(the) Road to the Deep East

Japan defeated Russia. It's not the miracle occurred in football national team.

102 years back from today - when Japan was young as modern country and as aggressive and troublesome as North Korea today, Japan defeated Russia in Russo-Japanese war, after the winning in the Battle of Tsushima. This winning is almost the first victory that colored races defeated the modern white empire, and hence it encouraged the people in colonized nations. It was also the turning point of modern history as the beginning of the end of colonialism.

Now, thanks to the complete defeat at World War 2 and anti-imperialism education began then, Russo-Japanese war is hidden in the veil of taboo of Japanese imperialism and there aren't so many Japanese who still remember this winning and admire it.

However, interestingly, subconsciously, a lot of Japanese are still using the by-product of this war.

Seirogan. (正露丸).


Seirogan is a small pill, as large as shit of deer, made of wood creosote.

This medicine was developed during this Russo-Japanese war to protect soldiers from diarrhea, and originally, this medicine was spelled '征露丸. '征' means 'conquer', and '露' is a part of acronym of 'Russia' in Chinese characters. And '丸' means drop. So, And as you have already known, this medicine and its spell worked well, and Japan defeated Russia.

To tell the truth, Japan also lost at several partial battle, and almost 100,000 soldiers were dead during this war (including 20,000 death from sickness). So it is still doubtable that this medicine really could protect soldiers in this war. In addition, there aren't any clear medical scientific evidences regarding the effect of wood creosote for diarrhea. But thanks to this auspicious origin, Japanese began to use seidogan as a kind of panacea, which can cure all diseases of all digestive organs, from its entrance to exit, from toothache to diarrhea.

After WW2, Japanese government thought it's an improper name, and rename it with the kanji of same sound, '正'(right). So, almost all Japanese forgot the hidden meaning of this seirogan.

However, even today, seirogan is very popular medicine among Japanese. Ask your Japanese friend , “I have diarrhea from this morning... but I don't want to go to hospital.”. If the person is enough kind, I bet almost 25% of Japanese will recommend you to take this Conquer Russia drop.

And even when Japanese go abroad, seirogan is one of necessary articles, as well as cup noodles or precooked miso-soup. It's a bit ironical and interesting phenomenon. Even after Japanese became very quiet and harmless race, when they go to abroad, they are carrying such a product of radical hidden meaning, without recognizing it.