Jeju 4.3 Is Now Our History

"Special Exhibition Commemorating the 70th Anniversary of Jeju 4.3", open March 30 - June 10 at the National Museum of Korean Contemporary History, special tour provided for the Royal Asiatic Society members. All content here is compiled and published in the special exhibition publication.
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Sadly, it has remained difficult even to discover the truth of Jeju 4.3, despite it being the tragedy in modern Korean history with the second largest number of casualties. The efforts to resolve the issue, which were begun by private citizens and universities in the 1980s, eventually led to the 2000 enactment and promulgation of the Special Act on Discovering the Truth of the Jeju 4.3 Incident and the Restoration of Honor of the Victims. Significantly, the national government finally began working to discover the truth of Jeju 4.3 and restore the honor of the victims and their bereaved families. In the process, the Report on the Truth-Finding Investigations of the Jeju 4.3 Incident was adopted by the national government, and in 2014, April 3^rd was designated as a national memorial day. [This special exhibition commemorates the 70^th anniversary of Jeju 4.3, which actually began March 1^st, 1947, when 50,000 locals gathered to celebrate the 28^th anniversary of the March 1^st Movement broke into chants of “Unified Korea”. The ensuing suppression operations resulted in the deaths of nearly 30,000 Jeju residents, and no survivors were allowed to speak freely of it in the subsequent 40-plus years.]

Chinoh Chu, Director of National Museum of Korean Contemporary History

The red camellia which stands strong against biting cold and looks like drops of blood on snow-covered ground came to be the symbol for those in Jeju who suffered the tragedy of the 4.3 Incident.

PART 1: SPRING AT HAND

Jeju Island, a place historically thought of as almost mystical, has developed as unique cultural landscape as its natural scenery. The Jeju people have traditionally formed a close community, helping one another to withstand the natural adversities, including the harsh winds. With Japan located very close, ancient Jeju locals had long struggled to defend their livelihoods as a result of being frequently raided by Japanese pirates. During the Japanese colonial era, Jeju became the production site of agricultural and fishery products for Japan, as well as its military base, subject to exploitation and forcible mobilization.

Imperial Japan, on the brink of collapse with signs of losing World War II, fortified the entire island of Jeju, inflicting extreme torment on Jeju residents. With the restoration of Korean sovereignty, however, the exhilarated Korean people could finally look forward, with hopeful faces, towards establishing a new nation. The Jeju branch of the Associated People’s Committee supported by the locals, worked smoothly with the United States Army Military Government in Korea. However, the shivering chill of the Cold War was gradually approaching Jeju. Although the stinging wind of late winter continued, spring seemed to be near.

Hail to liberated Joseon! Hurrah! Hurrah!

The 1932 anti-Japanese movement carried out by Jeju haenyeo is cited as a noteworthy civilian resistance against the Japanese occupation of Korea. The women divers of Jeju stood up against the then government-patronized Haenyeo Association and were later joined by local youth and farmers. With the participants totaling 17,000 people, it was the biggest anti-Japanese movement in Jeju and the biggest women’s movement in Korea.

With the unfavorable prospects on WWII, Imperial Japan started fortifying the entire island of Jeju as a way of guarding its main islands. It constructed airfields called Jeongtteureu, Altteureu, and Jintteureu in Moseulpo and Jeju-eup. The imperial government of Japan even created artificial cave fortifications in the volcanic hills as strongholds in case of landing operations by the US forces. Japan treated the islanders of Jeju as mere consumables, mobilizing even those elderly residents in their 70s for the construction of the fortifications. After long years of suffering, Korea finally regained its sovereignty on August 15^th, 1945.

Liberty regained at the coastal seas of Seogwipo and on Halla Mountain

On September 28^th, 1945, the US forces and Japan signed the total surrender of the prostrate nation. Young Jeju locals who had suffered forced labor and those other residents who had become factory workers in Japan returned to their Jeju homes, increasing the local population by early 30%. Many young men and women, who were enlightened and aware of national and social issues after experiencing the labor movements in Japan, worked to achieve the dream of establishing a ‘new’ nation by engaging in autonomous activities, teaching in evening schools, and opening educational institutes. However, Jeju faced rising unemployment rates resulting from the sudden return of a large population, as well as a grave lack of basic necessities due to the illegalization of trading commodities with Japan.

Osaka Passenger Ship (1945)

It was the local branch of the Associated People’s Committees that exerted a practical influence on the liberated communities at Jeju. The Committee was led by independence activists who were respected and relied upon by their neighbors. The moderate Committee without ideological confrontations within the organization could maintain a cooperative relationship with the US military government. Even in late 1945 when similar committees in Korea were shrinking in terms of their influence, the Committee, based on its organizational power, continued to work for such projects as maintaining public order, educating the residents on modern agricultural techniques, eradicating illiteracy, and establishing educational institutes. The Committee remained active until March 1947.

The island in tremors before turmoil

The US military government rehired some of the officials and police officers that used to serve under the Japanese colonial government. With the nation now decolonized, it was desirable for independence activists to lead state affairs. Rather, the seemingly recuperated status of the pro-Japanese officials and those who had previously worked as imperial Japanese police deeply disturbed the locals.

The United States-Soviet Joint Commission launched for the formation of a Provisional Korean Government held its first meeting but finally adjourned in August 1946, without reaching an agreement. When the US military government was tightening guard against the left-wing circles, Jeju experienced an administrative system reform. The island of Jeju, which had pertained to Jeollnamado Province became the nation’s ninth province. The provincial administrative system helped the US military government gain momentum to strengthen its police forces and further expanded the 9^th Regiment, a local defense force. Under these circumstances, the Jeju People’s Committee underwent the shrinkage of its realm of activities.

Jeju was also confronted with the mounting discontent of its residents about financial difficulties. After national independence, the local society was hit by a growing unemployment rate and a concurrent cholera epidemic, as well as a poor harvest of barley. Amid the grueling social and economic situations, the US military government began allocating quotas to the local farmers for the delivery of rice. Opposing the policy, the Committee led an anti-quota delivery movement, actively supported by Jeju locals. Additionally at this time, a corruption scandal involving the police officers and officials of the US military government caught the local public’s attention.

PART 2: THE ISLAND ROCKED BY UNREST

The Cold War eventually formed a radical confrontation between the US and the Soviet Union. Under growing suppression by the US military government, the South Korean leftists formed a legitimate mass party entitled the South Korean Labor Party (SKLP). The SKLP also launched a local headquarters in Jeju (SKLP Jeju).

On March 1^st, 1947, the unjust firing by police on civilians in the March 1^st Movement celebration ignited great turmoil throughout the spring in Jeju, which, until that time, had shown no significant public unrest. To protest against the police’s firing, the public and private sectors of Jeju decided on a general strike to begin on March 10^th. The situation worsened due to the subsequent suppression operations by the police and the tyranny of the right-wing Northwest Youth Association partisans.

The next spring in 1948, the prospected south-side-only general election progressed into a fierce confrontation between the US military government and Korea’s left-wing partisans. The SKLP Jeju, which went through changing leadership and ideological conflicts among its members, staged an armed rebellion on April 34d. A peace agreement was reached on April 28^th to prevent large-scale bloodshed, but was later broken due to arson perpetrated by far-right thugs that occurred in the village of Ora-ri. The situation kept on worsening.

Public rising in fury

The March 1^st Movement celebration in 1947 drew a crowd of local participants, totaling 25,000 to 30,000 people. Soon after the commemorating event and a street parade, a six-year-old child was kicked by one of the police horses. However, the mounted officers tried to leave the site without taking any action, and people followed them to the police station, throwing stones at them. The police then fired on the crowd, leaving six civilians dead and eight severely injured. The deceased included an elementary student and a mother in her 20s who was holding her baby.

Captain Lee Su-bok, the 9th Infantry Regiment (1948)

The March 1^st Movement that year celebrated across the country resulted in several clashes between the left-wing and the right-wing protesters. On Jeju, it was even more difficult to settle the public unrest because the police were the ones who did harm to the local civilians. However, the police insisted that the firing was lawful and reacted to the uprising with hardline policies including a curfew order and recruitment of additional officers from outside Jeju. The people were agitated. In protest against the US military government, the SKLP Jeju staged a general strike on March 10^th, was led by both the private and the public sectors on Jeju, an unprecedented scale in Korea at the time, with 95% public and the private employees joining in the strike. It came to a lull around March 20^th after hardline suppression operation by the US military government.

Post of U.S. military government in Korea (1945)

 Into the storm

The US military government ignored the causes of the general strike and simply determined that the public hostility toward the police who opened fire was later amplified by the SKLP Jeju. The national police defined Jeju as a ‘red island’, urgently dispatching 400 additional officers as a backup force. In the following year, 2,500 civilians were taken into custody indiscriminately. Three youths in their 20s, including Kim Yong-cheol, Yang Eun-ha, and Park Haeng-gu, who had been arrested by the combined forces of the police and the Northwest Youth League (NYL), died from torture. The far-right NYL committed repeated terrorist attacks, including assault, murder, and sexual violence, in the name of rooting out leftists. As a result, the public became infuriated.

The police continued the armed crackdown as the May 10^th general election was nearing. Within the SKLP Jeju, the young, radical hawks began raising their voices. The hardliners feared that their organization would be endangered once the South Korean government was established, and carried out armed resistance. On April 3^rd, 1948, 350 armed SKLP members revolted against the right-wing police and the NYL, under the slogans of ‘anti-South Korean government’, ‘pro-unified independence,’ and ‘anti-America’. The revolt attacked regional police stations and homes of right-wing activists. Under the deteriorating circumstances, a peace talk was held on April 28^th between Kim Ik-ryeol, commander of the 9^th Regiment of the National Defense Guard, and rebel leader Kim Dal-sam of he SKLP. The two parties reached an agreement on the cessation of combat, disarmament of the forces, and the safety of the rebel leaders. After three days, however, some police forces and right-wing thugs burned houses in Ora-ri to thwart the efforts to put an end to the conflict. This resulted in a broken agreement and the US military government ordered the 9^th Regiment to stage a full-scale attack.

PART 3: IF/WHEN WE ARE LEFT HERE, LOST FOREVER

In 1948, Korea saw nation-wide armed clashes between those for and against the May 10^th general election. Between February and March, with only a few months left before the election, a total of 239 attacks on the police took place. With the armed rebels keeping the election at bay, Jeju became the only region in South Korea that refused the May 10^th election. In August and September 1948, South and North Korea established their respective governments that were hostile to each other. The government of the Republic of Korea viewed Jeju as a group that challenged the authenticity of the newly launched administration, while the US, which was about to withdraw its forces from Korea, regarded the situation on the island as a setback that might hinder the world order it was trying to achieve. Furthermore, six of the armed rebel leaders, including Kim Dal-sam, defected to North Korea in August 1948, the Jeju people encountered an even stricter response by the government. Given that a lot of the residents were persuaded by the rebels to move into the mountain areas, it was irresponsible for the leadership to defect to the North.

In October 1948, the 9^th Regiment announced that anyone trespassing in the mountains located 5km or father from the coast would be considered armed rebels and be shot to death. The police forces proclaimed martial law in November, which triggered the subsequent mass slaughters. The number of those identified as ‘armed rebels’ and executed never surpassed 600, according to the official announcement by the government. However, the indiscriminate suppression operations against unarmed civilians whom the state-led forces considered enemies resulted in the deaths of 25,000 to 30,000 residents. 10% of the victims were children and elders. Leaving immense damage behind, the suppression operations officially ended in 1954. It was seven years after the police’s firing during the March 1^st Movement celebration.

Lamenting, a woodcut by Park Kyong-hoon (1988)

Iron Thorn Flower, woodcut by Park Kyong-hoon (1989)

Citizens, but treated as non-citizens

The police operations at the time meant ‘sweeping’ those staying in the mountain areas as 'armed rebels.’ Amid rounds of indiscriminate fires and arson attacks, nearly 95% of the villages in the mountains were burnt to the ground. Even those that were forced to move to coastal villages following the order of the police and the military were often summarily executed when suspected of supporting the armed rebels. This increased the number of those taking refuge in the mountain areas.

The state-led forces organized neighborhood groups of the United Young Men’ Party and the Minbodan in the coastal villages to have them take the lead in the suppression operations. This destroyed the traditional communal bound. Those who had been long-time neighbors ended up killing each other to survive. The armed rebels also murdered the resident they suspected of supporting the police forces. In the daytime, the police and the military killed the residents, calling them ‘rioters,’ and at nighttime, the armed rebels purged them, branding them as ‘reactionaries’. But when the armed rebel leader Lee Deok-gu was shot to death in June 1949, the group was virtually annihilated. Soon after the outbreak of the Korean War, the massacre of civilians continued through orders of preliminary custody. Those involved in Jeju 4.3 that had been imprisoned in different parts of the nation were summarily executed.

People hiding out in the mountains to reject the 5.10 General Election (May 1948)

Proceeding of court-martials

During Jeju 4.3, two court-martials were called for civilians in 1948 and 1949. Most of the accused were innocent civilians, including villagers in the mountain areas that had escaped death during the police operations and those that had been hiding on Mt. Halla to survive and who later believed the police propaganda saying the forces would ‘spare their lives’ if they would come down to lower-altitude areas. When examining the proceedings, no written records or protocols of the trials have been found that could prove that the martial courts followed legitimate procedures. The courts proceeded with hundreds of hearings every day, sentencing 345 persons to death in just three days. The survivors later universally stated that they had been jailed without due trial. Seo Jong-cheol, former vice Commander of the 9^th Regiment, and Kim Jeong-mu, Former Chief of Staff for Logistics, also testified that no official trials had been proceeded by the court-martials. Many of those subject to trials at the martial courts were instead scattered to different prisons across the country, and were summarily executed after the outbreak of the Korean War. Some were allegedly missing at the time, but nothing has been ascertained about whether they are now dead or still alive.

Punitive expedition forces searching the villagers' hideout in the mountains (1949)

The corpse of Lee Deok-gu, who was a leader of the Armed Resistance, hanging in the plaza in front of the Jeju Gwandeokjeong Pavilion (June 1949)

Inmates waiting in line to be interrogated (Nov 1948)

 Unjust orders not fulfilled

The massacre that occurred during Jeju 4.3 was attributed to the extremists that believed that all leftists, including communists, must be punished. The term ‘red’ was so vague in a concrete sense that it could apply to anyone, although the victimized locals, excluding a small population, were not communists. Nonetheless, those that viewed communists as enemies of the state and detested them justified the indiscriminate suppression as an act of patriotism. However, even in the times of collective madness, there remained those that explicitly opposed to the ‘unjustness’ of the events and put into practice their love for humanity.

One of them was Moon Hyeong-soon, Chief of the Seongsan Police station. After the Korean War broke out, he was ordered by the national government to execute 81 people who had been jailed preliminarily but transferred only six of them to the hands of the military. He decided not to follow the order for the remaining prisoners, opposing the mass slaughters with a written comment “unjust orders not fulfilled” on the orders received.

Moon Hyung-soon Police Chief, woodcut by Lee Yun-yop, 2018

Reverend Jo Nam-soo, who himself had been attacked by the armed rebels, visited Police Chief Moon Hyeong-soon to save the lives of those at risk of being killed under false accusations. As Chief Moon pledged not to punish those who would turn themselves in, Jo addressed the locals to persuade them to surrender themselves to the police, ending up saving many people.

Kim Seong-ong, then Gugang (leader of the gu district) of Shinheung-ri in Namwon-eup, responded to the state-led police forces asking the whereabouts of the villagers with only one answer: “I don’t know.” His efforts to protect his community members gave him an honorable nickname, Molla Gujang, basically ‘Leader I Don’t Know.’

PART 4: TRACES LEFT ON THE GROUND, SCARS LEFT IN PEOPLE’S HEARTS

Although many of the Jeju people suffered life-long damage after Jeju 4.3, lost loved ones, or lost their hometowns, they have withstood the painful history, reminding themselves of the old local saying, “You live through life and flow with life.” At times, their eyes were filled with tears, longing to see their missing family members again. Sometimes, entire neighborhoods performed ancestral rites on the same day, since that was the day of a bloodbath in the entire village. Jeju 4.3 did not just end in the past, but branded the offspring of the victims as communists in the form of guilt-by–association, leaving indelible scars. The survivors could not even grieve as much as they wanted. It was taboo to speak of Jeju 4.3, and the Jeju people had no choice but to visit a shaman to appease the souls of the deceased family members and express their repressed sorrow.

It was four decades later, around 1987 pro-democracy movements, that the nation finally began discussing the issues related to Jeju 4.3. There was an active movement for truth-based investigations into the events, and the local demand for the resolution of Jeju 4.3 motivated the political sphere to take action. In 2000 the National Assembly enacted Special Act on Discovering the Truth of the Jeju 4.3 Incident and the Restoration of Honor of Victims, which led to state-led investigations into the matter. The findings were contained in the Report on the Truth-finding Investigations of the Jeju 4.3 Incident, followed by a presidential apology. The Jeju 4.3 Peace Park was officially opened to the public in 2003, and in 2014, April 3^rd was designated as national memorial day. This year, Jeju Province will resume the excavation of the remains for the identification of the missing, which has been suspended for the past 10 years.

Saramshimin Sarajinda (You live through life and you flow with life)

By the time the bloodshed of Jeju 4.3 had ended, half of the married women in Jeju were called holleomeong (widow). Samdado an ‘island with lots of wind, stone and women’, the popular nickname given to Jeju, was in fact a scar left by Jeju 4.3. The many holleomeong raised their children on their own, worked as the breadwinners in their families, and rebuilt the ruined villages.

The Jeju people, living with the pain of Jeju 4.3, came to have a ‘red’ complex that was more deeply rooted than in other regions of Korea. After the Korean War broke out, local youths joined the military as a chance to demonstrate that they did not pertain to the ‘rioters’. Though victims, the Jeju people could not openly grieve for the loos of their loved ones, nor talk about their memories. In 1954, Bukchon in Jocheon-eup held a memorial event for their young community members who died during the 1950-1953 Korean War. As most of its members were killed during the massacre in 1948, the village decided to pay tribute to the 1948 victims as well. The mourning villagers eventually burst into a rage of tears, with lamenting interjections of “aigo!” meaning “alas!” It was later reported to the police, and the villagers and the community leader came to be in trouble. This was the occasion that is now referred to as the Aigo Incident, which indicates that there was a time when even grief was to be monitored.

Wondong Muhon-gut (Jeju shamanic exorcism to console the spirits of the dead), (1990)

Preparing garments for the souls of the deceased (1990)

A southern island that never sleeps

Jeju 4.3 includes tragic events that resulted in the second-largest number of casualties in modern Korean history after the Korean War. However, it took over half a century to discover the truth. The recognition of Jeju 4.3, in line with the democratization of the nation, changed from accusing it of being ‘armed rebels’ to recognizing the ‘violations of human rights by national authorities’.

Though in the past, Jeju 4.3 will remain a contemporary issue as long as people still suffer from the tragedy. When the painful wounds caused by Jeju 4.3 are viewed and cured by the perspective of universal human rights, we will be able to open the door to peace in a true sense. The historical evaluation of Jeju 4.3 now remains as the task that should be fulfilled by our contemporaries and the coming generations. How shall we remember Jeju 4.3, and how can we speak of the events that occurred seven decades ago?

Concerns Regarding Upcoming Olympics at Pyeongchang

The following article "Pyeongchang Legacy May Be Huge Piles of Debt" was taken from Korean JoongAng Daily, Novermber 9, 2017. Already the government is worrying about the unexpectedly low number of tickets to the Olympic games being sold to help pay for the venue and construction are still unreserved. 

According to another article I read about a month ago, the government is said to have expected 1 million people to pay for tickets to the Olympics, with 750,000 of those being Koreans who live in country. However, those projected numbers are far from being achieved! 

France is boycotting the Olympics, North Korea at the time still didn't hadn't had their qualification games so their attendance was uncertain, and then the international community had issues with attending. South and North Korea are heavily featured in the news and the political situation between the two countries is unstable, making visitors to South Korea very nervous. International communities also held campaigns against coming to S Korea also because South Koreans eat dog; petitions circulated with international people signing to boycott the Olympics because of, not really the practice of eating dog, but because of how dogs were killed in order to achieve maximum flavor in the vigor-embewing dog meat. Other petitions also circulated boycotting the South Korean winter Olympics because South Korea destroyed a 500+ year old sacred forest where the king's meat was once procured in order to build a ski-jump for the Olympic competitors. There were other sites in S Korea where the ski jump could have been built, slightly below optimum elevation but still acceptable to meet Olympic regulations, but S Korea opted to destroy a sacred forest that the government had designated as sacred less than 10 years previous. International communities were outraged, particularly on the grounds that the host countries of the Olympics must comply with environmental standards in order to (1) be hosts of the Olympics, and (2) get compensatory funds by an Olympic foundation. Obviously South Korea broke the rules and this was loudly aired online via outraged international communities.

This information is just background for readers to understand a bit more some of the dynamics affecting the low number of tickets sold thus far to people to watch the games first-hand. From this article, it's apparent that there are post-Olympic financial consequences of hosting the Olympics also.

As the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics rapidly approach, experts are increasingly voicing concerns that the legacy of the games may not be the passion and unity that the organizing committees are promising, but instead the costly, unused facilities that are likely to dot the northeast of the country.  

Four Olympic venues are yet to come up with post-Olympic plans, raising concerns that the Winter Olympics will join a growing list of international events that have ultimately gone on to cost Korea huge amounts of money.  

When the Asian Games was hosted in Incheon in 2014, about 1.72 trillion won ($1.54 billion) was spent on building 16 new venues. The majority of that is still left as debt, and Incheon has to pay between 10 billion and 150 billion won every year from 2015 to 2029.  

Not only that, the Korean Grand Prix, hosted for the first time in 2010, had to stop in 2013 as the accumulated deficit stacked up to 190 billion won.  

Excluding the PyeongChang Olympic Stadium, where the opening and closing ceremony will be held, there are a total of 12 venues for the Olympics. Of those, six of them are newly constructed and the remaining six were repaired, with the total bill racking up to about a trillion won. Including the newly-built Jeongseon Alpine Centre, which cost 203.4 billion won, Gangneung Ice Arena, costing 134 billion won, and Gangneung Oval, costing 126.4 billion won, five of the venues cost more than 100 billion won each.  

But three venues - Jeongseon Alpine Centre, Gangneung Hockey Centre and Gangneung Oval - are yet to announce a post-Olympics plan. Originally, the Gangneung Oval was expected to be broken down after the Olympics, but last year, Gangwon and the organizing committee agreed to maintain the facility.  

Daemyung Group, owner of the Daemyung Killer Whales Ice Hockey team, was originally going to take charge of the Gangneung Hockey Centre, but the company dropped out once it was revealed that the facility had a five-year operating cost of 10 billion won.  

At the Jeongseon Alpine Centre, 55 percent of the facility is expected to be restored back to its natural state. Since it’ll no longer be able to be used as a ski resort, it’s more difficult to come up with a post-Olympics plan.  

According to the Korea Industrial Strategy Institute Foundation, the annual maintenance cost of the main venues is expected to be 31.3 billion won. The foundation projects the facilities will be able to earn about 17.1 billion won a year, leaving a 14.2 billion won deficit.  

The PyeongChang Olympic Stadium is going to be the biggest problem. It cost a total of 63.5 billion won to build the stadium but it will be broken down after only four days of use throughout the Olympics and the Paralympics next year. This means that the stadium cost 15.8 billion won per day.  

Upon completion of the event, only 5,000 seats of 35,000 seats and three of seven floors will be kept. Though there hasn’t been a set plan for post-Olympic usage, the stadium is expected to be transformed into a concert hall or memorial park.  

Since Gangwon hasn’t come up with post-Olympics plans, they are asking the central government to manage the venues. To do so, they are pushing for a revision in the National Sports Promotion Act.  

“There’s a high possibility that the government will once again have to deal with the negative effects from the local government hosting such a big event,” said Lee Dae-taek, professor of physical education at Kookmin University. “Gangwon needs to be more responsible.”  

Chung Hee-joon, a sports sociology professor at Dong-A University, also pointed out that, “Hoenggye, where the Olympic Plaza is located, is a small town with only a population of 4,000. It’s difficult to make a post-Olympics plan.”  

To fix this, the organizing committee may have to study the success of low cost and high-efficiency events like the Gwangju Universiade and 6th CISM World Games Military Games, Korea.  

The 2015 Summer Universiade in Gwangju was by far the most successful event in Korea financially, as they only constructed three of the 69 facilities and used existing venues for the remaining events.  

The podiums were provided by the Incheon Asian Games organizing committee at no cost and the seats at the stadiums were folding chairs. Rather than flower bouquets, winners were awarded the event’s mascot dolls and tents were used as waiting rooms for players.  

This allowed savings of 199.9 billion won in operating and equipment expenses.  

The 6th CISM World Games Military Games in Mungyeong installed 350 caravans as athletes’ accommodation. Throughout the tournament, the total budget was 165.3 billion won with equipment expenses of 18.7 billion won. 

BY SONG JI-HOON, PARK RIN [kang.yoorim@joongang. co.kr]

History Alive: RAS Walking Tours

Hanyang aka Seoul, the pulsing vibrant capitol of the Joseon Dynasty and of modern Korea, mixes traditional architecture of the past with soaring tower constructions of the present. Vestige artifacts of the 500-year long dynasty are virtually hidden amidst the scrapers of capitalism. And yet, the old structures whisper history for those willing to listen.

In my 20+ years living in Korea, I’ve read books on the history of Korea and talked with many Korean friends, but it’s been the Royal Asiatic Society walking tours led by historians who have opened my eyes to the many historical treasures nestled in the Seoul downtown landscape.

While I read that Bosingak Belfry was the time keeper of the Joseon Dynasty and the bell was rung 33 times at 4 a.m. and 28 times at 10 p.m. to signal the opening and closing of the great gates and the market places, I learned in walking tours that the belfry was totally destroyed in the Korean War and the bell virtually buried in debris and earth.

The plaque at Tapgol Park reads that the March 1, 1919 independence protest began at Tapgol, but a RAS historian further explained the top of the 10-storey pagoda had been missing in the early 1900s and Koreans had no intention of reconstructing it. Korean belief was if the pagoda were completed, their nation would fall, which indeed happened. The Japanese learned of the superstition, completed the pagoda, and then ruled the peninsula for 35 years.

Tapgol/Pagoda Park in Seoul, ca. 1904 - Wikimedia Commons

I also learned Chong-ro—the road connecting the belfry, Tapgol Park and running close to the palaces—was formerly a place where people were executed by hacking or hanging, and the street was haunted by ghosts. It was also the road populated by the noble class with their horses, and peasants were obliged to bow in subservience while yangban processions passed. Pimatgol, literally meaning avoid + horse + alley, was the parallel alley for the peasants to go about their business and literally avoid the horses and forced bowing. Chong-ro is now a major downtown street and Pimatgol has been reconstructed into a place for business and social dining, but marked rocks in Pimatgol shout that history bled onto those stones. 

Why does a nation need five great palaces? Gyeongbokgung, the greatest of palaces, was built on principles of geomancy and astronomy. Building it symbolized the establishment of a dynasty, destroying it in colonial times symbolized the fall. Changdeokgung had been an alternative palace for a time and then used as a state palace, similar to Changgyeonggung, which in colonial times was desecrated by the Japanese invaders and turned into a zoo, an overt act of defilement. Deoksugung became the royal palace when Emperor Kojong was forced from Gyeongbokgung by the Japanese; after his death in 1919 the palace became a park and an art gallery, like many of the palaces. Gyeonghuigung was never a state palace, and during colonialism it was converted to a boys’ high school so the tramping of boys’ feet could smash its energy.

some dan-cheong imagery

I learned the exterior of the palaces is based on dan-cheong, literally “red” and “blue”. Dan-cheong is traditional painting of the palaces, so the palace supports are red like tree trunks, and the roof or upper part is green like leaves. And I learned that green and blue were not traditionally viewed as distinctly different in Korea as in the West. The small figures on the roof tiles invoke the power of the Monkey King, and the latticework on doors and windows are wishes for happiness, wealth or blessings for health. Architecturally, palaces, temples and houses were built without nails. Their joinery was the careful hewing and placement of beams at 90-degree angles. There are no flying buttresses and rose windows in Korea, but the graceful sway of the roofs are said to be like the up-turned feathers of a crane in flight. Traditional buildings are in harmony with nature.

Now when I walk the streets of Seoul, I nod my head as I listen to the buildings and stones telling me their little-heard histories. And while I still sign up for the RAS historical walking tours, I’m now a member of the society’s excursion committee planning other tours of discovery. For me, learning of the past is understanding the national foundation on which the present is built.

Published in The Korea Times under Culture and 4th in a series of viewpoints on Seoul as written by expats. [My Seoul Story[ History alive: Royal Asiatic Society walking tours, August 10, 2017.

Protesting the Sewol: 3 Years Later

Today, Sunday, 3 years after the sinking of the Sewol, protestors still live in tents at Kwanghwamun Square, and passersby are still requested to sign a petition for a fair and unbiased investigation on why the Sewol sank and why no one in authority initiated a more timely rescue. And to my surprise today, a female monk followed by a representative high school student -- both humbly barefoot -- walked perpetually in sadness in the fountain area, the monk carrying a chair draped in the white cloths of mourning (very shamanic symbols), the student representing the living among peers who untimely died.

Central Kwanghwamun Square was dedicated to mourning the loss of almost an entire class of high schoolers on their class trip to Jeju. Passerby freely and eagerly accepted yellow ribbons made in the thousands by volunteers, and long lines of passersby lined up to take a white chrysanthemum and dedicate it to the students who died, and most particularly to the 11 who have yet to be recovered. In Korea, there is no closure for the families until the body is properly buried and ancestral and religious rites conducted over it to send it on its way to heaven/paradise. Therefore, for the families of the 11 unrecovered bodies, there is no closure as the 11 spirits are wandering and undirected as to where they should go; wandering spirits can become harmful to the families; they must be properly propitiated in order for the spirits to continue blessing the families in the future. The past and the future are still strongly linked in the Korean afterlife belief system.

White chyrsanthemums, the symbol of death and mourning.

The memorial tent where bows are made to the deceased and special wishes-prayers
for the recovery of the 11 missing bodies are made.

Pictures of the students (taken one year prior to the sinking); upper right - demonstrators trying to get near the Blue House to petition President Park Guen Hye to take proper investigative action ... petitions felt perpetually rebuffed which created great anger in family members of Sewol children-victims.

Volunteers making thousand upon thousands of yellow ribbons to give to passersby and awaken interest in mourning in harmony regarding the national loss of future leaders but also credibility of the government. (Bottom picture) A young reader's book on the sinking of the Sewol, so the history will never be forgotten.

Fight of a lifetime: The Sewol struggle for a safe world

by Dae-Han Song (Chief Editor, The [su:p])

Mar. 10, the president is brought down. Two weeks later, the Sewol ferry is brought up. Thus the stage is set for the final scene of a struggle started on Apr. 16 of 2014 when the extraordinary was inflicted upon the ordinary, live on television. As the Sewol sank into the ocean, 304 people died. 250 of them were second year high school students going to Jeju on a trip as universal to Koreans 1 as senior prom is to people in the United States. The Sewol ferry rolled, completely capsized, then sank into the ocean taking with it 304 lives. In Korea and around the world, millions of tears were shed over the Sewol; thousands of miles were marched on its behalf; and millions of ribbons assembled and distributed to become a symbol of solidarity and dissent. The desperate attempts to rescue the passengers became a fight for truth and justice, then transformed into a quest to create a safe society turned right side up.

At the core of the fight are the families and their relentless spirit against government cover-ups, media smear campaign, repression, public backlash, frustrated investigations, and even timid politicians. What turned the fight into a social movement were the millions that made and wore ribbons and collected signatures, marched and clashed with the police alongside the families. Candlelight protests have brought down a president and brought up the ship. All polls indicate a change in government in the Blue House on May 9, thus finally making possible an investigation to find truth and justice for the victims of the Sewol. This is their story.

Worse than a failed rescue

On April 16 of 2014 at 8:50 AM, the Sewol ferry begins to capsize into the ocean. Within 40 minutes, the Coast Guard’s helicopter arrives at the scene, soon followed by a Coast Guard boat. Yet, the Coast Guard does not enter the ferry nor attempt an evacuation of the passengers. Instead, it saves the crew while the Coast Guard captain transmits video to the Blue House on his cell phone. Fishermen at the site of the accident rescue passengers, but are ordered to evacuate the crash site. Inside the ferry, hearing news that the Coast Guard has arrived, 304 passengers regain hope and wait for rescue. By 10:15, the ferry is completely capsized. The last passenger is saved at 10:21. At the “control tower,” President Park is told about the accident but only makes her first official appearance seven hours later at 5:15 PM at the disaster control center. The families that have come down to Paengmok Harbor to search for their loved ones are confronted with misinformation about the number and names of the survivors. As the golden hour of rescue slips by, the boat is completely overturned. Families’ only hope for survival are air pockets inside the ferry. The Coast Guard notifies the parents that there are hundreds of ships and tens of helicopters at the crash site. The families charter a private boat to the crash site and find out no rescue is happening. In the coming days, the reality cements that all of the 304 passengers have drowned awaiting rescue and that worse than a failed rescue was no rescue at all.

A little until after 10 AM, the students awaiting rescue from the Coast Guard outside are still sending messages and texts to their parents with one common theme: “We are going to get rescued.” Above, a student transmits a video call telling his parents, “If only I can live. Mom, dad, I love you.”

Legislating truth and justice

In order to confront the government’s contradictions about the rescue operations and to investigate and punish those responsible, on May 6, the 4.16 Sewol Victims/Missing/Survivor’s Family Task Force Committee (4.16 Family Task Force) is formed and begins collecting signatures for a bill to create a special body to investigate and punish the responsible. They ask the special body be given such legal authority to overcome the government’s inertia and growing resistance to the families’ pursuit of the truth. While publicly apologizing and taking responsibility, behind the scenes, President Park through the Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries (MMAF) and the ruling party works to impede the investigation. The 4.16 Family Task Force collects 3.5 million signatures in 70 days. On July 14, two days before passage of the bill, the 4.16 Family Task Force escalates pressure on the National Assembly by starting an indefinite fast and occupying its front steps and Korea’s main square in Gwanghwamun. A week later, they start another occupation near the Blue House requesting a meeting with the president as she had promised. The ruling and opposition party are unable to reach agreement on a bill with full investigative and prosecutorial authority. The families continue to gather signatures around the country, collecting over 6 million. One of the parents, Kim Young-oh continues fasting for 46 days. As part of their efforts to garner public support, the families and supporters succeed in getting a personal meeting with Pope Francis during his visit to Korea. On Nov. 7, after 119 days of occupation and a total of 6 million signatures, a bill finally passes the National Assembly. While it doesn’t contain prosecutorial and investigative authority, it guarantees family involvement in the process.

Sewol families collecting signatures (Source: m.newsq.kr)

The first round of petitions presented at the victims’ altar on July 14.

(Source: ohmynews.com)

Sewol family members sleeping during their 119 day occupation in front of the National Assembly.

(Source: worknworld.kctu.org)

The families flag down the Pope, and Kim Young-oh manages a personal encounter handing the Pope his plea for help in finding truth and justice. [Source (top) http://m.news1.kr (bottom) ohmynews.com]

Impeded investigations

As part of the new law, a preparatory committee for the Special Investigation Committee (Special Committee) is launched on Dec. 17. 2014. The composition 2 of the Special Committee allows the ruling party to appoint five (out of the 17) committee members. The ruling party and Park administration continue undermining and impeding the investigation to the truth. The ruling party with the help of its appointees fabricates a media smear campaign. 3 The Park Administration ignores the implementation plan proposed by the Special Committee, and through the MMAF unilaterally introduces a counterplan that undermines and weakens the Special Committee: The support staff for the Special Committee would be made up of the Coast Guard and the MMAF, the two main government bodies targeted for investigation; the investigation’s scope would be limited to the government’s investigation; the Special Committee would be limited to proposing a response plan for just maritime accidents. Furthermore, the number of support staff would be reduced from the originally proposed 125 to 90, with the majority working for the government. 4 In response, the families escalate their struggle and call for the abolishment of the government’s implementation plan. They shave their heads in resolution, march from their hometown in Ansan 5 to the National Assembly and then to Gwanghwamun. On May 1st, they attempt their first march (of many) to the legally permitted 100 meters from the Blue House but are stopped by police cannons with pepper laced water. From Feb. 23 to Jun. 13, to express frustration with the investigation, a bereaved father and daughter walk across the country alternating between taking three steps and bowing and hauling a replica of the Sewol hundreds of kilometers from Paengmok Harbor up north to Seoul. Despite the attacks and sabotage, the Special Committee collects evidence (much of it from family members) and holds three public hearings.

Feb. 23 – Jun. 13. A bereaved father and daughter walk from Paengmok Harbor to Seoul. They haul a replica out of the sea and take turns hauling it and doing three steps and a bow

[Source (top) ohmynews.com (bottom) blog.hani.co.kr/nomusa/] 

Apr. 2. Parents express their resolution against the government issued implementation bill. 

(Source: huffingtonpost.kr )

Apr. 4 – 5. The families march from Ansan to the 

National Assembly to Gwanghwamun.

(Source: poweroftruth.net)

May 1. Families attempt to march to 100 meters of the Blue House but are stopped 

by police hose and pepper infused water. (Source: ohmynews.com)

May 2. A family member exhausted after an all-night struggle passed out on the street.

(Source: ohmynews.com)

More questions than answers

The Special Committee’s limited authority has little success countering the Park government’s cover up through the MMAF. 6 The families push for an amendment to the Sewol Special Law allowing full investigative authority, a special prosecutor and recovery of the Sewol ferry. Rather than answering questions, the investigation raises many more: Why is there missing information about the position of the Sewol? Why is there missing audio communication with the Sewol? How/why did the Sewol captain get permission to depart Incheon Port despite inadequate documentation? Why was the National Intelligence Service so involved with the Sewol before the crash even being the body responsible for the Sewol?

The families continue protesting and taking to the streets and carrying out occupations to pass amendments to the Sewol Special Law. Despite winning the majority of the National Assembly, the opposition parties are unable to pass such amendments. At the end of September 2016, the Special Committee’s mandate comes to an end. Its members continue unofficially processing the information gathered during the investigation and serving as a transition to a future Special Committee under the next administration.

Raised by a sea of candlesWhile the heart and soul of the Sewol struggle are the families, its strength is the people. From those close to the families such as “Crying Uncle” – a taxi driver that drives the families hundreds of miles to and from Jindo when bodies are recovered – the dozens that every day assemble ribbons in Gwanghwamun while remembering the Sewol to the hundreds of thousands that collected signatures and marched alongside them, to the millions that cried when the Sewol sank. As Executive Director of the 416 Sewol Families for Truth and a Safer Society Yoo Gyoung-geun explains, “They [the people] stuck it out with us from beginning to end. They were around us. When we were having a hard time, they cheered us on…Even when we are having too hard of a time to come out, they came out instead. So we get the strength to continue. We can’t quit.” As the Choi Soon-sil scandal rocked the Park presidency. The families renewed their efforts for a new government. Even as others were calling for her resignation, the families were the first to call for her impeachment, incarceration and investigation to her missing seven hours. On December 3 of 2016, 963 days after their first attempt, floating on a sea of candles, the families finally march to 100 meters of the Blue House. On March 10, the Constitutional Court rules to remove President Park from office. On March 23, the Sewol finally emerges from the bottom of the ocean. On May 9, a presidential election will take place with all polls indicating a change in government and the victory of a candidate that promised a second Special Investigative Committee. 7

The struggle for a safe society

As the families met, cried, hugged, and struggled together with the public, their struggle transformed from an individual to a social struggle. Yoo recounts a transformative moment while fasting and occupying the front steps of the National Assembly in 2014:

“I was sitting in front of the National Assembly on my tenth day of fasting, some people came and sought us out. It was my first time meeting them, but they came up to me, grabbed my hand and started crying. ‘We are so sorry, we are so sorry.’ Who are these people to be apologizing to me? They introduced themselves as the parents of children that had died at the Taean Marine Camp Accident. The children drowned at sea while partaking in this experiential camp because of a mistake by an assistant instructor. These were those families. ‘But why are you apologizing to me?’ I asked. ‘If we hadn’t given up, and if we had fought to pass a special law and revealed the truth? If we had fought until the very end, then the Sewol would not have happened. But we didn’t fight until the end, we just settled and we stopped fighting. We should have kept fighting.’ He’s saying all this while sobbing. So then, I started recollecting all those instances where I just simply ignored or did nothing.”

On Jan. 25 of 2015, the 416 Sewol Victims/Missing/Survivor’s Family Task Force Committee becomes the 416 Sewol Families for Truth and a Safer Society fighting not just simply for the truth and justice of the Sewol, but to make a society that values people’s lives and safety over money. Once they build that safe society, maybe they can find peace that their children’s death was not senseless. Yoo recounts conversations between the parents, “As fathers and mothers that could not safeguard them at that last moment, we want to simply go to them [the children]. But we can’t go, until we finish. Once we finish, I think we will really want to go then. Amongst ourselves we say this. We want to go right now, but if we went now, would they take us in? They wouldn’t even look at us. We have to do all of this, then might they not receive us? So let’s do this, so we can go to our children.”

Nov. 15, police block the march from entering. The families of the Sewol are at the front of the march. (Source: m.focus.kr)

Dec. 3, the tide shifts. The families of the Sewol leading the march, the protests finally make it to the legally allowed 100 meters in front of the Blue House. It was 963 days after their first attempt. 

(Source: hani.co.kr)

Families cry at hearing the verdict removing President Park from office (Source: ohmynews.com)

The Sewol emerges  (Source: christian.nocutnews.co.kr/)

A volunteer at the Yellow Ribbon Factory in Gwanghwamun gluing ribbons.

The author (right) “Crying Uncle” (left) going through the calendar in one of the Sewol classrooms at the Classroom of Remembrance. December 31 is marked “3rd year for real now” along with tear marks for the year ahead cramming for the college entrance exam.

On the side of Crying Uncle’s taxi

References

A complete timeline of the Sewol struggle can be found (in Korean) at: http://www.tiki-toki.com/timeline/entry/749089/416-/

Notes: 

1. Before starting their third and most difficult year in high school when they have to cram for the college entrance examination, second year high school students embark on a three day two night trip many of them to Jeju Island. 
2. Three of the members are appointed by the families, five by the opposition parties, five by the ruling party, and two each by the Supreme Court and the President of the Korean Bar. 
3. The President of the Saenuri Party (Park’s party) accuses the Special Committee of over budgeting and wasting tax money. All the major media pick up the story. He bases his charge on a budget proposal leaked by the vice-Chair of the Committee (a ruling party appointee). The document later turns out to have been produced by the appointed committee members without consultation or approval from the rest of the committee. 
4. 42 out of the 90 would be government employees. 
5. 250 of the 304 of the victims were 2nd year students from Danwon High School in Ansan. Thus, Ansan has become one of the epicenters of the Sewol struggle as well as the site of their altar. 
6. It’s revealed that the Blue House mandated the MMAF to impede the investigation on Nov. 19, 2015. 
7. Presidential candidate Moon Jae-in of the Together Democratic party has consistently maintained his 40 percentage lead, with the next runner-up trailing over 20 percent. He has promised to immediately starting a second Special Committee to investigate the truth as soon as his administration takes office.