미국 남장로교 한국선교회의 목포 지역 의료 선교와 프렌치병원의 역할(1892~1940)

Abstract

The French Memorial Hospital was one of the medical mission institutions established by the Korea Mission of Southern Presbyterian Church of the United States (KMSP), beginning as the Mokpo Dispensary in July 1899 and serving as a key base for early medical mission work in the Jeonnam region. However, its significance gradually diminished after the establishment of the Gwangju Dispensary in 1905. In particular, between 1919 and 1923, the absence of missionary medical personnel, followed by the mission board’s suspension of funding for the Executive Committee of Foreign Missions in 1931 due to budget constraints, severely impacted the hospital’s operations. As a result, the French Memorial Hospital recorded the lowest number of medical consultations among the five Southern Presbyterian mission hospitals in the region. This underscores how the capacity and tenure of individual missionaries, along with the strategic direction of the Korean mission board, had a decisive influence on the sustainability and operation of mission hospitals. Furthermore, competition over personnel and funding among the mission stations and the hierarchical distribution of authority within the KMSP network also played a significant role in determining the hospital’s status and longevity. The operation of the French Memorial Hospital can be divided into four distinct phases: the initial establishment period (1898–1912), the expansion and development period (1912–1918), the period of operational decline (1919–1931), and the period of Korean physician-led administration (1932–1939). The French Memorial Hospital experienced four major operational crises. The first occurred between 1905 and 1906, when Mokpo Station temporarily ceased operations, resulting in the closure of the hospital’s predecessor, Mokpo Dispensary. The second crisis took place from 1919 to 1923, when the dispatch of medical missionaries was delayed, causing a suspension in hospital operations. The third was in 1914, when a fire completely destroyed the hospital. Fortunately, with a donation from the Charles W. French, a new two-story stone-built hospital was constructed and reopened in 1916. The fourth crisis arose in 1931, during the Great Depression, when the mission board significantly reduced its overseas mission budget and halted the dispatch of medical missionaries. After this point, only nursing missionaries were sent to the French Memorial Hospital, and its operations were entirely overseen by Korean physicians until 1940. Thus, the hospital’s performance varied noticeably depending on the presence and capabilities of the medical missionaries stationed in Mokpo. In particular, during Roy Samuel Leaningham’s tenure from 1912 to 1918, the hospital achieved its highest levels of medical service and missionary activity. Although the period from 1914 to 1916 coincided with the hospital’s reconstruction following the fire, Leadingham’s dedication and efforts enabled a rapid recovery of operations. Despite difficult circumstances and persistent financial constraints, Leadingham and other medical missionaries devoted themselves to providing care and service to local residents, striving to keep the hospital running. These circumstances clearly demonstrate that the operation of the French Memorial Hospital relied heavily on the religious calling and personal commitment of individual missionaries, who functioned as the essential driving force behind the hospital’s continued existence. The social role and status of the French Memorial Hospital can be understood in terms of its contribution to the hierarchical and spatial expansion of Western medicine in Mokpo and its surrounding island regions. After Mokpo was opened to foreign trade in October 1897, a modern medical system led by Japanese authorities was introduced, leading to the establishment of several Western-style hospitals. However, these developments also resulted in stark disparities in access to medical care and sanitation between Koreans and Japanese residents. In particular, the Western-style hospitals operated by the Japanese were primarily located in Japanese residential areas, and their primary patients were Japanese. These public and private institutions exhibited not only ethnic discrimination against Koreans, but also strong class-based exclusivity toward the lower classes. In contrast, the French Memorial Hospital was located within the Korean residential area and provided free or low-cost medical care to the impoverished. Despite facing persistent financial difficulties, the hospital expanded its services to the lower classes in line with its religious mission of “saving souls through healing.” Furthermore, it extended its reach to underserved island communities with little medical infrastructure, thereby supplementing gaps in public healthcare provision. In this context, the French Memorial Hospital can be seen as an alternative medical space within the highly unequal colonial healthcare environment marked by ethnic and class divisions. Its activities went beyond the realm of missionary medicine and can be interpreted as practical efforts to realize the publicness and accessibility of healthcare in relation to the local community.