RO Kishun was born on February 2, 1893 in Ongjin County, Hwanghae Province of Joseon Korea. He graduated from the Medical Training Center, a campus associated with the Joseon Government-General Hospital, in 1915, and from Kyushu Imperial University School of Medicine in 1917. He continued his medical study at the university in 1929, majoring in biochemistry, and earned a doctorate in medicine in 1932. Dr. RO, one of the earliest pioneers in Korean biochemistry, was active in his research, publishing four studies in the Japanese Journal of Biochemistry between 1931 and 1932. After returning from Japan in 1932, Dr. RO opened a medical practice in Mokpo and Busan, port cities situated on the southern tip of Korea. Later in 1936, he moved north to Manchuria (northeast China) to practice medicine at the International Hospital in Mukden (present-day Shenyang). He also served as president of Tumen Public Hospital between 1942 and 1946. When Japan signed unconditional surrender bringing World War II to an end, Dr. RO relocated to Yanbian and began providing medical training to ethnic Koreans. In October 1946, he was appointed dean of the First Branch School of China Medical University in Longjing, and in October 1948 the first dean of Yanbian Medical School, the predecessor of Yanbian University College of Medicine. Dr. RO dedicated his life to medical practice, teaching and training students, and mentoring younger faculty. A brilliant clinician, he also inspired and helped his colleagues with his outstanding ability to diagnose and treat patients. He was one of the founding members of Yanbian University College of Medicine. RO Kishun died on June 7, 1957 at age 64. Ethnic Koreans hailed him as Sinui (literally, the physician of God), and a bronze statue of himself was erected in front of the medical college in 1988. Dr. RO's life brings modern historians' attention to the issue of determining geographical territories and nationality, in that his life unfolded at the borderlands or frontiers of Joseon Korea, China, and Japan, where the history of the three nations met and intermingled with one another. He was a biochemist and researcher, practicing physician and medical professor of the era under Japanese Rule and the one following it. In modern Korean medicine, his life is viewed as a history of the borders, or a transnational legacy going beyond individual history of Korea, China, and Japan.
Biochemistry/*history ; Clinical Medicine/history ; Education, Medical/*history ; History, 20th Century ; Hospitals, Public/history ; Humans ; Korea ; Universities/history

Koreans had an ill feeling against the only public isolation hospital, and their ill feeling was a cause the movement for establishing a private isolation hospital. The bad seating capacity and the nearness to downtown of public isolation hospital, and some violence caused in the course of taking a patient to the public isolation hospital were concrete causes of the movement for establishing a private isolation hospital. The three purposes of the movement for establishing a private isolation hospital are as follows. First, for the purpose of removing the national ill feeling, Koreans had to establish the isolation hospital by themselves. Second, for the purpose of curing the patients, doctors needed to use Oriental medicine together. Third, for the purpose of doing away with the anxiety of infection, the isolation hospital had to be located in a distant place from downtown. The movement for establishing a private isolation hospital didn't succeed. It only ended up establishing a contagious ward in Severance hospital. Because whenever an isolation hospital was planned to be constructed somehere, the residents worrying about the infection opposed to the construction, and enough money didn't be gathered. Abve all, rich pro-Japanese men didn't contribute enough money. The middle and lower classes contributed almost all of the money. The movement for estabishing a private isolation hospital was the extension of anti-Japanese national feeling that sprung from the March 1st movement. In view of strenghtening Korean ability, the movement for establishing a private isolation hospital had a common cause with the Shilryokyangsong movement in the early 1920s.
Cholera/*history ; Colonialism/*history ; Communicable Diseases/*history ; English Abstract ; History of Medicine, 20th Cent. ; Hospitals, Public/*history ; Hospitals, Special/*history ; Human ; Japan ; Korea ; Patient Isolation/*history ; Politics

Modern hospital in Korea was the space of competition and compromise among different forces such as the state power and social forces, imperialism and nationalism, and the traditional and the modern medicine. Hospital in the Japanese colonialism was the object of control for establishing the colonial medical system. Japanese colonialism controlled not only the public hospital but also the private hospital which had to possess more than 10 infectious beds in the isolation building by the Controlling Regulation of Private Hospital. In fact, the private hospital had to possess more than 20 beds for hospital management. As a result, its regulation prevented the independent development of the private hospital. But because the public hospital could not accommodate many graduates of medical school, most of them had to serve as a practitioner. Although some practitioners had more than 20 beds in their clinics, they were not officially included in the imperial medicine. By concentrating on the trend of the number of bed in the hospital, this paper differs from most previous studies of the system of hospital, which have argued that the system of hospital was converted the public-centered hospital system under the colonial medical system into the private-centered hospital system under the U. S. medical system after the Liberation in 1945. After Liberation, medical reformers discussed arranging the public and the private hospital. Lee Yong-seol, who was a Health-Welfare minister, disagreed the introduction of the system of state medicine. Worrying about the flooding of practitioners, he did not want to intervene the construction of hospital by state power. Because the private hospital run short of the medical leadership and the fundamental basis, the state still controlled the main disease in the public health and the prevention of epidemics. This means the state also played important part in the general medical examination and treatment. The outbreak of Korean War in 1950 reinforced the role of state. The leadership of the public hospital verified the trend of the quantity of bed. The number of bed in the private hospital exceeded that of the public hospital in 1966 for the first time. Furthermore, the number of bed in the public hospital doubled that of private hospital in the new general hospital of 1950s. This means the system of hospital after the Liberation was not converted the public-centered hospital system into the private-centered hospital system, but maintained the public-centered hospital system until 1960s.
Colonialism/*history ; English Abstract ; History of Medicine, 20th Cent. ; History of Medicine, 21st Cent. ; Hospitals, Public/*history ; Hospitals, Voluntary/*history ; Japan ; Korea ; United States ; War/*history

Dr. Allen, the first Protestant missionary in Korea, had an opportunity of saving the life of the queen's nephew shortly after his arrival in Korea in 1884. In gratitude the King established the Royal Korean Hospital (Jejoong Won), the first hospital in Korea, and appointed Dr. Allen in charge of the medical affairs of the hospital. After Dr. Allen's resignation from the mission, the work was successively carried on by Drs. JW Heron, RA Hardie, CC Vinton and OR Avison, the last of whom arrived in 1893. In 1894 the connection of the Hospital with the Korean Government was severed and the work taken over by the Northern Presbyterian Mission. Since then, it has been a distinctly mission institute. In 1900, while attending the Ecumenical Conference of Foreign Missions in Carnegie Hall, New York, Dr. Avison made the acquaintance of a philanthropist LH Severance, who made a gift of $10,000 for a new hospital. This building, the first modern hospital in Korea, was opened and dedicated in 1904. It was named the Severance Hospital. As the new hospital was built, the old hospital building was to be returned to the Korean Government according to the agreement made in 1894. On retaking the old hospital, the Korean Government paid $30,289.99 won for the renovation of the original building and new buildings established in the site during the period of Avison's entire charge of Jejoong Won. The old hospital building was used as an official residence for a diplomatic adviser Stevens, who was assassinated for his pro-Japan activities, and as a social club for Japanese officials.
Christianity/*history ; English Abstract ; History of Medicine, 19th Cent. ; History of Medicine, 20th Cent. ; Hospitals, Public/*history ; Hospitals, Religious/*history ; Korea ; Missions and Missionaries/*history ; United States

This article explores the location, size of the site, and medical activities of the Gurhigae Jejoongwon. Relevant documents such as reminiscences, diplomatic notes, newspaper accounts, maps, and photographs were referred for this study. The Gurhigae Jejoongwon located on a hill that, at present, covers the area from Ulchi-ro to MyungDong Cathedral. Its main entrance was towards Ulchi-ro. Real estate including the buildings of the Gurhigae Jejoongwon was returned to the Chosun government in 1905, and the estimated size of its site varied from 1,810 pyung to 5,036 pyung. The site of the Gurhigae Jejoongwon was 2 - 5 times larger than the 862.16-pyung-site of the Jejoongwon in its Jaedong days. With such larger size, the Jejoongwon could take care of more patients. Dr. Avison started medical education again. The Gurhigae Jejoongwon took the central part in medical treatment activities for public in Seoul, as it carried out the prevention activities against Cholera in 1895. The Chosun government highly recognized its medical treatment activities for the common people.
English Abstract ; History of Medicine, 19th Cent. ; History of Medicine, 20th Cent. ; Hospitals, Religious/*history ; Korea ; Missions and Missionaries/*history ; Public Health Administration/*history ; United States

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to define the experience of nursing education in the Jinju area of Gyeongsang-Namdo from the 1940s to 1960s. METHODS: An oral history study was done using personal interviews with 8 nurses who graduated in nursing in Gyeong Nam area during the period under study. RESULTS: In this study, the individual's educational background before entering the nursing school, school life, and life as a nurse after graduating from nursing school were defined. CONCLUSION: For most of the respondents, their educational background before entering nursing school was middle school. They studied very hard in poor surroundings. After graduation from a nursing school, they worked in hospitals, public health centers, midwifery centers, and schools. Half of the respondents had experience as a midwife. Their income as a midwife was relatively high at that time. They all had positive identities and lived a life devoted to the individual, society, and the nation.
Surveys and Questionnaires ; Education, Nursing ; History of Nursing ; Hospitals, Public ; Humans ; Midwifery ; Schools, Nursing