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KMID : 0857920210240010007
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Yonsei Journal of Medical History
2021 Volume.24 No. 1 p.7 ~ p.38
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Medical Support Research During the Korean War: Centered on the Activities of the 8th Army Mobile Surgical Hospital
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Han Bong-Seok
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Abstract
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During the Korean War, medical support flooded from various countries and agencies, including the United States. However, this form of medical support was often summarized in the overall support of important participating countries, or its impact was assessed only in a few known cases. Thus, in the development of Korean medical history, the history of the 1950s and the implications of war were often not considered. In this paper, we would like to examine the medical support provided by the 8th U.S. Army during the Korean War?the military doctors, the composition and function of medical personnel, and the Mobile Army Surgical Hospital (MASH).
First, during the Korean War, the U.S. military did not have enough military doctors to send to Korea. Therefore, the U.S. military recruited more civilian doctors from the US mainland, and by the late 1950s, it was able to secure enough of them. The 8th Army had also continued its research on preventive medicine, veterinary medicine, and dentistry after the war, based mainly on its experience in mainland Japan. It was in the late 1950s, during the Korean War, that medical support by the 8th Army began in earnest.
Second, surgical hospitals, evacuation hospitals, and troops supporting evacuation were at the heart of the 8th Army's military operation. However, other fields, such as veterinary medicine, dentistry, preventive medicine, ophthalmology, orthopedics, and psychiatry, were also connected. However, the medical support of the 8th U.S. Army was provided mainly for combatants, and the recipients were differentiated in the order of Americans, North Korean POWs, and Koreans.
Third, the existence of MASH had a huge impact on the Korean medical community. Designed during World War II, the Mobile Surgical Hospital, which was put into full swing during the Korean War, was a place to visually witness the advanced medical care of the United States at that time. It was well known throughout the divisions and roles of mobile surgery hospitals that various advanced technologies for neurosurgery, anesthesia, psychiatry, and blood transfusions were utilized.
However, this does not reveal the full extent of medical assistance under the U.S. military. International organizations, including United Nations Korean Reconstruction Agency (UNKRA), paid more attention to the "post-traumatic syndrome" of soldiers under treatment and paid more attention to rehabilitation medicine. Therefore, the nature of medical support during the Korean War will be more detailed and divided by subject and context, which can, then, be analyzed. In addition, with the participation of various subjects, including foreign private aid organizations, the contents and effects of medical support during the Korean War can be discussed in more detail.
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KEYWORD
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the 8th U.S. Army, M.A.S.H.(mobile army surgical hospitals), veterinary medicine, neuro-surgical cases, medical assistance
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