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KMID : 0857920100130010041
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Yonsei Journal of Medical History
2010 Volume.13 No. 1 p.41 ~ p.49
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Why Drs. Kim Taik-Won and Kil Chung-Hee who were responsible for the foundation of Keijo Women’s Medical College are excluded from actual course to establish the College?
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Baik Woon-Kee
Kim Sang-Duk
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Abstract
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Chosun (a.k.a. Keijo) Women``s Medical Training Institute was founded in 1928 as a joint effort between an American missionary physician named Dr. Rosetta Sherwood Hall and one of Korea’s first female physicians, Dr. Kil Chung-Hee. In 1932, in anticipation of her retirement, Dr. Hall transferred full responsibility for the Institute to Dr. Kil and her husband Dr. Kim Taik-Won, a neuropsychiatrist. Unfortunately, following Dr. Hall``s departure to America in 1933, funding from Dr. Hall’s missionary society was discontinued. This prompted an evacuation of the Institute’s lecture halls and teaching laboratories. As a result of this change in finances, the Institute’s operations were transported to, and maintained exclusively at, Drs. Kim and Kil``s private residence. During this interim period, the institute was sustained financially by this husband and wife team. In addition to these new found financial difficulties, there were ongoing political hardships. In an effort to alleviate these various difficulties, the couple decided to pursue the task of upgrading the Institute to a standard medical college. As a first step toward this goal, in 1934, the couple established a foundation for the “creation of a women``s medical college”. This undertaking (i.e., the creation of a medical college) required a large amount of funding. Therefore, the couple became actively engaged in the solicitation of funding for this purpose. In 1937, an education philanthropist named Mr. Kim Chong-Ik agreed to donate substantial funds for the purpose of establishing the women’s medical college. As fate would have it, however, / 49 he unexpectedly contracted dysentery and died suddenly. The application for the creation of a women``s medical college was filed and approved in 1938 by the Japanese Governor-General. Thus, the first class of students in the newly created medical college was enrolled on May 1, 1938. Curiously, however, neither Dr. Kim nor Dr. Kil was named in the charter. Although one could presuppose various reasons to explain how this omission occurred, there is one undeniable aspect of history that makes clear and cogent sense in this regard. It is now known that Dr. Kim was a leading activist for Korean independence from Japan during the 1920’s and 1930’s. He was regarded as an agitator by the Japanese occupation government and viewed as an undesirable, rebellious, anti-Japanese element. The South Korean government, in recognition of his heroic deeds during that period of Japanese occupation, posthumously awarded the Ae-Jok Jan(humanitarian award) to Dr. Kim Taik-Won on August 15, 2007. On July 4, 2008, his remains were subsequently transferred, along with his professional partner and wife Dr. Kil Chung-Hee, to the Korean National Cemetery in Daejon, South Korea. If one considers the political climate that existed in Korea in the late 1930’s under Japanese occupation, it stands to reason that any medical college application that included an anti-Japanese activist such as Kim Taik-Won would be doomed to fail. I believe that the absence of Drs. Kim Taik-Won and Kil Chung-Hee’s names from the medical college charter was a rational, politically motivated act of omission.
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KEYWORD
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Kim Taik-Won, Kil Chung-Hee, Women`s Medical Training Institute, Keijo Women`s Medical College
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