E26050

     The condition of health of today’s children is very bad. Most of those whom I see appear to be unwell and sickly, which is really discouraging. This tendency has been marked especially among those in big cities, but in recent years the same trend has appeared in farming areas, too It was reported the other day that as the result of physical checkups on elementary school children in a village in Nagano Prefecture, eighty-one out of a hundred were found to have symptoms of (be suspected of) tuberculosis. I have occasionally seen similar reports in the papers since then.
     I am sure those who have also read about or observed this must be struck with a feeling of strangeness, because today the progress of medical science has reached countryside, farming villages. The problem is made all the greater because doctors say they do not know the cause of this at all. So, I think I will write about the true cause from the viewpoint of our natural art of healing.
     We cannot think the cause to be anything other than mistaken medical ideas about sanitation and nutrition. I say this because in recent years doctors have looked upon Japanese children as being in the same category as Occidental children and they think it is good to bring them up in the Western style in every way. This is a big mistake, for to tell the truth, Japanese people and Occidental people are intrinsically different. Before, this kind of mistaken method of bringing up children was limited to cities, but recently people are doing the same thing in the country.
     The mistake I speak of is the ignoring of Nature: Many people think lightly of mothers’ milk and give their babies too much cow’s milk; parents are overly-protective of their children—they often give them too much oral medication, or sometimes have them given injection which are not suitable to their conditions. Even though what they do may seem to be in accord with reason, in actuality their actions result in the weakening of the childrens’ bodies.
     The reason for this is that what is good for Occidentals who have lived in that way for generations is not good for Japanese whose ways of living have been so different; the sudden changes are not good, either. For Japanese children the old Japanese way of bringing them up is the most suitable in every area.
     Perhaps you cannot follow this method in every way because of the changes of time; if that is the case, you ay alter the method gradually. We can understand this by looking at the facts. The children of several decades ago, when medical science was still not as advanced as it is today, seem to have been much healthier.
     For your reference, I will now tell you the right way to bring up children. First, mothers-to-be should work up to the time of delivery as closely as possible; they should give their babies their own milk, not cow’s milk unless it is absolutely necessary; they should not be afraid of the children’s catching colds bringing them up as naturally as possible—that is, letting them do what they like, not interfering with them any more than is necessary; they should not let them wear stomach bands; they should be given as little medication as possible.
     In other words, all parents should fully realize the truth that God created a human being in such a way that once that individual is born on the earth plane he or she will grow up as a healthy person. This is made clear by the fact that the more care parents take of their children the weaker they become. In short, you should be careful not to be swayed by the trend of the time, should take into consideration the way your ancestors treated their children and use the more advanced knowledge of the new age method, applying what is actually good and not using what is just theory.
     It is my sincere hope that the specialists as well as the authorities will think abut these points.

“Kodomo o Kenkō ni Suru ni wa,” first published on the front page of Eikō, Issue 95, March 14, 1951, was reprinted in the essays anthology Igaku Kankei Goronbun Shū (Collected Essays on Medical Science) that did enjoy a limited circulation. Igaku Kankei Goronbun Shū contains no publication data, but internal evidence suggests that its editing stopped several months preceding Meishu-sama’s death. Furthermore, since the book lacks publication data, whether the volume had Meishu-sama’s imprimatur or not is unknown, so details concerning this volume are probably impossible to research. “Kodomo o Kenkō ni Suru ni wa” has appeared previously in translation. Citation is given below for reference.