POORNIMA NAIR

Poornima holds a Bachelor's in History from Hindu College, University of Delhi and a Master's in East Asian Studies from the Department of East Asian Studies, University of Delhi. She is the recipient of the Mitsubishi Corporation India Scholarship and was also awarded the Japan Foundation Fellowship for Aspiring Scholars in Japanese Studies 2023-24. Poornima is interested in studying the intersections of disease, environment and nation building in modern Japan. At ICS, her research focuses on post-war restructuring of public health and disease control in US Occupied Japan from 1945-52. Poornima speaks English, Malayalam, Hindi and Japanese.

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Disease, Discipline, and Domination: Typhus Control in Occupied Japan (1945–1952)
21 Feb 2025

This article examines disease control and prevention in Occupied Japan (1945-52). It argues that the primary concerns and disease control decisions were chiefly motivated by domestic anxieties and disease burdens in the United States along with a strong commitment to protect its personnel from infections and diseases.