WEEK 8 – COUNTERMEMORIES OF THE KOREAN WAR/VOICES FOR DEMOCRATIZATION

The Establishment of the Jeju Truth Commission

1947-1954: armed communist uprisings and counterinsurgency actions occurred in Jeju Province

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→ The event was hidden from the public and the demand for truth about the event was suppressed → Hence the creation of the Commission

3 mandates of the Committee:

1. To investigate and reveal the truth
2. To screen and identify victims
3. To restore the honour of the victims

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=> Got a presidential apology + memorial service for the victims + updated textbooks all in the 2000s.

“The Jeju 4.3 Events” Reading

3 main arguments brought up:

* Understanding the uprising beyond a “Communist rebellion” and more towards a “popular uprising” to involve the general public and avoid justifying the massacres through the suppression of communism.
* The real starting date of the Jeju 4.3.
* The responsibility for the civilian massacres.

How did it start?

In March 1947:

rally by leftist groups to commemorate the independence movement of 1919; police open fire on spectators

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→ In response, local branch of the Communist party organized a province-wide strike that began in March and had a large following.

***What escalated this?***

* Political alliances: Police reinforcements, rightist youth groups and people of Jeju
* a lot of the police immigrated from the North —> tense politcal climate created in Jeju at the time.
* Islanders vs mainlanders → long-standing prejudice
* Emergence of two local rightist youth groups
* April 3rd 1948: local Communist party attacks police substations, offices and residences of rightist political leaders
* Mostly to “oppose the US imperialism”:

at this time, US imperialism is seen as very similar to Japanese imperialism: both in use of military AND in the US’ re-appointment of officials who were in place during Japanese imperialism.

4\.3 Events: counterinsurgency strategy

* involved mass arrests and detentions, forced relocations, torture, indiscriminate and mass killings
* Most mass killings occurred in the mountain villages, anyone found in the interior of the island was considered a rebel.
* Military revolt in Yeosu in 1948 against the ”murder of the people in Cheju-do” pressured the Rhee government and US military to take harsher action
* => led to Martial Law in Jeju (Nov 1948)

Martial Law in Jeju

Nov 1948

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Decree that $“anyone who was captured without a permit within a 5 kilometer radius of the coastline would be executed”$

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\- Forcibly relocated residents of mountain villages (1/3 of the population)

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=> Jiseul Movie (2012)

Jiseul (2012)

CONFUSION + IGNORANCE :

* old woman asking what a communist is
* the men who either can’t read the decree (illiterate) or don’t understand it

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DISCONNECT between the politics behind it and what people see and suffer through.
—> the variety of narratives going on at the same time (cacophony).

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FAMILY TIES: both old woman and men talk about protecting their family.