Colonial Research on Public Hygiene and its Postcolonial Legacy: Focusing on Hygiene Laboratory in Colonial Korea
Previous studies on the history of Korean public health have shown that the public hygiene system in Korea under Japan’s colonial rule relied heavily on the sanitary police, whose lack of expertise in hygiene reinforced the coercion and violence of the colonial public hygiene system. This view, howe...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Korean Society for the History of Medicine
2022-08-01
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| Series: | Uisahak |
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| Online Access: | http://www.medhist.or.kr/upload/pdf/kjmh-31-2-429.pdf |
| _version_ | 1828116643198271488 |
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| author | Ji-young PARK |
| author_facet | Ji-young PARK |
| author_sort | Ji-young PARK |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Previous studies on the history of Korean public health have shown that the public hygiene system in Korea under Japan’s colonial rule relied heavily on the sanitary police, whose lack of expertise in hygiene reinforced the coercion and violence of the colonial public hygiene system. This view, however, has overlooked the existence and function of scientific knowledge, which underpinned the formulation and implementation of public hygiene policies. This paper explores the knowledge production in public hygiene by research institutes of Japan’s colonial government in Korea, drawing on the Hygiene Laboratory as a case. The Hygiene Laboratory chiefly played three roles: first, providing advice on the sanitary police’s crackdowns; second, quality inspection of food, beverage, and pharmaceuticals, and authorizing their production and distribution; third, investigating health resources such as conventional food ingredients, medicinal herbs, and drinking water to support the wartime public health policy of the colonial government in Korea. The third function in particular continued after the reorganization of the Hygiene Laboratory as the National Chemistry Laboratory in the postcolonial period. By tracing the Hygiene Laboratory’s research activities, this paper highlights the complicated cooperation between expertise, practices, and institutions in the field of sanitation control in colonial Korea. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-11T13:01:19Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-22904d4680c64492a5a5686871a2f363 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1225-505X 2093-5609 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-11T13:01:19Z |
| publishDate | 2022-08-01 |
| publisher | Korean Society for the History of Medicine |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Uisahak |
| spelling | doaj.art-22904d4680c64492a5a5686871a2f3632022-12-22T04:22:56ZengKorean Society for the History of MedicineUisahak1225-505X2093-56092022-08-0131242946610.13081/kjmh.2022.31.4292420Colonial Research on Public Hygiene and its Postcolonial Legacy: Focusing on Hygiene Laboratory in Colonial KoreaJi-young PARK0Assistant Professor, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences in Medicine, College of Medicine, Inje UniversityPrevious studies on the history of Korean public health have shown that the public hygiene system in Korea under Japan’s colonial rule relied heavily on the sanitary police, whose lack of expertise in hygiene reinforced the coercion and violence of the colonial public hygiene system. This view, however, has overlooked the existence and function of scientific knowledge, which underpinned the formulation and implementation of public hygiene policies. This paper explores the knowledge production in public hygiene by research institutes of Japan’s colonial government in Korea, drawing on the Hygiene Laboratory as a case. The Hygiene Laboratory chiefly played three roles: first, providing advice on the sanitary police’s crackdowns; second, quality inspection of food, beverage, and pharmaceuticals, and authorizing their production and distribution; third, investigating health resources such as conventional food ingredients, medicinal herbs, and drinking water to support the wartime public health policy of the colonial government in Korea. The third function in particular continued after the reorganization of the Hygiene Laboratory as the National Chemistry Laboratory in the postcolonial period. By tracing the Hygiene Laboratory’s research activities, this paper highlights the complicated cooperation between expertise, practices, and institutions in the field of sanitation control in colonial Korea.http://www.medhist.or.kr/upload/pdf/kjmh-31-2-429.pdfhygiene laboratorypublic hygienesanitary policecolonial legacycontinuitynational chemistry laboratory |
| spellingShingle | Ji-young PARK Colonial Research on Public Hygiene and its Postcolonial Legacy: Focusing on Hygiene Laboratory in Colonial Korea Uisahak hygiene laboratory public hygiene sanitary police colonial legacy continuity national chemistry laboratory |
| title | Colonial Research on Public Hygiene and its Postcolonial Legacy: Focusing on Hygiene Laboratory in Colonial Korea |
| title_full | Colonial Research on Public Hygiene and its Postcolonial Legacy: Focusing on Hygiene Laboratory in Colonial Korea |
| title_fullStr | Colonial Research on Public Hygiene and its Postcolonial Legacy: Focusing on Hygiene Laboratory in Colonial Korea |
| title_full_unstemmed | Colonial Research on Public Hygiene and its Postcolonial Legacy: Focusing on Hygiene Laboratory in Colonial Korea |
| title_short | Colonial Research on Public Hygiene and its Postcolonial Legacy: Focusing on Hygiene Laboratory in Colonial Korea |
| title_sort | colonial research on public hygiene and its postcolonial legacy focusing on hygiene laboratory in colonial korea |
| topic | hygiene laboratory public hygiene sanitary police colonial legacy continuity national chemistry laboratory |
| url | http://www.medhist.or.kr/upload/pdf/kjmh-31-2-429.pdf |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT jiyoungpark colonialresearchonpublichygieneanditspostcoloniallegacyfocusingonhygienelaboratoryincolonialkorea |