Beriberi is a disease caused by insufficiency vitamin B1 in the body which, if untreated, can cause death. It was the disease with the highest incidence in the Japanese army during the Meiji and Taisho Periods. It was treated with a variety of therapeutic treatments by the Navy and the Army respectively, based on the different therapy systems of Britain and Germany at the time, with an argument about these treatments lasting more than half a century. Eventually, the Navy experimented with dietary modification for beriberi, according to Takagi Kanehiro, successfully reducing beriberi incidence to zero. This rewrote the epidemic history of beriberi in the Japanese Navy.
脚气病（beriberi）是由于人体维生素B1不足或缺乏所引起的一种疾病，曾是明治、大正时期日本军队内发病率最高的疾病，造成了大量伤亡。围绕军内脚气病的防治，分别学习英国、德国医疗体制的日本海军、陆军走上了各自抗击脚气病的历程，并进行了长达半个世纪的相互质疑与争辩。最终，海军在高木兼宽的坚持下进行了饮食改良试验，成功实现了军内脚气病的零发病，改写了日本海军脚气病流行的病史。.