The Work of Sherwood Hall and the Haiju Tuberculosis Sanatorium in Colonial Korea

Abstract

Sherwood Hall established a tuberculosis sanatorium in 1928 in Haeju, Hwanghaedo Province. While founding Haiju Sanatorium, he had to overcome a couple of problems. Firstly, foreign missions could not afford a sanatorium. The Methodist mission that dispatched Hall initially expressed a negative response to his endeavors. Ms. Verburg’s bequest finally enabled Hall to build a sanatorium. The next obstacle was the objections of neighbors. To overcome opposition, Hall called the sanatorium a School of Hygiene for the Tuberculosis. Finding staffs, nurses in particular, was another problem. Hall stressed that, with precautionary measures, there was relatively little risk. Hall tried to furnish the sanatorium with the most modern facilities and make the sanatorium a place where the public was taught to fight against tuberculosis. Furthermore, Hall built a model farm in conjunction with the sanatorium. The farm would work not only as a stock farm for providing milk and meat but also as a field for occupational therapy. In 1932, in order to secure funding for the expansion of the sanatorium, Hall published the first Christmas seals in Korea, using the sale as an opportunity to organize a civil movement. The relationship of the Haiju Sanatorium with the colonial power wasvery amicable. Hall was able to establish the sanatorium through thegenerous co-operation of the colonial government. To the colonial power,the establishment of a tuberculosis sanatorium would mean a lesseningof the suffering and death rate from tuberculosis. However, the situationchanged in the early 1930s. The colonial power ruled out one of itspotentially greatest allies, the missionary power. When the Associationfor Tuberculosis Prevention of Hwanghaedo Province was established,Hall was appointed to none of the major positions. Medical missionariescould be a threat to the colonial power, which wanted to lead the antituberculosismovement. In 1940, Hall was expelled from Korea, beingallegedly accused as a spy of America.