▲ Dasan Hall in 1980s

 

In mid-November, autumn is coming to an end. It is a time when the maple-colored university shows off its beauty ahead of winter. SeoulTech's campus is also ecstatic with autumn leaves around this time. The ginkgo tree which is around the road near the main gate and the promenade around the pond are not as famous as nationally, but they have long been known as walking spots for nearby citizens. Gongneung Campus is one of the most prominent university campuses in Seoul, with its wide site, pleasant buildings and beautiful natural sceneries. The campus site of more than 150,000 pyeong is large enough to be on par with historic university campuses such as Seoul National University, Yonsei University, Korea University and Ewha Womans University. However, the greatest feature of SeoulTech is "where it is situated in nature". Is there any university campus located in Seoul that is as spacious as this Gongneung Campus? "Campus on a Hill" is our notion that a university is an isolated point in the surrounding area, a lofty terrain, differentiated from American universities. Gongneung Campus is quite different from other universities' campuses in Korea, even if it's not an urban university in Europe or Japan where university buildings and boundaries are mixed with surrounding areas to form some part of the city center.

 

The Gongneung Campus also features school buildings that are not typical for most universities. Dasan Hall, Changhak Hall and Continental Hall, all designated as state-registered cultural assets, leave traces of their unique past on the Gongneung Campus.

 

Here, we will briefly look at the history behind Gongneung Campus, using these buildings as clues.

 

First, let's start at Dasan Hall and Changhak Hall. Perhaps even those who are not very interested in history have heard that these buildings are originated from the College of Science and Engineering of Kyungsung Imperial University. An article titled 'Great Hall of Science and Joseon' in Japanese colonial era's Maeil Newspaper announced the establishment of the College of Science and Engineering of Kyungsung Imperial University in April 1941. The article explained that Kyungsung Imperial University, which opened in 1926, was composed of two colleges: The College of Law & Literature and the College of Medicine. In addition, it also added the new College of Science and Engineering. The article said that the new College of Science and Engineering would be the birthplace of engineering in the Joseon Dynasty.

The science departments consist of seven departments, including Physics & Chemistry, Civil Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Applied Chemistry, and Mine Metallurgy. Seventy-four Japanese main professors and assistant professors were in charge of education and research. The total number of students was 40, all of whom received three years of Preparatory Course at Cheongnyang-ri campus prior to entry.

 

At that time, engineering and science education were conducted at the level of professional schools, mainly at Gyeongseong High School of Technology. However, the training of advanced engineers at the college level was suppressed, and the technical hierarchy between Koreans and Japanese remained extremely firm. Therefore, the creation of the College of Science and Engineering was a symbolic effort to mitigate these imbalances of hierarchical distinction and discrimination. This interpretation is possible because the College of Science and Engineering was established only at Imperial Universities, which were considered as the best both in the colonies and on mainland Japan. In Japan, Imperial University was an elite university where excellent students penetrated fierce competition as the peak of the academic competition, and those who graduated there used to be socially privileged to become national elites. These institutional privileges were no different from imperial universities in the colonies. With the establishment of the College of Science and Engineering, Korean students could enter the field of advanced engineering without having to study abroad in Japan. Then, could Korean graduates become high-level engineers and break the hierarchy between Koreans and Japanese? It is difficult to know at present. The College of Science and Engineering only lasted for about four years and Korea was liberated before it began producing many graduates.

 

Imperial University in Japan was not only a strong educational facility but also a research institution. Under the full support of the Imperial Japanese government, the universities played a role in monopolizing knowledge production in various fields related to Japanese mainland. Academic authority was also concentrated in Imperial Universities in the colonies. This feature was released into the College of Science and Engineering of Kyungsung Imperial University. As the College of Science and Engineering was a government-run organization established by the state, there was a clear sense of goal that it should contribute to the idea of an empire's national power through research and education. The establishment of the College of Science and Engineering of Kyungsung Imperial University was served as an opportunity for elite scientists and engineers operating in mainland Japan to gather in colonial Joseon. In fact, it was excepted that the newly established the College of Science and Engineering would develop into a "comprehensive science and engineering institute" and become a hub for research on engineering Joseon. Mainland Japan's Physicochemical Research Institute, also known as RIKEN, became a major reference model in the process of establishing the College of Science and Engineering. It became the College of Science and Engineering, not just an Engineering, because it was believed that establishing itself as a "basic and applied research institution" rather than simply a training institution, "chemical and industrial research" and "technical experiments" must be organically combined. It was assumed that the construction of such a "Science Joseon" would enhance the national status of colonial Joseon as a military base for Imperial Japan.

 

It was this Gongneung Campus that revealed this expectation of colonial power more extremely. This is because the Japanese Government-General of Joseon decided to set up the new College of Science and Engineering in a different place from the existing campus of Gyeongseong Imperial University in today's Daehakro. The site selection process began in September 1938, and 160,000 pyeong of land in Gongdeok-ri was selected in January 1940. At that time, it was the land of Nohae-myeon, Yangju-gun, which belongs to Gyeonggi-do, not Gyeongseong-bu or Seoul. At that time, it was a large project with a large budget of more than 5 million yen. A total of four buildings were built on the campus, including the first building used by Physics, Mechanical Engineering, and Electrical Engineering Departments, and the second building used by Chemical, Civil Engineering and Mining Metallurgy Departments. These are now Dasan Hall and Changhak Hall. In particular, the establishment of the Changhak Hall was such a large project that it was called "the third largest building" in colonial Joseon at the time. Contrary to the expectation that the Sino-Japanese War, which began in 1937 and would end in a short-term war, the project received quite unconventional support, given the situation when all supplies were scarce due to the war. This is evidence that the project was desperately needed from the standpoint of colonial power.

 

The fact that the campus was selected as a remote place, Gongneung, is also related to this desperation. In addition to being geographically close to the Gyeongchun Line and Gyeongwon Line, Gongdeok-ri area was also a good place to save the superiority of the management, because the mining school was already established in 1939. What if we concentrate the science and technology of colonial Joseon here to systematically build highquality manpower and technology training and play the role of a continentally military supply zone based on railways leading to the North? The Continental Hall was the main building of Gyeongseong Mining School, but it was served as a physical foundation for realizing the illusion of colonial power called "Industrial Joseon" by forming a link with Dasan Hall and Changhak Hall. After liberation, the College of Science and Engineering in Gyeongseong Imperial University and the Mining Academy, which were attached to Gongneung-dong side by side, were merged into Seoul National University's Engineering College in 1947. Strictly speaking, Seoul National University of Engineering College was designated as "enemy property" left by Japan. It also can be said the current Gongneung Campus had its current shape at that time. Though Seoul National University officially refuses to inherit the history of Kyungsung Imperial University's College of Science and Engineering and Mining Academy, the historical remnants still continue to leave in the campus of SeoulTech through Dasan Hall, Changhak Hall and Continental Hall. It is time to think about the meaning of why SeoulTech was built on Gongneung Campus. It is a stray thought as I look at an old building in a beautiful campus landscape.

 

* This journal is cited with Junyeong Jeong(Professor, Institute of Korean Studies at Seoul National University)'s column in The SeoulTech Times No. 638, No. 639.



 

Reporter,

Minju Kim alswn020716@g.seoultech.ac.kr

Yoojin Park dreamingloveyoo@seoultech.ac.kr