Kim Jeong-Ran
University of Oxford, Wellcome Unit for the History of Medicine, 45-47 Banbury Road, Oxford OX2 6PE, UK.
Med Hist. 2013 Apr;57(2):226-48. doi: 10.1017/mdh.2012.104.
This paper seeks to balance the regional and thematic focus of cholera historiography by examining maritime quarantine in Busan, as it was devised and implemented by Japanese officials and doctors during the pre-colonial period. It also places the relationship between Korea and Japan in the context of relations with China, Russia and Britain. This paper shows that quarantine measures in Busan and other Korean ports reflected the rise of Japanese imperial power and the increasing desire on the part of the Japanese to establish an effective borderline for their regional empire. From 1879 Japan began to impose maritime quarantine in Busan, where Japanese influence was very strong even before the colonial period, though at that time Japan was unable to perform quarantine in its own ports independently due to the objections of Western powers, particularly Britain. Victories in the Sino-Japanese and Russo-Japanese wars established Japan as a regional power on equal terms with the West, and as the dominant power in Korea and Eastern Asia. With the acquisition of the right to impose quarantine in its homeland, Japan strengthened and extended the range of quarantine from Japan to Korea, China and Russia. Now quarantine screened Japan from potentially harmful agents – pathogenic and political – and its functions diversified further as modernisation and imperial expansion gathered pace. The reliance which Japan placed upon quarantine in maintaining its empire explains why it was increasingly out of step with other powers regarding international sanitary precautions. The Japanese maritime quarantine in Busan during this period therefore shows many aspects of Japan’s ‘national empire’.
本文旨在通过考察釜山的海上检疫情况，平衡霍乱史学的区域和主题重点，因为这一检疫措施是由日本官员和医生在前殖民时期设计并实施的。本文还将韩日关系置于与中国、俄罗斯和英国的关系背景中。本文表明，釜山及其他韩国港口的检疫措施反映了日本帝国势力的崛起，以及日本越来越渴望为其区域帝国建立一条有效的边界线。从1879年起，日本开始在釜山实施海上检疫，即使在殖民时期之前，日本在釜山的影响力就很强，不过当时由于西方列强，尤其是英国的反对，日本无法在其本国港口独立实施检疫。中日甲午战争和日俄战争的胜利使日本成为与西方平起平坐的区域强国，并成为朝鲜和东亚的主导力量。随着获得在其本土实施检疫的权利，日本加强并扩大了检疫范围，从日本延伸至朝鲜、中国和俄罗斯。如今，检疫将日本与潜在的有害因素——致病因素和政治因素——隔离开来，随着现代化和帝国扩张步伐加快，其功能进一步多样化。日本在维持其帝国方面对检疫的依赖，解释了为何在国际卫生预防措施方面，它与其他大国越来越不同步。因此，这一时期日本在釜山的海上检疫展现了日本“民族帝国”的诸多方面。
