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Background: Recently, it was revealed that Jong-Ha Kim was the first self-employed Korean physician in Daejeon city of South Korea during the Japanese colonial period. However, little is known about him. In this paper, the author aimed to search for historical records of his activities as the first Korean physician in Daejeon city. Current Concepts: Kim's clinic in Daejeon city was called Chung-Ang Clinic. This is all that has ever been confirmed about Jong-Ha Kim. The author has been searching for his medical record for the last year. Kim's medical records were collected from journal papers on the modern history of Korea, National Institute of Korean History database, Naver news library archive, official gazette of the Japanese government-general of Korea, database of Seoul National University alumni, and a resume of a professor at the Hamhung Medical School. The results are as follows. He was born in Shinchang-ri Hamheung city Hamgyeongnam-do on August 9, 1900. He graduated from the missionary school established by Canadian missionaries and was admitted to Kyungseong (Keijo) Medical School in 1918. It was recently discovered that he participated in the Independence movement on March 1, 1919. His picture, an old leaflet for his clinic which he had used, and his resume as a professor at the Hamhung Medical School were discovered for the first time. Discussion and Conclusion: The historical records of Jong-Ha Kim's life provide insight into the lives of contemporary doctors in modern Korea. During the period of 1900 to 1950, which encompasses his historical records, significant events took place in Korean history, and he actively participated in these events. Despite facing numerous difficulties as a doctor in modern Korea, Jong-Ha Kim made decisions that had a great impact. He was a great doctor who served as a good role model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Western medicine began to be introduced to Japan since late 16th century. Japanese encounter with Western medicine centered on Dejima in Nagasaki in the seventeenth and eighteenth century and the initial process of introduction was gradual and slow. In the mid-nineteenth century, facing threats from Western countries, Tokugawa bakufu asked Dutch naval surgeon, J. L. C. Pompe van Meerdervoort to teach western medicine at the Kaigun Denshujo naval academy in Nagasaki. The government also supported the western medical school in Edo. This paper deals with how modern western medical doctors were developed in Japan from late Edo to early Meiji. The publication of the New Text on Anatomy in 1774 translated by Sugita Genpaku and his colleagues stimulated Japanese doctors and scholars to study western medicine, called Rangaku. During the Edo period, western medicine spread into major cities and countryside in Japan through Rangaku doctors. In 1838, for example, Dr. Ogata Koan established the Rangaku school named Tekijuku and educated many people with western medicine. When smallpox vaccination was introduced in Japan in 1849, Rangaku doctors played an important role in practiving the vaccination in cities and in countryside. After the Edo bakufu and the feudal lords of han(han) actively pursued to introduce western medicine to their hans by sending their Samurai to Edo or Nagasaki or abroad and by establishing medical schools and hospitals until their abolition in 1871. In late Edo and early Meiii military doctors were the main focus of training to meet the urgent need of military doctors in the battle fields of civil wars. The new Meiji government initiated a series of top-down reformations concerning army recruitment, national school system, public health and medical system. In 1874, the government introduced a law on medicine to adopt western medicine only and to launch a national licence system for medical doctors. Issuing supplementary regulations in the following years, the Meiji government settled down a dual-track medical licensing system: one for the graduates from medical schools with certain quality and the other for the graduate from less qualified schools who should take the licensing examination.