가려진 의생단체의 모습 ― 일제시기 동서의학연구회를 다시 보다 ―

Abstract

Research Society of The East and West Medicine(RSEWM) was a leading organization of Korean Medicine Physicians which was established in November 1917, and had existed until the 1940s. In particular, in the 1920s, this association established regional branches not onlyin the Korean Peninsulabut also in Bukgando,and was a nationwide organization with more than 3,000 members. In the 1920s, when Korean medicine was politically marginalized, in order to strengthen the position of Korean medicine physicians,RSEWM launched a lot of activitiesasfollowing:publishingmonthlymagazines,conductingre-education,establishing Korean Medicine Education Institution, and operating charities and so on. In the 1930s, Korean medicine, especially traditional Korean herbal medicine had began attracting social and political interests, RSEWM tried its best to be the authority of Korean medicine knowledge, by frequently sending lecturers to various occasions. RSEWM had existed for almost 20 years, and had a considerable impact on the survival of Korean medicine throughout the Japanese colonial period. However, as this article argued, RSEWM kept a close relationship with the colonial authority from the beginning of the era. This tight relationship between RSEWM and the colonial authority revealed not only in the aspect of the human resource placement in organizing RSEWM, and also in its path dependence and the orientation. Furthermore RSEWM absorbed the Western medicine positively, and tried its best to enter into the hygiene system which was led by the colonial authority. During the Japanese colonial period, medical hygiene system was implemented by Western medicine side only. Under such circumstance, For RSEWM, Entering into the hygiene system means inevitably compromising and cooperating with the colonial authority. In previous studies, especially has been conducted by scholars of Korean Medicine, Korean medicine was regarded as the national medicine, which implies the meaning of anti-Japanese. However we could find out that it’s not the historical truth. In other words, during the Japanese colonial period, Korean Medicine played the role of people’s medicine, not national medicine. In addition, as the internal dispute lasting from October 1924 to January 1926 depicts, among Korean medicine physicians, there the conflicts did existed, which were mainly caused by other reasons rather than differences of academic views. On this point, studies of this topic are expected to proceed further.