경성부립순화병원, 역사적 사실과 그 해석

Abstract

Gyeongseong Municipal Sunhwa Hospital (hereinafter, referred to as Sunhwa Hospital) was the representative hospital for treating infectious disease that isolated and treated infectious cases in colonial Joseon. Sunhwa Hospital was established in the location of existing isolation hospital of Joseon at the instigation of the Residency-General after the cholera which prevailed in 1909, and it opened with the name, Sunhwaweon, in August 1911. Later, the hospital building was extended twice during Japanese colonial period in 1933 and 1936 due to the rapid increase of infectious cases. Sunhwa Hospital maintained its hospital functions and also its building even after the fall of the Japanese Empire in 1945. However, the name changed to Seoul Municipal Sunhwa Hospital in 1946 and again to Seoul Municipal Jungbu Hospital in 1959. Sunhwa Hospital maintained its original function it had during Japanese colonial period as the hospital for treating infectious disease until it closed down completely due to the closure of the building in 1977 although it continuously underwent trivial changes for its name, function, organization, and scale after the 1945 Liberation of Korea. This study examined the most basic aspects of the hospital such as the location and name by focusing on Sunhwa Hospital itself based on the results of preceding studies, and also summarized the historical flow from the establishment to the closure of the hospital centering on newspaper articles at the time. After that, it examined various views on Sunhwa Hospital and considered how the medical institutes that Japanese imperialists established in Korea during the colonial period should be perceived and assessed in today’s viewpoint. In conclusion, it is possible to partially acknowledge the continuity between the Gyeongseong Municipal Sunhwa Hospital that the Japanese imperialists established in Gyeongseong and Seoul Municipal Sunhwa Hospital that the Republic of Korea government established in Seoul and study it academically. However, it would be a nonsense if the descendants of the colonists celebrated and congratulated the hospital that the colonial rulers of the past established solely based on the reason that Gyeongseong Municipal Sunhwa Hospital is the predecessor of Seoul Municipal Sunhwa Hospital. This applies to not only Sunhwa Hospital but also other medical institutes established during Japanese colonial period.