- Author: Kong, Im Soon
- Title: The agency called Kim Hak-mook - The U.S-Originated Aid Circuit Surrounding Establishment of the Seoul National University Social Work Department
- Language: Korean
- Journal: Korean Studies 47: 239-278
- Publication Year: 2017
- Publisher: Center for Korean Studies
■ Abstract This paper uses Kim Hak Mook to discuss the establishment of the Seoul National University Social Work Department in relation to the circuit of US-originated aid. For this reason, this paper’s object of study is the Stanford Hoover Archive’s Kim Hak Mook File. The Asian Foundation collection which has been open to the general public since 2010 provides a clue to understanding and identifying the circuit of US-originated aid through the Korean War. As Charles Armstrong has noted, an asymmetrical support structure based on military aims bred alienation and delays in other areas interlinked with the de-colonization project of South Korea that remained unresolved before the outbreak of the Korean War. In particular, Armstrong points out that because the dismissal and considerable lack of awareness about the sectors of education and culture directly related to the long-term vision of the national de-colonization project concluded with the mass exodus of literati and intellectuals for North Korea. Although the Korean War did not completely eliminate this asymmetric aid system, it strengthened the aid system of the education and cultural sector which was relatively alienated, the so-called ‘Kim Hak-mook’ file is said to have been located in this series of flows.
The so-called ‘Kim Hak-mook’ file refers to the documents and papers compiled in “Korea Individuals, Kim Hak-Mook(SocialWork), Box P-59” included in the Asia Foundation collection of the Stanford Hoover Archives. After closely surveying the question and answer section of the current SNU Social Welfare Department and office website and 『The Fifty-year History of the Seoul National University Social Welfare Department』, I would like to tentatively suggest this is the first time that the so-called ‘Kim Hak-mook’ file has been introduced in Korea other than the John C. Kidneigh Report. The establishment of the SNU Social Work Department that runs throughout the so-called ‘Kim Hak Mook’ File was set in motion by a different circuit of support, Kava’s civilian assistance has complemented and replaced public aid centering on applied studies for immediate needs. The series of proceedings leading up to the establishment of the SNU Social Work Department compels us to retrace this specific circuit of support, in other words, the various contacts and exchanges that took place between institutions including a Christian organization by the name of Unitarian Service Committee(USC), the American-Korean Foundation(AKF), the University of Minnesota, and the Asia Foundation as well as between individuals like John C. Kidneigh, Helen Fogg, Curtice Hitchcock, Lee Sun Keun, Park Solemn, Choi Kyu Nam, David I. Steinberg, and Kim Hak Mook, Ha Sang-nak, Paik Kŭn-chil. This kind of support circuit network exemplifies the “Cold War culture”, originating from the US, that impacted Korea’s education and culture. This paper reconstructs the complicated and varied circuits of support that surrounded the establishment of the SNU Social Work Department investigating the dynamic power relationships of these agencies. |
