4·3, which occurred during the US military regime in the Cold War era, should be considered not only as a domestic issue but also as a global concern. This session, under the theme of ‘National Violence and its memory,’ discusses how foreign journalists have dealt with the issue, what viewpoints they have had on it and what prospects should be sought for peace. It is to raise the scope of 4·3 to the international level.
The following are excerpts from the final report of the Jeju Forum 2018.
● Chair
KO Hee-Bum Former Director, The Hankyoreh
● Moderator
KIM In-Hee Former Announcer of MBC
● Keynote Speaker
YI Mahn-Yol Honorary Professor, Sookmyung Women’s University/Former Chair, National Institute of Korea History
● Presenter
Tim SHORROCK Journalist, the Nation & Newstapa-Korea Center for Investigative Journalism
Hideaki ISHIBASHI Journalist, Asahi Shimbun
● Discussant
KWON Hyukchul Director, The Hankyoreh Peace Institute
● Opening Remarks
LEE Kyu-Bae Chairman, Jeju 4·3 Research Institute/Professor, Jeju International University
● Congratulatory Remarks
WON Heeryong Governor, Jeju Special Self-Governing Province
● LEE Kyu-Bae Jeju 4.3 Research Institute makes it a rule to have an academic seminar every year to prepare for what is expected ahead. This year marks the 70th anniversary of the Jeju 4.3 Incident. I hope today’s session will provide an opportunity to remind us of the meaning of the Incident, discuss how it should go down in history and how to hold the U.S. accountable for its role in the tragic incident. If we could find the path we should take in the spirit of the Jeju 4.3 Movement, the institute would have fulfilled its task, I think.
Jeju 4.3 Research Institute has followed the history of Jeju and have been with the people of Jeju ever since it was founded 30 years ago. At long last, spring is coming to Jeju just as President Moon Jae-in said when he attended a memorial ceremony marking the 70th anniversary of the Incident. I hope the government would have more interest in the historical incident and do what it has to do. I expect that a lot of great proposals, including the ideas on what to do at this turning point, will be presented at today’s session. I expect honorary professor YI Mahn-Yol will share his insights on exactly what direction we should pursue with regard to the Jeju 4.3. I also think that we can learn about the viewpoints of the foreign press on the Jeju 4.3 as well as many cases of victimization of women by state violence in different parts of the globe. Today, I hope, we can share deeper thoughts about how we should carry on the spirit of the Jeju 4.3.
● WON Hee-ryong I think this is a truly meaningful and valuable occasion to ruminate on the Jeu 4.3 Incident. This year marks the second time that the Jeju Forum has organized a session on the Incident. I hope this session will provide an opportunity for the entire nation to remember the historical incident and to make it known around the world. I appreciate Chairman Lee Kyu-Bae of Jeju 4.3 Research Institute and others at the institute, the staff members at the Association for the April 3 Victims, and the staff at the Jeju 4.3 Peace Foundation for arranging this opportunity. I would also like to thank honorary professor YI Mahn-Yol for being here to deliver a keynote speech and other guests such as journalists and professors. This year marks the 70th anniversary of the Jeju 4.3 Incident. We recently held a historic memorial ceremony that President Moon Jae-in attended. The Jeju 4.3 is part of Korean history. So far, topics about the Incident have been sporadically discussed on the civic level. It is so meaningful to have them discussed in a public session such as this. I pledge to formulate official policies on the remembrance of the Jeju 4.3, based on the discussions we have here today. In celebration of the 70th anniversary of the Jeju 4.3, we have already declared this year as ‘Visit Jeju Year’ and have been focusing our efforts to make the Incident known at home and abroad. Your interest will be greatly appreciated. And I would like to ask for your continued support for the amendment of the Jeju 4.3 Special Law, the long-pending wish of the victims.
● YI Mahn-Yol Sexual assaults on women were no exception in the case of the Jeju 4.3 Incident. Female victims were raped and then brutally murdered. Those that survived sexual assaults were traumatized for the rest of their lives. This genocide of innocent people and sex crimes against women committed by government authorities testify to what the Incident was. As Kim Ik-ryeol, then commander of police forces on the island, said about the rebel leader Kim Dal-sam in his memoir, the Jeju 4.3 was a righteous uprising against the Japanese collaborators and police forces. That means, I believe, the Jeju 4.3 deserves to be written in history as one of the great social movements in modern Korean history along the lines of the peasant revolts in the early 1900s the Imsul Rebellion of 1862 Donghak Peasant Revolution the Anti-Japanese Righteous Army Movement the Independence Movement against Japanese Rule the March First Movement the independence fight of the Korean Provisional Government the April 19 Revolution the Gwangju Uprising the 1987 Struggle for Democracy and the most recent candlelight protest. That being said, the Jeju 4.3 is still characterized as a genocide. It is a unique incident because the tragedy took place on the isolated island of Jeju. The genocide was committed during peacetime, not wartime, and the victims were killed by law enforcement authorities on the isolated island. But the Incident, seen as a byproduct of the Cold War to some extent, is also imbued with international factors. Japan had something to do with the Jeju 4.3 in social and economic aspects of the Incident. At the same time, there is an issue of statute of limitations on anti-humanity crimes, including sexual assaults. So, whether and how to revise the relevant laws should be subject to further research and discussions. The victims were ideological scapegoats sacrificed by the state power in the period of national liberation. They were also scapegoats of the Cold War, the na-tional division and the segregation between islanders and mainlanders. Jeju people should never forget this painful period. The Incident was sparked by the central government’s discrimination against the islanders, so the Jeju community should make efforts to identify themselves with the spirit of the struggle. The designation of ‘April 3’ as a local Memorial Day is part of those efforts. Its memories should be passed on to the succeeding generations, so that they can “contemporize” the Jeju 4.3. To achieve “reconciliation and co-prosperity,” we should revive the Jeju 4.3 spirit of self-sacrifice under the Cold War system, national division and ideological confrontation. We do not have to torment ourselves over the unresolved issues. It is difficult to settle them all at once. I expect that we can make progress step by step and reach maturity while endeavoring to address the 4.3 issues and carry on the spirit. As the history is completed in the “passage of time and procedures,” it is important that we wait and see how our next generation would reincarnate the spirit.
● KO Hee-Bum On the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the Jeju 4.3, Korean society came up with the thematic statement, “The Jeju 4.3 is a history of the Republic of Korea.” This statement indicates the awakening to the fact that we know little about the Incident. We have been talking about how to make it a national and an international issue. I think, if we listen to the views of the foreign journalists here, we can see how it would go down in world history.
● Tim SHORROCK The Jeju 4.3 Incident and the Gwangju Uprising Through the Eyes of an American Journalist: I was surprised when I found out the Jeju 4.3 and the Gwangju Uprising had a lot in common. The Jeju 4.3 was an armed rebellion against the U.S. Military Government in Korea, while the latter was a pro-democracy struggle against the then martial law government of Korea. In both cases, the U.S. got involved in the violence committed by the Korean government. The U.S. involvement was clearly seen in the Jeju 4.3. The U.S. Military Government was behind the suppression of the rebellion on Jeju. The Jimmy Carter administration was also behind the Korean government’s bloody crackdown on the uprising in Gwangju. The declassified documents, dated between April and May 1980, confirmed that the U.S. government approved of the dispatch of Korean troops to Gwangju. Today, many citizens of Gwangju are still upset by the fact. However, civic groups did not take note of the role of the U.S. armed forces here, just taking issue with the role of then Korean general Chun Doo-hwan in the crackdown on the Gwangju Uprising. To me, that is because of the fact that the Jeju 4.3 Incident happened in 1947, when South Korea was ruled by the U.S. Military Government, while the Gwangju Uprising took place in 1980, when the coup forces were in control of the country. However, both of them had their roots in the Cold War. There is a slight difference between what the U.S. did in Gwangju and what it did on Jeju. However, it is clear that the U.S. government was directly involved in the acts of the Korean government backed by the U.S. Intervention in Korean affairs was a conventional practice of the U.S. since 1945, and it should be understood in the context of Cold War history. The two incidents were the only struggles against the U.S.-backed governments, hard to find elsewhere during the Cold War order. The two incidents provide us with an opportunity to examine the perspectives that the U.S., the Soviet and their respective allies had during the Cold War. What counts, aside from the role of the U.S., is how the Korean government oppressed the people. One of the tragic feature of the Jeju 4.3 is that anti-Communist rightists not only remained in power for a long time, but also kept a lid on the history. How many years did it take to talk freely about the tragic incident that happened in Jeju and Gwangju? The news media was not allowed to report about them from the 1980s to 1990s. The suppression of the press is something the two incidents have in common.
● Hideaki ISHIBASHI The Jeju 4.3 Incident as Seen by a Japanese Journalist: I happened to write a news article about the Jeju 4.3 after having a conversation with a Korean-Japanese living in Osaka. Most Japanese do not know about the Incident. There were few people who had heard of it at that time. Nevertheless, the news story carried substantial weight in Japan.
There is a Koreatown in Ikuno Ward in Osaka. Many people from Jeju have been living in Osaka since World War II. In the 1990s, the Korean community in Osaka was experiencing a generational shift, and the second Korean-Japanese generation began to learn about the Jeju 4.3 Incident and do something for reconciliation with the past. The second-generation Korean-Japanese planned Jeju 4.3 memorial ceremonies, and I covered a story about them. My article, the leading story in the city section of the morning newspaper on the Jeju 4.3, was published under the title “A taboo for half a century – Looking back upon the Jeju 4.3 Incident in Korea.” The article was about a woman who had no choice but to escape to Japan at the time of the 4.3 Incident. The Incident was something directly concerning the people of Jeju living in Osaka. It was painful for them to talk about the tragedy. But I thought that they could talk about the Incident because the Korean-Japanese community was going through a generational shift from the first to the second. I sympathized with the pain of the Korean-Japanese living in my country and that encouraged me to write the story. On the other hand, as the Kim Dae-jung government took office in Korea, a mood of reconciliation with the past seemed to settle in the Korean-Japanese society. I could write the story because the Japanese news media also started to show interest in the Incident. A Korean-Japanese from Jeju asked me after my article was published, “Why did you, a Japanese, write about it?” I thought Japanese people should look squarely at the tragedy as one of the parties involved in the Incident, because it broke out in the power vacuum following the withdrawal of Japanese troops from Korea and amid the distorted power balance Japanese colonial rule left behind. I walked around Osaka’s Ikuno Ward every day from 1997 to1998 to learn about the Korean community and the Apr. 4.3. I thought it would be more important to describe the overall feature of the community of Jeju people in Ikuno Ward than to merely collect testimonies from them.
● KO Hee-Bum I would like to say that Mr. Shorrock seems like an investigative journalist with scholarly insight, whereas Mr. Ishibashi appears to be a journalist with a warm heart who knows how to thoroughly probe the wound as to heal it.
● KWON Hyukchul Like many other mainlanders, I was not previously interested in the Jeju 4.3. It was ten years ago, when I was walking along Jeju’s Olle Trails, that I started to think hard about it. At first, I noted the beautiful scenery. After walking on the trails several times a year, I came to know that there are many sites of the April 4.3 massacres along the trails and started to feel the suffering of the victims. I asked myself why I did not know and why I, as a journalist, was not interested. I soon found myself looking for books about the Incident. I was much surprised when I came across Mr. Ishibashi’s article. I felt ashamed to find that a foreign journalist was more interested in and knew more about it than I. I felt sorry for myself as a journalist for being ignorant and doing nothing about it. The Jeju 4.3 has been a taboo subject in Korea for the last 70 years.
We are discussing ways to make it a national and global issue. Recent surveys show, however, that it has yet to become one. It is still considered just a past of Jeju Island. The motto, “The Jeju 4.3 is a history of the Republic of Korea,” adopted by the National Committee for the 70th Anniversary of the Jeju 4.3 Incident paradoxically testifies to the reality that the tragedy is still seen only as a history of the remote island, not of the Republic of Korea. I would like to ask Mr. Ishibashi how he came be interested in the Jeju 4.3 Incident, how Japanese people perceive it and how much coverage the Japanese media has allotted it as a news item. And I would like to ask Mr. Shorrock how the U.S. Military Government or the U.S. government was related to the Jeju 4.3. Why did the former president Roh Moo-hyun mention the Cold War when he formally apologized for the massacre on behalf of the Korean government? It was because the Jeju 4.3 was inseparable from the then Cold War order, I believe. The fact-finding report on the Jeju 4.3 published by the Roh Moo-hyun government in 2003 support this view. The government report indicated that the U.S. Military Government and the U.S. Military Advisory Group were culpable, holding them accountable for the losses of lives during the Incident. American Professor Bruce Cumings claimed that the U.S. was responsible for the Incident as a whole, while John Merrill said that the U.S. was responsible until the Republic of Korea was established in August 1948, but afterwards, the government of Syngman Rhee should have been held accountable for it. I would like to ask you for your opinion, Mr. Shorrock.
● Hideaki ISHIBASHI I covered the story about the Jeju 4.3 partly because I wanted to portray it in the eyes of the Korean residents in Japan. The existence of Korean-Japanese in Japan might be called a byproduct of Japanese colonial rule. They might be entitled to the compensation of the Japanese government for the violation of their human rights. I have covered their story as a mirror of Japanese society. I wrote about what they had in mind about the Jeju 4.3 and what was in the background of their migration to Japan. I am not saying that there was no Japanese news media which delivered the Korean-Japanese version of the Jeju 4.3 story. The regular memorial ceremonies have been reported in Japan whenever they were held. Many news outlets did not fail to report about how Korean-Japanese paid tribute to the victims of the Incident. It is true, however, that many of them still think it is an unpopular subject that only concerns a small group of Koreans living in Japan. I feel sorry about that. After all, we should admit that the root cause of the Incident lies in Japanese colonial rule.
● Tim SHORROCK It seems that you have cited John Merrill’s report, “The Cheju-Do Rebellion,” to point out the U.S. government’s responsibility for it. Jeju was labeled as the “Reds’ Island” after the Korean government was established in 1948, and I suspect the U.S. has been involved in the stigmatization of the island. It is not certain whether the U.S. involvement was direct or not, but I believe that the U.S. still got involved in the crackdown on the leftists in different ways and tacitly allowed the Japanese-trained police to continue to serve the government after national liberation. The Cold War order dominated Korean society. Koreans wanted independence and reunification but ended up with unwanted national division. It was due to the policies of the U.S and other world powers. So, it is not a matter of whether the U.S. was involved in it directly or indirectly. I still believe that the U.S. has been fully involved in the tragic incident.
● KO Hee-Bum I believe the reason we delve into the tragedies of the past is that it is a procedure we have to go through to move toward a new future. The same is true for relations between countries. It is necessary to find truth in the past to move toward a new and friendly partnership. I hope that the Jeju 4.3 as discussed in today’s session will go down in world history as one of the resistance movements against unjust state violence.
Policy Implications
• Also, we should endeavor to make the Apr. 3 Incident better known around the world. These efforts should include support for exchanges among local governments, art and culture circle and academic organizations, in addition to the issue of educational material and translation of the historical texts on the Jeju 4.3 in foreign languages. On the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the Incident, we should consider a world-tour exhibition of Jeju 4.3 in cooperation with world-famous museums to globalize the historical incident, in addition to the one-off exhibition organized recently by the National Museum of Korean Contemporary History.
• The perceptions about the Jeju 4.3 vary among Koreans, foreigners, islanders, mainlanders, the generation that experienced it and those that did not. The perception gap would widen as time passes. And such a gap will be a major obstacle to understanding the Jeju. 4.3. Thus, the efforts to close the perception gap are necessary, among others, to have the Jeju 4.3 go down in world history, and the government should support it with its policies.
• Also, we should endeavor to make the Apr. 3 Incident better known around the world. These efforts should include support for exchanges among local governments, art and culture circle and academic organizations, in addition to the issue of educational material and translation of the historical texts on the Jeju 4.3 in foreign languages. On the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the Incident, we should consider a world-tour exhibition of Jeju 4.3 in cooperation with world-famous museums to globalize the historical incident, in addition to the one-off exhibition organized recently by the National Museum of Korean Contemporary History.
홈