[Physical anthropology studies at Keijo Imperial University Medical School].

PubMed

Kim, Ock-Joo

2008-12-01

Medical research during the Japanese Colonial Period became systematic and active after the Keijo Imperial University Medical School was established in 1926. Various kinds of research were conducted there including pharmacological, physiological, pathological and parasitological research. The Keijo Imperial University was give a mission to study about Korea. Urgent topics for medical research included control of infectious diseases, hygiene and environmental health that might have affected colonizing bodies of the Japanese as well as the colonized. The bodies of Koreans had been studied by Japanese even before the establishment of the University. The Keijo Imperial University research team, however, organized several field studies for physical anthropology and blood typing research at the national scale to get representative sampling of the people from its north to its south of the Korean peninsula. In the filed, they relied upon the local police and administrative power to gather reluctant women and men to measure them in a great detail. The physical anthropology and blood typing research by the Japanese researchers was related to their eagerness to place Korean people in the geography of the races in the world. Using racial index R.I.(= (A%+AB%)/(B%+AB%)), the Japanese researchers put Koreans as a race between the Mongolian and the Japanese. The preoccupation with constitution and race also pervasively affected the medical practice: race (Japanese, Korean, or Japanese living in Korea) must be written in every kind of medical chart as a default. After the breakout of Chinese-Japanese War in 1937, the Keijo Imperial University researchers extended its physical anthropology field study to Manchuria and China to get data on physics of the people in 1940. The Japanese government and research foundations financially well supported the Keijo Imperial University researchers and the field studies for physical anthropology in Korea, Manchuria and China. The physical

[The introduction of Western psychiatry into Korea (II). Psychiatric education in Korea during the forced Japanese annexation of Korea (1910-1945)].

PubMed

Chung, Wonyong; Lee, Nami; Rhi, Bou-Yong

2006-12-01

In the second report in our series on the historical investigation on the introduction of western psychiatry into Korea, authors deal with the status of psychiatric education during the Japanese forced annexation of Korea. The first lecture on psychiatry in Korea under the title "Mental Diseases" was held in Dae-han-eui-won around 1910. In 1913, the Department of Psychiatry branched off from the Department of Internal Medicine of Chosen-sotoku-fu-iing, the Colonial Governmental Clinic, the successor of Dae-han-eui-won. The chairman, Professor Suiju Sinji; and the Korean assistant Sim Ho-seop administered the psychiatric ward with 35 beds. Since 1913, an Australian missionary psychiatrist, Dr. McLaren began to teach neurology and psychiatry at Severance Union Medical College and established a Department of Psychiatry in 1923. Dr. McLaren was a faithful Christian and open minded toward Oriental religious thought such as in Buddhism and Taoism. He devoted himself to the humanitarian care of mentally ill patients and served there until 1937 when he had to leave the land due to Japanese persecution. His disciple, Dr. Lee Jung Cheol succeeded the chair of the Psychiatric Department of Severance Medical College and served until 1939. In 1916, Keijo (Seoul) Medical College was established and in 1928, Keijo Teikoku Daigaku (Imperial University). From 1929 to 1941, the Department of Neurology and Psychiatry of Keijo Imperial University grew under the chairmanship of Professor Kubo Kioji followed by Professor Watanabe until 1945. Many assistants including a few Koreans were gathered to the Department for training and research. The main textbook used for the psychiatric education for medical students in Korea was on Kraepelinian German Psychiatry translated and edited by Japanese psychiatrists. Lectures and clerkships for Neurology and Psychiatry were allocated generally in the curriculum for senior students for weekly 1-3 hours. Postgraduate professional training for the