Midzuno-1 shows up in letters to the British Minister to Japan from 1985 to 1900, Satow:

Japan had taken the Island of Taiwan according to Wikipedia, in 1895: " Arriving in Taiwan, the new Japanese colonial government gave inhabitants two years to choose whether to accept their new status as Japanese subjects, or leave Taiwan.[8]."

These letters are the private correspondance of the British Minister to Japan from 1985 to 1900.






"pest" - this refers to Yersinia pestis, the bubonic plague. It had begun in Taiwan in 1864, allegedly. The "third wave" of Bubonic Plague was this one. The second wave was the Black death in 1738, the first the Justinian Plague before that.

These letters are April 1897. A vaccine for bubonic plague had just been invented by a Russian.

Oh by the way "Kenny is sick". Doesn't say with what.







"my arm is nearly well now"

Oh? His arm was sick?

This reads like a spy novel.

"I got the bugs, arrangements have been made, here's the $1000 you need".

"pest has broken out, kenny is sick"

"kenny: vaccination worked I'm fine.".

One curious thing, why would the British Minister to Japan say "$1000" ?

What would dollars have to do with it?

Was this how the British helped get the Chinese out out of Taiwan?

The odd thing is, looking at the history of it, after the great plague of 1738 there is only one paper, that suggests it still persisted in China.

Other than that, from 1899 on it infects one contry a year,"our enemies" apparantly.

It takes a break during WWI. Then back at it. Another break in WWII then our enemies are different so Iran gets it.

From 1947 to 1994, nothing. Then:

India, 1994 - The country experiences a large outbreak of pneumonic plague after 30 years with no reports of the disease. 693 suspected bubonic or pneumonic plague cases are reported.[6][31]

Algeria 2003 - An outbreak of plague is reported in Algeria, in an area considered plague-free for 50 years.[6]

DRC 2006 Epidemic 100 cases of suspected pneumonic plague, including 19 deaths, are reported in Orientale Province, Congo.[32]

USA 2009 13 cases, with two deaths, are reported in the states of New Mexico, Colorado, California, and Texas.[10]

Libya 2009 - Plague is reported in Libya, after 25 years without a case of the disease.[6]

2013 Infection A case of bubonic plague is reported in a region of Kyrgyzstan bordering Kazakhstan.[6] Kyrgyzstan

Iran 2013 - 783 cases of plague are reported worldwide in 2013, including 126 deaths

"Researchers at Duke University School of Medicine and Duke-NUS Medical School Singapore find the yersinia pestis bacteria to hitchhike on immune cells in the lymph nodes and eventually ride into the lungs and the blood stream, thus spreading bubonic plague effectively to others."

Ok sure, but surely that's subject to limitations of human lifespan.

No outbreak in 50 years and suddenly one pops up? A kid got it at 15, and passed it on at 65? Really?

The say the victors get to write history. Some of it is rather inexplicable.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_plague