Shiroi Yamai (The White Disease)

The Czech writer Karel Čapek (1890–1938) has several faces: He was the author of “R. U. R.,” the science-fiction play that introduced the word “robot” into the world, and of “Nine Fairy Tales,” a masterpiece of children’s literature, as well as an outstanding journalist of Czechoslovakia. There would not be many authors who worked in such a wide range of genres, from philosophical novels to an essay on gardening, as Čapek did.
 
However, it is his prophetic view of the world that dazzles us the most—as if he had already predicted our era. One such example is his play “The White Disease,” published in 1937. In this play, an anonymous country led by a dictator is plagued by a disease called “the white disease,” which afflicts those older than fifty and typically kills its victims in a short time. Doctor Galen, who discovered a clue to the cure, requests the court counsellor Sigelius to conduct further tests in his clinic. However, in turn for distributing the cure, Galen demands that the rulers of the world declare peace.
 
In Čapek's play, we encounter several expressions familiar to us today, such as “pandemic” and “vaccine.” This play questions the way we consume information during a pandemic, the ideal system of distributing a vaccine, and humane care provided for the sick and poor. A greatness of this work lies not only in its prophetic view of work, but in the articulate descriptions of people in an extreme situation. Therefore, the tension runs high when the author interlaces the motifs of the pandemic and war. Čapek inquires of his contemporaries and us what we should do in such an exceptional state.
 
Karel Čapek passed away in 1938, one year after the publication of this play. A few months later, his motherland, Czechoslovakia, ceased to exist after German occupation. In this context, the white disease could also be construed as a metaphor for fascism.

 

(Written by ABE Kenichi, Associate Professor, Graduate School of Humanities and Sociology / 2021)