Rockefeller Foundation and Medical Studies in Korea and Taiwan under the Japanese Rule

2019 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 17K01189
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Sociology/History of science and technology
• Research Institution: International Research Center for Japanese Studies
• Principal Investigator: Matsuda Toshihiko 国際日本文化研究センター, 研究部, 教授 (50252408)
• Project Period (FY): 2017-04-01 – 2020-03-31
• Keywords: ロックフェラー財団 / 志賀潔 / 金昌世 / 水島治夫 / 京城帝国大学 / 公衆衛生学

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Public health as an academic discipline was introduced into colonial Korea from the 1920s to the 1930s mainly by three medical researchers.The starting point was Kim Changsei, who established a course in Public Health in Severance Medical School. Shiga Kiyoshi, a famous bacteriologist who came to know Kim, expanded his idea to establish Medical School in Keijo Imperial University as a base for public health in Korea with the financial assistance of the Rockefeller Foundation. His idea was realized when he sent Mizushima Haruo, a young public health researcher of Keijo Imperial University to Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health.
However, even if Korean and Japanese medical scientists tried to share the knowledge of public health based on American-style medical science, the genealogy of public health in Keijo Imperial University was not inherited by Koreans after liberation, which offers a stark contrast to post-war Japan.

Free Research Field

植民地朝鮮研究、医学史

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

日本と朝鮮における近代的学問の形成過程は複雑に絡みあっており、日韓の医学史の議論も今なおかみ合っていない。
本研究は、日本統治下の朝鮮において、朝鮮人・日本人医学者がともにアメリカ医学の導入を構想してロックフェラー財団に援助を求めた事実を発掘し、その歴史的意味を考察した。これを通じて、植民地朝鮮の近代医学の形成において、日本からの影響のみならずアメリカの影響をも考慮すべきこと、しかし同時に、植民地の「学知」の世界においては民族的対立構造が厳存しており、戦後における学知の遺産の問題とも関わっていることを明らかにした。