The Military Doctor Ōgai Mori’s Role in the Annexation of Korea

Rintarō Mori (Ōgai Mori) wrote in his work “Asobi” (1910) that he had the identity not only of a novelist but also of a military doctor in the Ministry of War. His work as a military doctor has not been covered to any great extent in the field of literary studies, but his activities as head of the Medical Bureau after the Russo-Japanese War are noteworthy. Using a newly-unearthed set of historical documents, the “Tsunemaru Satō Papers,” as a resource, we examine his work as the head of the Medical Bureau before and after the annexation of Korea.After the Russo-Japanese War, Mori assigned military doctors from Tokyo Imperial University to the territories that had been brought under Japanese control such as Kwantung Leased Territory and the Protectorate of Korea. This drew the displeasure of Koike Masanao, the former head of the Medical Bureau, with whom he had a close relationship as a friend and a rival. The Replacement Plan for the Great Han Hospital (Taehan Ŭiwon in Korean) Staff proposed by Mori to Masatake Terauchi, Minister of War and Resident-General in Korea, just before the annexation of Korea, envisioned the control of the Great Han Hospital, the central government hospital in Korea, by means of the insertion of many highly educated military doctors there. Mori’s personnel policy was precisely in line with the Army’s overall policy of inserting army personnel into several sectors of Korean bureaucracy prior to the annexation of the country, and he viewed it as a form of support for Japan’s military rule of colonial Korea.