The Role of 10 Medical Doctors Trained in the US under the US Military Government in Korean Public Health Administration

On September 24th of 1945, the existing Health Department under the Bureau of Economy and Trade was abolished complying with the Article 1 of the Ordinance of US military occupation "Establishment of Health Bureau". After the establishment of the Health Bureau, one of its first priorities was to select South Korean medical doctors and send them away to the US for training "in order to educate the talents necessary for the Health Bureau to address the public hygiene and health issues of Korea". Under the sponsorship of Rockefeller Foundation, the US Military Government sent 10 Korean medical doctors to three universities. After they came back to Korea from the training in the US, they played significant roles in building and managing the Korean health and medical system under the US Military Government as well as during the post-war of Korea and in the 1960s-1970s. Furthermore, they made a great contribution to expanding and transplanting the 'American-style' health and medical system in heath administration, health research and medical education in Korea. On the one hand, this means the limitation and elimination of an independent, progressive idea in the health and medical field as the influence of the US within the country after the liberation expanded. The lives of 10 doctor represent an important symbol of how the Korean health and medical field has been established under the domestic and overseas political conditions, 'colonization-liberation-military occupation of the Powers', and one part of the concrete history