Taiwan Blackfoot Disease Socio-Medical Service Memorial House

This memorial house in Tainan commemorates Blackfoot disease, an endemic form of arsenicosis that affected tens of thousands of people in Taiwan's rural coastal regions from the 1950s onward. The condition was caused by arsenic-contaminated groundwater drawn from deep wells, leading to severe vascular damage and frequent amputations — giving the disease its vivid name. The site honors the grassroots socio-medical response organized by local physicians and community volunteers, which preceded any formal government intervention by years. For visitors interested in public health history and postwar Taiwan, it offers a rare window into a largely overlooked chapter of 20th-century medicine.