On April 3, 2019, the Jeju 4.3 Victims’ Memorial Ceremony was held at Jeju Island. ST recalls the Jeju 4.3 tragedy.......................................................................................................................................................................................................Ed
On April 3rd, 2019, on the occasion of its 71st anniversary, the Jeju 4.3 Victims’
Memorial Ceremony was held at the Jeju 4.3 Peace Park. Among those who
participated in the Jeju 4.3 victims’ memorial service, a person wore a camellia broach.
This is a way of honoring the 4.3 victims, and the flower means that the souls of the
victims in the 4.3 tragedy were lost without a sound to the ground and were as cold
as the red camellia flower. It also means peace, reconciliation, and co-prosperity for a
complete resolution of the event. Now, it shows the spot where the camellia blossom
became a scar in the modern history of Korea.
The Jeju 4.3 Victims’ Memorial Ceremony was attended by many bereaved families, related groups, the President, as well as lawmakers
and the officers at the Ministry of National Defense. For the first time in 71 years, the Defense Ministry and the police have apologized for
the incident. Soongsilians need to know what the Jeju 4.3 incident is about, and why we have to remember and mourn the dead.
In the Jeju 4.3 incident, many civilians were killed in the course of armed clashes and crackdowns that began in April 3, 1948.
Then, an uprising took place on September 21, 1954, culminating the nationwide independence movements that began in March.
At that time, 30,000 people, or 10 percent of Jeju’s population, were massacred by the Namro Party’s armed forces and the U.S.
military and police. Furthermore, young men and girls, who were only 16 to 25 years old, have been falsely imprisoned. Of the 2,530
inmates recorded on the list of inmates, only 29 are confirmed alive. In the end, 18 people, who were sentenced to 4.3 jail terms,
were cleared of their crimes for the first time in 70 years after a retrial, and were seeking compensation from the state. An additional
12 confirmed surviving inmates are also preparing for a retrial. However, a total of 2,500 prisoners have become ex-convicts, and
there is no way to file a lawsuit because most of them are misnsig, or cannot be found by their bereaved families.
‘Shooting Star,’ the 59th Student Council of the SSU, carried on a project called [What is Jeju 4.3?]. This is a journey back to 71 years ago in Jeju, where people wondered and discovered what happened at that time, what 4.3 was, and what those 71 years meant. Yeom Da-yeon (Department of Information Sociology student, 18), who participated in the project, said, “The Jeju 4.3 History Curriculum was a program that allowed us to experience the 4.3 incident that occurred 71 years ago. I learned that what we don’t forget can be of great help to
the victims and their families.”
Lee Ju-a (ST Cub-Reporter)
