907) was an American surgeon from Troy, New York, who in 1846 made a trip up the Amazon river to collect flora and fauna for the local natural history museum, and whose surgical feats include the first successful ligation of a traumatic aneurysm of the axillary artery in America (1857) and the…

  • William Bell: Photographed injured veterans

    William Bell was a veteran of the American Civil War who fought at Antietam and Gettysburg, and became chief photographer of the Army Medical Museum in Washington. He took photographs of injured soldiers as part of a project to document the range of injuries among veterans. On the left, the solider is cleverly posed in…

  • The psychological impact of facial injury in the First World War: Outcomes from the Queen’s Hospital, Sidcup

    Andrew BamjiRye, East Sussex, UK Modern warfare, and in particular the use of artillery employed against entrenched troops in the First World War, resulted in a large number of facial wounds in all armies. Surgeons were unprepared. Advances in the management of infection and surgical shock resulted in better survival from wounds that would previously…

  • Medical innovations made by doctors during the Napoleonic Wars

    Craig StoutAberdeen, Scotland The Napoleonic Wars (1799 to 1815) brought great upheaval and turmoil to Europe, with as many as 2.5 million soldiers and 1 million civilians losing their lives. French military physicians, principally Dominique Jean-Larrey, made significant contributions to medicine, saving many lives and helping to develop modern medical practices for future generations. The…

  • The Korean soldier

    Charles HalstedDavis, California, United States A fifty-five-year-old Korean man arrived at the emergency room of our teaching hospital after suddenly vomiting blood during the night. Called next morning to consult in our intensive care unit, I reviewed his chart and pulled back the curtain surrounding his bed. I found him barely responsive with moderate tachycardia…

  • Resolution

    Gaetan SgroPittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States noun1. an expression of will or intent; a commitment In June 1965, Edward White, one of two astronauts aboard the Gemini IV mission, becomes the first American to walk in space. He floats free of the capsule for twenty minutes, and is so transfixed by the experience that Gus Grissom,…