Kanzen Teruya

Kanzen Teruya (照屋寛善) was born in January, 1920 in Shuri, Naha, Okinawa. He graduated from Kyushu Medical College, now the medical department of Kurume University in 1942. In the last days of the war, he worked as an army physician stationed in Southeast Asia. After repatriation, he went to Kurume and then Okinawa. In 1956, he became the head of Okinawa Health Institute. In November, 1956, he studied a mass Cycas revoluta poisoning, the first in the world, which occurred because of starvation.[1] In 1961, the vice-president of the Health Department, Ryukyu Government. In 1963, he became the principal of Okinawa Nursing School. In 1973, he became the president of Okinawa Public Health Institute. In 1976, he became professor at the Department of Health, University of the Ryukyus, In 1981, professor at the Department of medicine, University of the Ryukyuus. In 1985, he retired from the university. In 1990, he became the head of Olive En Institute for the aged. In 2004, he died.

• Habu or Trimeresurus flavoviridis; medical policy and control.
• Control of tuberculosis in Okinawa. He himself was a patient.
• Control of Paragonimiasis in Okinawa.
• Critic of literary articles and essays for patients with leprosy at Okinawa Airakuen Sanatorium.
• On February 2 and 3, 1960, Teruya explained the real Okinawan medical conditions to Taro Takemi, the then president of the Japanese Medical Association and Takemi promised that Japan will help Okinawa in this connection.[2]

• Recipient of 39th Health Culture Award in 1987 by Dai-ichi Life.
• Recipient of Iha Fuyu Award (伊波普猷), in 1989 for Okinawan Classic studies.

• Teruya K. Postwar History of Medicine in Okinawa Medical Friend Sha, 1987 in Japanese. ISBN 4-8392-1030-6
• Okinawa Eiken Monogatari, in Japanese, including Teruya's pictures