About Jeju 4.3 Massacre
When I searched "April 3rd in Jeju" on the internet, it was explained as "Jeju uprising". The meaning of the word uprising is like this: "a usually violent effort by many people to change the government or leader of a country: rebellion."
Actually, I haven't found an appropriate word for what happened on the 3rd of April, 1948, on Jeju island. To call it an "uprising" makes me uncomfortable because my grandfather and most of his young children, who would have been my uncles and aunts if they survived, died in the midst of the tragedy. My grandmother and her 2-year-old baby, my father, were the only survivors in the family. They were innocent people who were not related to the "uprising." They were just victims. My grandfather was a teacher then, and he might have been related to the communist party movement which prevailed on the island, but nobody knew. All we know is he was just killed like other 30,000 non-combatant islanders by the South Korean army, which collaborated with the right-wing anti-communist militia, Northwest Youth League.
In Korean, it is just called "4.3". Some people add the word "Sageon," which means "accident" after 4.3, but I think it just reflects confusion in defining the historical event. I think it should be defined as "massacre" rather than "uprising," "rebellion," or "accident." What is the most important and should be commemorated about the event is that 30,000 innocent people were killed. Political connotation related to "uprising" has spurred disputes about the cause of the violence. Several weeks ago, a right-wing politician and a former North Korean diplomat Thae Yong-ho said Kim Il-sung, the president of North Korea at that time, ordered a communist riot on Jeju island, which was the cause of the tragedy. But his remark follows the logic of the right-wing political group, which justifies the violence by the South Korean military and police.
The current president Yun Seok-Yeol didn't attend the ceremony commemorating the Jeju massacre today. He tries to disregard and erase history. But it will not be forgotten as long as we try to memorize it, so I'll teach my kids about our sad familial history tonight.
