Hyung Nai Song
Hyung Nai Song (Song Hyŏng-nae, 宋亨來, 1914–2012) was one of the first Koreans to study abroad in the United States after the end of Japanese colonial rule (1910–1945) who became a central figure in establishing South Korea’s public health system after 1945.[1] He earned two master’s degrees from the Harvard School of Public Health: Master of Public Health in 1946 and Master of Science in Hygiene in 1956. Song led an influential and diverse career in medicine and public health that included bureaucratic service in public health in Korea (1946–1955), clinical practice as an ophthalmologist (1957–1964), and appointment as a Public Health Advisor at the World Health Organization in several African countries (1964–1974).
Song was born in Seoul, then known as Kyŏngsŏng or Keijō, on May 13, 1914, during the early years of Japanese colonial rule. He graduated from Kyŏngsŏng Second Higher Common School (Kyŏngsŏng Che-i Kodŭng Pot’ong Hakkyo) in 1934.[2] He entered Keijō Medical College (Kyŏngsŏng Ŭihak Chŏnmun Hakkyo) right after graduating and obtained his medical degree in March 1938, specializing in ophthalmology. Song was one of the twenty Korean students in Keijō Medical College’s twentieth graduating class, which consisted of seventy-seven students in total.[3] Song then went on to work at the microbiology laboratory in the Faculty of Medicine at Keijō Imperial University (Kyŏngsŏng Cheguk Taehak Ŭihakpu) as a researcher for two years.[4] In 1940, he returned to Keijō Medical College to work at the out-patient clinic for ophthalmology.
Song was working at the hospital when Korea was liberated from Japanese colonial rule on August 15, 1945. The celebration of Liberation, however, was short-lived as the peninsula was divided at the 38th parallel into two separate military occupation zones with the Soviets in the north and Americans in the south. The United States established a military government, the United States Army Military Government in Korea (USAMGIK), that lasted from 1945 until the formation of the Republic of Korea or South Korea in 1948.
One of USAMGIK’s main tasks was transferring the administrative duties of various institutions from Japanese to Korean and American personnel. For some medical institutions, such as hospitals and the Red Cross, the transition process was relatively smooth because there were many highly-trained and experienced Korean doctors and administrators. For the area of public health, however, USAMGIK was not satisfied with a simple take-over of the Japanese colonial infrastructure. Instead, the American military government sought to reform and reorganize the colonial-era system in Korea, which centered policing to enforce hygiene and sanitation policies, in the mold of an American model based on preventive medicine and community-driven approaches.[5] To do so, USAMGIK organized a program to send ten Koreans to study public health at American universities. Their goal was creating a core group of US-trained Korean public health experts who would lead the field upon their return. The Rockefeller Foundation agreed to provide funding through its fellowship program. Song applied for the program and was selected as one of the ten individuals due to his strong educational and professional qualifications combined with his English language skills.[6]
The trip awaiting Song and the others was recognized as a rather momentous event. A day before their departure, Song and the others met with the nationalist figure Rhee Syngman (1875–1965) who had just returned to Seoul from the United States and would later become the first president of the Republic of Korea upon its founding in 1948.[7] According to Song, Rhee congratulated them for being the first Koreans to study in the United States after Liberation and shared his hopes that they could together help rebuild Korea. This would be the first of many encounters with prominent Korean political figures that awaited Song.
The group left Korea on October 30, 1945—merely two months after Liberation. Without fully knowing what to expect, Song boarded the military transport aircraft with a small knapsack containing some notebooks and his treasured possession—an English dictionary—and a lunch box prepared by his wife.[8] Since there was no direct ship or flight route, they traveled via American military transport routes, which took them all over the Asia Pacific. Their journey began with a stop in Japan and continued onto Guam, Wake Island, Johnston Island, and Hawaii, until they reached San Francisco. In Yokohama, Song lost his dictionary to his great disappointment. The group continued their transcontinental trip, stopping by Chicago, Denver, Des Moines, and New York. They finally arrived at Washington D.C. weeks after leaving Korea. Their official itinerary began with a briefing at the Surgeon General Office and a meeting with the Rockefeller Foundation’s fellowship coordinators during which they found out each person’s school assignment. Song was assigned to the Harvard School of Public Health along with Ch’oe Myŏng-nyong and Hwang Yong-un.[9]
Song and the others stayed in Washington D.C. for several days before heading to their respective destinations. In that time, Song began to learn how Korean communities in America were far from homogenous through his encounter with two rival Korean-American organizations: the Korean Commission to America and Europe (Kumi Chuch’a Han’guk Wiwŏnhoe) led by Rhee until his return to Korea and his allies and the Korean Affairs Institute (Han’guk Sajŏngsa) founded by Kim Yong-jeung (Kim Yong-jung, 金龍中, 1898–1975) who attended Harvard as a special student in 1928.[10]
For a number of reasons, the Korean Commission and Korean Affairs Institute were highly critical of each other, putting forth different political visions regarding Korea’s future as an independent country. Upon hearing the news that ten Korean students arrived in Washington D.C., representatives from both parties ventured out to meet them. The group was first greeted by a representative of the Korean Commission, Im Pyŏng-jik (1893–1976), who would become the second Minister of Foreign Affairs of South Korea.[11] Im provided much help and various services, including arranging a meeting with Rhee’s wife, Francesca Donner, for the group and holding a welcome banquet for the group at the Waldorf Astoria. Soon after, the founder of the Korean Affairs Institute, Kim Yong-jeung, himself came to meet the group, sharing his critical views of the Korean Commission. While slightly surprised, considering Rhee was celebrated as a hero in Korea, Song remembered that the Koreans living in Hawaii whom he met during his layover were also divided on their opinions toward Rhee. Throughout his travels and studies, Song continued to witness the tensions within various Korean American communities, which in turn reflected a longer intertwined histories of Korean immigration and nationalist movements in the United States that predate Liberation.
When Song finally arrived at Harvard in November, the fall semester was well underway.[12] Song lived in a dorm room in Lehman Hall and commuted every day to the Harvard School of Public Health via subway. The public health lecture hall was located in a building on Shattuck Street in Boston. Song’s cohort members consisted of about sixty men and women. More than half were American medical officers on active duty, and the rest were veterinarians, nurses, and dentists. Like Song, Ch’oe, and Hwang, there were students and professionals from India, the Philippines, Greece, and Guatemala. Song noticed the absence of African American students among his classmates, which revealed the racism and segregation that existed in the United States at the time. In lectures, Song sat right behind Hwang. Because he was not yet fluent in English, Song borrowed Hwang’s notebook after each class to study the lecture’s content. Throughout his time at Harvard, Song relied greatly on Hwang who had more experience living and studying in America. Hwang received his medical training at the University of Pittsburgh and Tulane University when Koreans could still travel to the United States prior to the attack on Pearl Harbor.[13]
Song took the following courses required for Master of Public Health students: Public Health Practice (administration), Maternal and Child Health, Nutrition, Parasitology, Epidemiology, Ecology, Vital Statistics, and Sanitation.[14] The course content was rather new to Song due to Korea’s status as a Japanese colony. In particular, the Asia Pacific War marked a break in the exchange of medical and scientific knowledge between the Japanese Empire and United States. As one telling example, Song learned about the existence of the Rhesus factor for blood types for the first time at Harvard. This gap in knowledge resulted from the fact that the RH factor’s clinical significance for human blood systems was identified and explained in the 1940s when the United States and Japan were enemies at war.
As he learned more about the American healthcare and public health system, Song was particularly impressed by the Medicare Clause in the Social Security Act and wished that similar social insurance measures could be implemented in Korea. On a more conceptual level, Song became quite interested in the emphasis on “community” as a central theme in Harvard’s public health curriculum and an organizing principle of public health administration. Song could not help but compare the situation in the United States to that of Korea, which he regarded as lacking a spirit or mentality of cooperation and volunteerism.
As one of the first Koreans to study abroad in the United States after Liberation, Song encountered various difficulties, especially due to language. Song was able to buy another copy of the same English dictionary he had lost in Yokohama at a bookstore in Harvard Square, but mastering specialized knowledge in English required much more time and devotion. Only by the end of the academic year did Song feel like he could understand the lectures fully and comfortably.[15] Along with the issue of language, the Korean community at Harvard and the larger Cambridge-Boston area was very small at the time, consisting of only eleven individuals: two families of four, Ch’oe, Song, and Hwang. Due to its small size, this community became extremely tight-knit. Song became quite close to the two families, meeting two or three times a month at the least. Through his friendship with the father/husbands of these two families, Homer Kim and Norman Paik, Song once again came across the varying opinions on Rhee and his nationalist activities in the United States.[16] Although both men immigrated to the United States in the early 1900s, they disagreed on Rhee’s credentials and the merits of his nationalist activities as did the Koreans in Hawaii and the two organizations in Washington D.C. While Kim was highly critical of Rhee, Paik was extremely supportive and had contributed to the Korean Commission’s fundraising efforts. These differences notwithstanding, Song developed a close relationship with these two families, which helped sustain him during his studies as a foreign student.
Over the year, Song absorbed the course content offered at Harvard with vigor and dedication, as he hoped to apply many of the insights and lessons to develop public health in Korea when he returned. With much humility, Song attributed his success in passing all his courses to Hwang. Song graduated on June 6, 1946, with a Master in Public Health with a great sense of pride and joy.
After graduation, Song set off to conduct three months of fieldwork in Kentucky, Tennessee, and Alabama as arranged by the Rockefeller Foundation. As he made his way south, Song stopped by Philadelphia to meet another important Korean public figure: Sŏ Chae-p’il (English name: Philip Jaisohn, 徐載弼, 1864–1951). Sŏ was one of the earliest Korean migrants to the United States. He arrived in the United States in 1885, seeking exile due to his participation in the failed Kapsin Coup of 1884. He was also a practicing doctor with his own clinic having graduated from the Columbia Medical College (predecessor of George Washington University’s Medical School) in 1893.[17] After waiting in front of Sŏ’s clinic for hours, Song was finally able to meet Sŏ. As they discussed the political situation in Korea after Liberation, Song remembered Sŏ expressing his skepticism about Rhee as a leader of an independent Korea.
After this meaningful detour, Song finally reached the southern states. In each state, he visited various public health institutions in the rural areas with local public health officials. He observed the different programs instituted, such as the mounted midwifery service in Kentucky that provided midwife care to pregnant women in rural areas and the Tennessee Valley Authority’s Malaria control program for eradicating mosquitoes breeding in the reservoirs created by dams on the Tennessee River. Song also encountered the realities of racism and segregation, particularly during his time in Montgomery, Alabama. He noticed “White only” signs on restaurants and public bathrooms and the separate seating sections on buses.
When Song completed his fieldwork, he traveled back to Washington D.C. to reunite with the nine other members of the group as they planned to return to Korea together. After another long journey across the Pacific by ship, Song arrived in Seoul Train Station in December 1946.[18] As one of the first Koreans trained in public health in the United States, Song served as a high-ranking government official in the public health department from 1946 until 1955 despite frequent changes in government organizations.[19] Thanks to his position, Song attended the WHO/Western Pacific Regional Conference in Saigon, Vietnam as the South Korean representative in 1952 during the Korean War (1950–1953).[20] When he resigned from bureaucratic service in 1955, Song was the director of the Bureau of Medical Affairs (Ŭijŏngguk).
As a government official, Song contributed to two important legislative initiatives that laid the foundation for South Korea’s public health and medical administration: drafting a law to create public health centers and helping pass the National Medical Services Law (Kungmin ŭiryobop). One of the first tasks that Song devoted his attention to after the creation of the South Korean government was drafting a law to establish public health centers (pogŏnso) as the basis for local public health administration. Under Japanese colonial rule, the police had largely been the agents of enforcing policies for hygiene and sanitation. After Liberation, Song and his colleagues trained in the United States advocated for the creation of public health centers in order to move away from policing in public health administration. Song spent much time drafting this law, but it could not be passed due to budgetary restrictions. In the period between 1948–1950, the Ministry of Finance banned the start of new projects or programs in order to keep the already-strained government budget under control. Combined with this constraint, the outbreak of the Korean War further delayed the legislative process. The Public Health Center Law (Pogŏnsobop) was finally passed by the National Assembly in December 1956, three years after the war’s end. Song’s draft and efforts prior to the war provided much of the groundwork for this law. The public health center has remained critical for public health governance in South Korea until today.
Song also played a central role in creating and implementing the National Medical Services Law. In contrast to the Public Health Center Law, the National Medical Services Law did not require as large a budget. It was focused on delineating and defining medical experts, institutions, and practices as well as citizen’s rights regarding healthcare and medical services. The point of contention, however, was the classification of medical professionals and expertise. The law legally acknowledged traditional medicine practitioners (hanŭisa, 漢醫師) as medical professionals.[21] There was much debate within the National Assembly regarding this topic, but eventually the National Medical Services Law was passed in August 1951.[22]
As he was building his career in the South Korean bureaucracy, Song was offered an opportunity to study in the United States once again in 1954. Dean James S. Simmons of the Harvard School of Public Health came to South Korea to visit the Ministry of Health as part of his Far East tour. Song and Dean Simmons met back in 1945 when Song visited the Surgeon General Office in Washington D.C. At the time, Simmons was a Brigadier General who was the Chief of the Preventive Medicine Service. He was the one who briefed Song and the nine others when they first arrived in Washington D.C. nearly ten years ago.[23] After much discussion with Dean Simmons, Song decided to return to the Harvard School of Public Health for a second graduate degree. Song’s second trip to Harvard was funded by the American-Korean Foundation, an organization headed by Dr. Howard A. Rusk that played an important role in the postwar reconstruction of South Korea.[24]
Song arrived in Harvard in June 1955 and enrolled in the Master of Science in Hygiene program. This program required enrolling in classes at the School of Public Health and Law School. At the Countway campus, Song took classes in Health Administration, Epidemiology, Hospital Administration, Maternal Child Health, and Parasitology. At the Law School, he enrolled in courses for Public Administration and Finance. Song worked closely with his advisor, Dr. Hugh R. Leavell, Professor of Public Health Practice, to further cultivate his expertise in public health administration. Song received his second degree from Harvard on March 12, 1956—a decade after his first.
For his post-graduate plans, Song originally intended to enroll in a PhD program in the United States, but he could not carry out this plan so he decided to return to Korea and continue his bureaucratic career. The ministry, however, did not have any higher-ranking positions available at the time so instead of returning to Korea right away, Song traveled through the west coast for several months. When he finally arrived in Korea and inquired at the ministry, Song learned that government positions were increasingly being filled by political appointees with “connections” but without the necessary expertise in their fields. Facing such a reality, Song had to make a difficult career decision in the interim. Rather than continuing to work in the ministry, he decided to build on his medical training in ophthalmology and return to clinical practice, joining the famous Kong Ophthalmology Clinic run by Dr. Kong Pyŏng-u (1907–1995). Song treated patients for about six months until he decided to start his own practice in Seoul. He opened Song Ophthalmology Clinic in October 1957.
While he found much stability in his work life, Song felt increasingly disillusioned about living in Korea due to the country’s turbulent politics. As one instance, Song was shocked at the brutality of the police crackdown on protestors during the student-led demonstrations against the corrupt Rhee government that began on April 19, 1960. This series of events is later known as the April Revolution of 1960. In combination with his complex feelings toward life in Korea, Song had other personal reasons that motivated him to seek a career abroad. He applied to jobs in the World Health Organization, United Nations, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He decided to accept a position as a volunteer doctor in Uganda that was part of a program organized jointly by the Ugandan government and the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The program selected six doctors who would be given “invited immigration” status to volunteer and live in Uganda. For Song, this seemed to be the best opportunity to relocate his entire family abroad and practice medicine for a greater cause. After closing his ophthalmology clinic in 1964, Song left to Kampala, Uganda with his family.
Song’s move to Uganda marked the start of his career in Africa and later, the WHO that would last from 1964 to 1974. Song began his volunteer service at the Mulago Hospital in Kampala as an ophthalmologist in the summer of 1964. There were very few Ugandan doctors as the hospital was building up its medical educational and training system. Along with Song, doctors from all over the world came to volunteer at the Ugandan government’s request. Song stayed for a year and a half performing various surgeries and treating many patients until he decided to accept an appointment from the WHO. In 1966, Song was appointed as a Public Health Advisor in Tanzania by the WHO African Regional Office. Song moved to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania and met with the WHO Representative Dr. Roig, who coincidentally was an old acquaintance of Song. The two had met during the Korean War when Dr. Roig was working as a WHO employee in Chŏnju, a city located in North Chŏlla Province.
Song’s job was receiving the instructions for fieldwork sent by the WHO Regional Office in Brazzaville, Congo and working on local surveys. In Tanzania, he was part of the Epidemiological Survey of the Communicable Eye Diseases, which was part of the larger Trachoma Project spearheaded by WHO Headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland. After three years of fieldwork, Song and the team published the survey findings in a study titled, “Pilot Communicable Eye Diseases Control Project-Summary Report, Sept/68-May/70,” for the WHO. After the completion of this project, Song was appointed as a Public Health Advisor to the Kwara State of Nigeria in 1971. Song stayed in this position until May 1974 when he retired at the age of sixty.
Song returned to the United States and settled in California where his sons lived. Even after retiring from the WHO, Song continued to work. Realizing that he could not practice ophthalmology without the US medical board qualification, Song decided to try yet another specialty that had interested him for many years: acupuncture. After studying for and passing the state licensing test, Song opened his own acupuncture clinic and played a key role in the acupuncturist community. He served as the president of the South Bay Acupuncturists’ Association for some time. Song finally retired in 1996 after a dynamic lifetime of traveling and working in the sectors of public health and medicine. Song passed away in 2012 at the age of ninety-eight.
Written by Sujin Elisa Han, 7/8/2023
[1] This biography is largely based on Hyung Nai Song’s memoir published online on a family website run by his nephew, Mr. Sae Kim. Song Hyŏng-nae, “Memoir of Dr. Henry Hyung Rae Song, M.D.” Sae R. Kim’s Family Home Page (in “Family” section). Original memoir completed on May 13, 2000. http://www.saekim.net/Saekim/Family/Song/Memoir/memoir-cover.html. We would like to thank Mr. Kim for connecting us to Song’s eldest son, Dr. Charles Song, for the project.
[2] Kyŏngsŏng Second Higher Common School was established in 1921. It was located in northern Seoul in the Ch’ŏngun neighborhood. In 1938, it was renamed Kyŏngbok Middle School (Kyŏngbok Chung Hakkyo). After 1945, it was separated into Kyŏngbok Middle School and Kyŏngbok High School. The middle school closed in 1968 due to a change in educational policy. Kyŏngbok High School exists until today. “Kyŏngbok Kodŭng Hakkyo” [Kyŏngbok High School] in Han’guk minjok munhwa taebaekkwa sajŏn [Encyclopedia of Korean Culture]. https://encykorea.aks.ac.kr/Article/E0002433.
[3] “Kŭmil ŭi cholŏpsik” [Graduation ceremonies of today], Chosŏn ilbo, May 21, 1938.
[4] Keijō Imperial University was established in 1924 as the sixth Imperial University of the Japanese Empire. The creation of the Faculty of Medicine in Keijō Imperial University led to conflict with the already-existing Kyŏngsŏng College of Medicine, which was established in 1916. In 1946, the two were merged into the Medical School of Seoul National University. For more information about these two medical educational institutions, please refer to Yeo In-sok, “Training Medical Researchers in Korea During the Japanese Colonial Period (1910–1945)” in History of Universities: Volume XXXIV/1, A Global History of Research Education: Disciplines, Institutions, and Nations, 1840-1950 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2021), 321–337.
[5] For more on hygiene, sanitation, and the role of the police in colonial Korea, please refer to Yaejin Cho, “Governing Modernity and Everyday Life in Colonial Korea” (PhD diss., Harvard University, 2017).
[6] For more information about the other individuals, please refer to Sin Yŏng-jŏn and Sŏ Che-hŭi, “Mi kunjŏng ch’ogi Miguk yŏnsu rŭl tanyŏon Han’gugin ŭisa 10 in ŭi ch’ogi Han’guk pogŏn haengjŏng esŏ ŭi yŏkhal” [The Role of Ten Medical Doctors Trained in the US under the US Military Government in Korean Public Health Administration], Health policy and management 23, no. 2 (2013): 196–206.
[7] For more on Rhee’s life, please refer to Young Ick Lew, The Making of the First Korean President: Syngman Rhee’s Quest for Independence, 1875–1948 (Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 2014).
[8] Dr. Charles Song, the eldest child of Song Hyung Nai, recalled this during a Zoom meeting on May 27, 2023. We like to thank Dr. Song for sharing various information, which helped us clarify several things mentioned in this biography.
[9] When Song was attending Harvard School of Public Health in the 1945–1946 academic year, the Rockefeller Foundation made a large donation that resulted in several changes. The school acquired an additional building, the Collis P. Huntington Memorial Hospital Building, and was separated administratively from the Medical School from July 1, 1946 onward in regards to the budget and faculty appointments. Harvard University, Announcement of the Harvard School of Public Health Including Courses of Instruction for 1946-1947 (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Published by the University, 1946), 11–12. https://archive.org/details/catalog19461947harv/page/10/mode/2up. For a timeline of the Harvard School of Public Health, please refer to “100 Years of Public Health,” HSPH Centennial Timeline, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/centennial/timeline/.
[10] Kim’s biography is available on the Korea Institute’s Korean Alumni Biographies Project website under “special students” and can be accessed by clicking the link in the main text. Kim’s biography informs us that the conflict between the two groups predated Korea’s liberation.
[11] For more information about Im, see “Im Pyŏng-jik” in Han’guk minjok taebaekkwa sajŏn [Encyclopedia of Korean Culture]. https://encykorea.aks.ac.kr/Article/E0047458.
[12] In his memoir, Song noted his arrival date in the United States as mid-October, but according to the Chayu sinmun article, the group left on October 30, 1945. According to a student record file from the Rockefeller Foundation’s fellowship office, Song began his semester at Harvard on November 12, 1945. Fellowship recorder card for Song Hyong Nai, date not specified, folder Korea, 1917-1970s, series 9 Medical and Natural Sciences (MNS), subgroup 2 fellowship recorder cards, record group 10 Rockefeller Foundation records, fellowships, Rockefeller Archive Center, Sleepy Hollow, New York. Fellowship recorder card for Song Hyong Nai, Rockefeller Foundation records, hereafter. We like to thank the Rockefeller Archive Center and their archivist Bethany J. Antos for providing their archival records on Song.
[13] Hwang was born in 1908 in P’yŏngyang and graduated from Tokyo College of Commerce (predecessor of Hitotsubashi University) in 1929. He moved to the United States in 1929 and enrolled in Mount Union College in Ohio. He then attended the University of Pittsburgh’s medical program in 1933 and graduated in 1937. He completed a graduate program in medicine at Tulane University in 1939. Considered a significant figure in the South Korean medical community, Hwang is remembered for his contributions to Tongsan Hospital in Taegu as a doctor and administrator. For more on Hwang, please refer to the section titled, “Taegu Tongsan Pyŏngwŏn palchŏn e kiyŏhan Hwang Yong-un” [Hwang Yong-un who contributed to Taegu Tongsan Hospital’s growth] in Ch’oe Che-ch’ang, Han-Mi ŭihaksa: ŭisa ŭi kil 60-nyŏn ŭl torabomyŏ [The American medicine in Korean medical history] (Sŏul T’ŭkpyŏlsi: Yŏngrim K’adinŏl, 1996), 113–114.
[14] Fellowship recorder card for Song Hyong Nai, Rockefeller Foundation records.
[15] Dr. Song’s eldest son, Charles Song, remembered his father telling him that he felt comfortable in lectures by the end of the academic year and was always grateful to Hwang for all his help. Charles Song, Zoom meeting with author and Professor Sun Joo Kim, May 27, 2023.
[16] Homer Kim’s son, Samuel H. Kim, attended Harvard College and graduated in 1958.
[17] Sŏ returned to Korea soon after and founded the first bilingual English-Korean (Han’gŭl) newspaper in Korea, The Independent (Tongnip sinmun), in 1896. He served as a key figure in the enlightenment movement in the 1890s until he moved back to the United States. He eventually settled in Philadelphia and set up his own clinic there. “Sŏ Chae-p’il” in Han’guk minjok munhwa taebaekkwa sajŏn [Encyclopedia of Korean Culture]. https://encykorea.aks.ac.kr/Article/E0028152.
[18] Ch’oe Kyu-jin and Kwŏn Yŏng-hun, “Song Hyŏng-nae ilgi rŭl t’onghae pon Taehan Min’guk chŏngbu surip ch’ogi pogŏn haengjŏng ch’egye kaepy’ŏn kwajŏng” [The Process of Reforming the Health Administration System in the early days of the establishment of the government of the Republic of Korea as viewed through the Journal of Song Hyŏng-nae], Yŏksa yŏn’gu 45 (2022): 95.
[19] The health and welfare-related bureaucratic institutions were re-organized several times between 1948 and 1955. For more on the bureaucratic re-organization, please refer to Ch’oe and Kwŏn, “Song Hyŏng-nae ilgi,” 97–98. The appendix of the same article (p. 118) provides a detailed resume of the bureaucratic positions held by Song through these changes.
[20] “Hujin Han’guk ŭl wŏnjo ka imnyŏk” [Foreign aid being inserted into Korea, a late developing country], Pusan ilbo, October 12, 1952.
[21] For more on the history of traditional medicine in colonial Korea, please refer to James Flowers, “Koreans Building a New World: Eastern Medicine Renaissance in the Context of Japanese Rule, 1910-1945” (Ph.D. diss., Johns Hopkins University, 2019). Flowers explains issue of translation for “traditional medicine” in pages 15–19. For more on the history of medicine in premodern and modern Korea, please refer to Soyoung Suh, Naming the Local: Medicine, Language, and identity in Korea Since the Fifteenth Century (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2017).
[22] For more information on the National Medical Services Law, please refer to Chŏng Ki-yong, Pak Wang-yong, and Yi Ch’ung-yŏl, “1951 yŏn Kungmin Ŭiryobop hanŭisa chedo ippŏp kwajŏng” [Process of the legislation of the National Medical Services Law for Traditional Korean Medicine Practitioners in 1951], Taehan hanŭi hakhoeji 31, no. 1 (2010): 112–121.
[23] “Temporary Deans Run Grad School,” The Crimson, September 30, 1954.
[24] For more on the American-Korean Foundation and its role in postwar South Korea, please refer to John DiMoia, Reconstructing Bodies: Biomedicine, Health, and Nation-Building in South Korea Since 1945 (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2013).
Bibliography
Song’s memoir
Song Hyŏng-nae. “Memoir of Dr. Henry Hyung Rae Song, M.D.” Sae R. Kim’s Family Home Page (in “Family” section). Original memoir completed on May 13, 2000. http://www.saekim.net/Saekim/Family/Song/Memoir/memoir-cover.html.
Primary Sources
Harvard University. Announcement of the Harvard School of Public Health Including Courses of Instruction for 1946-1947. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Published by the University, 1946. https://archive.org/details/catalog19461947harv/page/10/mode/2up.
Harvard School of Public Health. Harvard School of Public Health Yearbook. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Published by the University, 1955. https://archive.org/details/harvardschoolofp1955harv/page/22/mode/2up
“Hujin Han’guk ŭl wŏnjo ka imnyŏk” [Foreign aid being inserted into Korea, a late developing country]. Pusan ilbo, October 12, 1952.
“Kŏmŭn taeryuk… wŏnsaek ŭi nara Ugandŏ t’ongsin” [The Black Continent… Land of Bright Colors: A Dispatch from Uganda]. Tonga ilbo, June 5, 1964.
“Kŭmil ŭi cholŏpsik” [Graduation ceremonies of today]. Chosŏn ilbo, May 21, 1938.
“Miguk yuhak ŭisa sim-myŏng, kŭmil ch’ulpal” [Ten doctors set to study abroad in the US departed today]. Chayu sinmun. October 30, 1945.
Fellowship Department. Fellowship recorder card for Song Hyong Nai, n.d., Rockefeller Foundation records. Rockefeller Archive Center, Sleepy Hollow, New York.
“Temporary Deans Run Grad School.” The Crimson, September 30, 1954.
Secondary Sources
“100 Years of Public Health.” HSPH Centennial Timeline, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/centennial/timeline/.
Cho, Yaejin. “Governing Modernity and Everyday Life in Colonial Korea.” PhD diss., Harvard University, 2017.
Ch’oe Che-ch’ang. Han-Mi ŭihaksa: ŭisa ŭi kil 60-yŏn ŭl torabomyŏ [The American medicine in Korean medical history]. Sŏul T’ŭkpyŏlsi: Yŏngrim K’adinŏl, 1996.
Ch’oe Kyu-jin and Kwŏn Yŏng-hun. “Song Hyŏng-nae ilgi rŭl t’onghae pon Taehan Min’guk chŏngbu surip ch’ogi pogŏn haengjŏng ch’egye kaepy’ŏn kwajŏng” [The Process of Reforming the Health Administration System in the early days of the establishment of the government of the Republic of Korea as viewed through the Journal of Song Hyŏng-nae]. Yŏksa yŏn’gu 45 (2022): 91–124.
Chŏng Ki-yong, Pak Wang-yong, and Yi Ch’ung-yŏl. “1951 yŏn Kungmin Ŭiryobop hanŭisa chedo ippŏp kwajŏng” [Process of the legislation of the National Medical Services Law for Traditional Korean Medicine Practitioners in 1951]. Taehan hanŭi hakhoeji 31, no. 1 (2010): 112–121.
DiMoia, John. Reconstructing Bodies: Biomedicine, Health, and Nation-Building in South Korea Since 1945. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2013.
Flowers, James. “Koreans Building a New World: Eastern Medicine Renaissance in the Context of Japanese Rule, 1910-1945.” PhD diss., Johns Hopkins University, 2019.
“Im Pyŏng-ji” in Han’guk minjok taebaekkwa sajŏn [Encyclopedia of Korean Culture]. https://encykorea.aks.ac.kr/Article/E0047458.
“Kyŏngbok Kodŭng Hakkyo” [Kyŏngbok High School]. Han’guk minjok munhwa taebaekkwa sajŏn [Encyclopedia of Korean Culture]. https://encykorea.aks.ac.kr/Article/E0002433.
Lew, Young Ick. The Making of the First Korean President: Syngman Rhee’s Quest for Independence, 1875–1948. Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 2014.
Sin Yŏng-jŏn and Sŏ Che-hŭi. “Mi kunjŏng ch’ogi Miguk yŏnsu rŭl tanyŏon Han’gugin ŭisa 10 in ŭi ch’ogi Han’guk pogŏn haengjŏng esŏ ŭi yŏkhal” [The Role of Ten Medical Doctors Trained in the US under the US Military Government in Korean Public Health Administration]. Health policy and management 23, no. 2 (2013): 196–206.
“Sŏ Chae-p’il.” Han’guk minjok munhwa taebaekkwa sajŏn [Encyclopedia of Korean Culture]. https://encykorea.aks.ac.kr/Article/E0028152.
Suh, Soyoung. Naming the Local: Medicine, Language, and identity in Korea Since the Fifteenth Century. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2017.
Yeo In-sok. “Training Medical Researchers in Korea During the Japanese Colonial Period (1910–1945).” In History of Universities: Volume XXXIV/1, A Global History of Research Education: Disciplines, Institutions, and Nations, 1840–1950, 321–337. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2021.
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