The Swedish Red Cross Hospital in Busan, 1950–1958: A Study of Its Transition from a Military to a Civilian Hospital

This article examines the development of the Swedish Red Cross Hospital in Busan during 1950–1958, investigating how principal secondary actors affected the hospital’s transition from a military to a civilian hospital. Shortly after the outbreak of the Korean War in 1950, Sweden, a neutral nation, offered to send a contingent to establish a mobile field hospital, which was to be under the command of the Eighth U.S. Army. This placed the nominally impartial hospital in a tense situation, forcing it to balance military and humanitarian objectives. In the end, a larger semi-mobile evacuation hospital was set up in Busan, where both UN soldiers and prisoners of war were treated; it came to be known as the Swedish Red Cross Hospital. The decrease in and finally the cessation of hostilities in 1953 made the treatment of Korean civilian patients possible and such work was conducted both at the hospital and off-site in other areas of Busan, though initially this was not formally sanctioned by American and UN authorities. Although still a part of the military system in practice, it became a stationary civilian hospital in 1954. After the main hospital closed in 1957, a pediatrics team remained for another year.

keywords: Korean War, Sweden, U.S. Army, Red Cross, hospital, military, civilian

참고문헌

City History Compilation Committee of Busan (CHCCB). 1989. Busan sisa (Busan City History). Vol. 1. Busan: City History Compilation Committee of Busan.

Cumings, Bruce. 2010. The Korean War: A History. New York: Modern Library.

Ekecrantz, Stefan. 2003. Hemlig utrikespolitik: Kalla kriget, utrikesnämnden ochregeringen 1946–1959 (Secret Foreign Politics: The Cold War, the Foreign Affairs Advisory Council and the Government, 1946–1959). Stockholm: Santérus Förlag.

Greenwood, John T., and F. Clifton Berry Jr. 2005. Medics at War: Military Medicine from Colonial Times to the 21st Century. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press.

Groth, Carl-Erik. 1961. “Från krigssjukhus till fredssjukhus” (From War Hospital to Peace Hospital). Joboseyo (Hello) 1.1: 8-10, 27-28.

Hong, Y. P., et al. 1998. “The Seventh Nationwide Tuberculosis Prevalence Survey in Korea, 1995.” International Journal of Tuberculosis and Lung Disease 2.1:27-36.

International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). 1996. “The Fundamental Principles of the Red Cross and Red Crescent.” Paper presented at the 26th International Conference of the Red Cross, Geneva, December 31.

Kjellberg, H. E., ed. 1936. Svenska Dagbladets Årsbok (Yearbook of Svenska Dagbladet). Vol. 13. Stockholm: Åhlén and Holms Boktryckeri.

National Medical Center. 2008. Gungnip uiryowon 50 nyeonsa (The 50-Year History of the National Medical Center). Seoul: National Medical Center.

10.

Park, Jiwook. 2010. “Hanguk jeonjaeng-gwa busan seuweden jeoksipja yajeon byeongwon-ui uiryo guho hwaldong” (The Medical Assistance of the Swed-ish Red Cross Field Hospital in Busan during and after the Korean War). Uisahak (Korean Journal of Medical History) 19.1: 189-208.

11.

Son, Munsik. 1998. UN-gun jiwonsa (History of the UN Military Assistance). Seoul: Institute for Military History Compilation.

12.

Stridsman, Jacob. 2008. “Sverige och Koreakriget: En studie av Sveriges hållning till Koreakonflikten 1947–1953” (Sweden and the Korean War: A Study of the Swedish Policy toward the Korean Conflict, 1947–1953). PhD diss., Umeå University.

바로가기메뉴

논문 상세

Vol.54 No.1

The Swedish Red Cross Hospital in Busan, 1950–1958: A Study of Its Transition from a Military to a Civilian Hospital

Abstract

참고문헌

Korea Journal