Poster from the Japanese Minister of Interior.

This public health awareness poster was created and distributed by the Japanese Ministry of Interior to promote the use of masks and face coverings to inhibit the spread of the Spanish Flu in 1919. This illustration is accessible through its easily interpreted depiction of the red specks as the virus surrounding the infected person without a mask. Those wearing the masks remain unaffected by the Spanish Flu (the red specks). During the epidemic, Japan experienced similar death rates to Europe and North America with an estimated 350,000 deaths during the Fall Wave (Patterson & Pyle 1991, 17).

Japanese Ministry of Interior

1920

Print poster

Japanese

Japanese Ministry of Interior

Public domain

Wikimedia Commons