“Why are there so many gravesites in Jeju Island?” This is the question that inspired me to get started with this project. While looking for the answer, I faced the history of the Jeju 4.3 Uprising, in which nearly 30,000 people were killed in 1947. It is this incident that forms the central focus of my project, through which I will investigate the uprising's remnants and the aftermath on Jeju Island.
The April Jeju Uprising was an incident that caused many civilians’ sacrifices due to the ideological conflict in the Korean Peninsula. Korea gained independence from Japan on August 15, 1945. After the liberation, the Korean Peninsula was divided between two major powers, with the Soviet Union in the north and the U.S. occupying the south.
The Jeju Uprising all began when a boy was trampled by the horse of a mounted police officer while people were marching at the ceremony to commemorate the Independence Movement on March 1, 1947. The crowd was outraged as the police officer ignored the injured boy. Some people in the crowd began to throw stones at the police. In the end, six civilians were killed and injured. Due to this action, people who were at the march were arrested.
Those who opposed the police actions requested an apology, but the government designated the protests as a communist uprising. After this, the government announced that 5 kilometers inland from the coast would be considered to be “hostile territory,” and anyone entering beyond that point would be killed. I decided to visit the memorial stones’ sites spread out through the island.
Through this project, I would like to give the victims a voice, create interest in visiting historic sites, and commemorate the history of Jeju 4.3.
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