Abstract: With expansion of public health into colonies in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, health education was of critical importance. This article explores the Netherlands East Indies colonial publisher Balai Pustaka and its support of public health efforts during the Dutch colonial period and the Japanese occupation. Pocketbooks, magazines, almanacs, and other books indicate the importance of local language and Malay publications in public health campaigns. Beyond carefully designed educational tracts, from the 1930s, advertisements for medical products appeared in Balai Pustaka publications following familiar themes but created anew each time in the appropriate language. During the Japanese occupation, public health initiatives and publishing changed, reflecting new contexts and the growing importance of Malay/Indonesian language, but the government publisher continued playing important roles.
William Bradley Horton (Wed,) studied this question.