失效的援助：中日戰爭時期美國醫藥援華與中國醫療物資運用機制之困境（1937－1945）

1937年中日戰爭爆發，中國幾乎立即面臨醫藥資源不足的問題，而此問題也與中日戰爭相終始，故醫藥援助對戰時中國而言乃不可或缺。在歐戰、太平洋戰爭相繼爆發後，含醫藥物資在內的對華援助因牽涉到盟國戰略、戰需物資的分配及中國抵抗牽制日軍的能力，從而具有盟國戰略合作的意義，對華援助是否能有效提升中國抗日的能力，也成為影響中國與他國關係的一項參數。本文以中日戰爭時期美國醫藥援華為探討對象，切入前述課題，分析美國醫藥援華活動所涉及的運輸、瘧疾治理合作等實例，藉此闡釋美國援助制度與中國物資運用兩方面的機制困境，最終使得美國醫藥援助無法發揮效用，成為一場「失效」的援助。此一「失效」的援助影響所至，不只軍隊健康情況劣化，還導致戰時中國生命線－滇緬運輸線－的瘧疾問題無法解決，從而嚴重影響中國取得外援物資的整體效率。中國無法有效利用美援資源的問題，也成為戰後美國政府重新考量是否繼續援助國民黨政府的因素之一。

關鍵字

美國醫藥援華會；租借法案；美援；瘧疾；滇緬運輸

並列摘要

After the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese War in mid-1937, China immediately encountered acute shortages of medical supplies, which continued to plague its military activities in the ensuing years. When the flames of war raged through Europe and finally spread to the Pacific from 1939 to 1941, medical aid to China not only became vital to China's own survival but was rendered strategic value for the Allies because it may strengthen China's capability to counter the army of Imperial Japan. Since medical aid affected how aid-providers such as the United States distributed their precious strategic resources, it would easily alarm both the giving and the receiving sides and undermine their cooperation if the aid accomplished little. Focusing on American medical aid to China, this article discusses how its implementation and performances affected China's military capacity and shaped the Sino-American relations. It argues that China's institutional weakness impaired the potential and effects of American medical aid, resulting in deteriorating health of the Chinese troops and rampant malaria along the Burma Road - China's war-time life-line. This disappointing experience sowed the seeds of the strained relationship between the US and the Nationalist government in the initial years of the postwar era.

並列關鍵字

ABMAC ； Lend-Lease Act ； American Aid ； Malaria ； Burma Road

參考文獻

Jespersen, T. Christopher. “ ‘Spreading the American Dream’ of China: United China Relief, the Luce Family, and the Creation of American Conceptions of China before Pearl Harbor,” The Journal of American-East Asian Relations, 1:3(Fall 1992).

Google Scholar

Robertson, Robert Cecil. “A Malaria Survey on the China-Burma Highway,” Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, 34:4(January 1941).