癌 팬데믹은 현대문명의 산물, 진실인가? - 일제강점기 조선인의 보건의료 및 암의 실태 -

Abstract

Until now, the status of the health and diseases of Koreans in the Japanese occupation has been mainly identified using population and health data of the Statistical Yearbook of the Government-General of Colonial Korea (1910-1943). However, the authors have little confidence in the accuracy of these data. The authors devised an appropriate and reasonable method to analyze the data of Dynamic Statistics of Korean Population compiled from 1938 to 1942 at the end of the colonial period. With this method, the number of deaths according to the cause of death is corrected using the rate of medically certified deaths. The authors may be the first to identify major causes of death of Koreans at that period and to correct unreasonably underestimated numbers of deaths from cancers. In particular, the authors revealed for the first time that age-standardized death rate of major cancers such as stomach and uterine cancer at that period was never lower than today in this article. In addition, the authors analyzed the autopsy records of the pathology department of Keijo Imperial University and found that actual cancer deaths of Koreans at the end of the Japanese occupation period, which was an underdeveloped period, were not different from those of Japanese in Japan which was much more developed at the time. Furthermore, actual cancer deaths of Koreans at that time were comparable to or even surpassing cancer deaths of Koreans today. In the midst of the situation, most Koreans lived and died unaware of the fact that they had cancer. These findings are in direct opposition to the old myth that “cancer is the product of modern civilization.”