Picture KITLV collection (2732) of the Bodjong hospital in 1902

The military hospital Bodjong at Semarang was mentioned by D. Schoute in his publication: “De Geneeskundige Dienst in Nederlandsch Indie in de 19e eeuw”, GTNI 75 (1935) 10, 826. The hospital was one of the 3 large military hospitals on Java (Batavia, Surabaya and Semarang). The hospital was part of the Military Medical Service (MGD), which in 1867 (the year of the survey of all military facilities) managed a total of 79 facilities (3 large military hospitals, 35 garrison hospitals and 41 infirmaries) with on average 4,244 occupied beds. In 1867 the average number of inpatients was 424. Some 25 years later the Koloniaal Verslag published with Addendum D, the figures for the year 1890. The Semarang hospital admitted in that year 1,884 Europeans and 1,110 indigenous patients and had by the end of that year 129 Europeans and 61 indigenous patients staying. The Koloniaal Verslag 1920 mentions the building of a new military establishment in the hills of Djatingaleh near Semarang. At the end of 1919 the 5th Batallion Infantery removed to this new encampment. At the same time a start was made with the building of a new military hospital at that spot, together with housing facilities. W. van der Veer mentions that the hospital at Semarang was converted to an infirmary due to the policy of economizing during the years of crisis  (“De militaire geneeskundige dienst van 1911-1935”, GTNI 76 (1936) 224).

Semarang was in the 1930s a Residency in the province of Central Java with a capital city with the same name. It has a municipal council and a mayor and the number of inhabitants is 218,000, of whom almost 12,600 Europeans and 27,500 Chinese(Gonggryp 1934, 1287).