Jeju, Island of World Peace

Hereafter, Jeju Island has set “Island of World Peace” as an initiative for “Future Vision” and is currently promoting relevant policies and projects. From a national perspective, Jeju is now truly recognized as a true island of peace, not just in name, but also in reality. However, it has not been a long time since Jeju gained attention as an island for romantic leisure and became a symbolic region for peace and human rights. Previously, Jeju has been reminiscent of banishment, periphery, backwardness, revolt, repression, exploitation, plunder and hardship, as well as the harsh natural environment. With surprising progress from the past, Jeju is now perceived as the ‘island of peace,’ a completely opposite notion.

This paper attempts to investigate the answer to why Jeju has become the ‘Island of Peace’ by revisiting the island’s history of suppression, exploitation, plunder and as well as its significance and suggest a way forward along with the changing  political landscape of Northeastern Asia.

First, the geographic information of Jeju island will be examined.

Since ancient times, Jeju has served as a strategic point of maritime transportation in the route that spans from China to the southern part of Korea, and even to the Japanese island of Kyushu[九州]. Jeju was a port of call for ships sailing between China, Japan, and Southeast Asia. The fact that Jeju’s historic relics and sites are located mostly in the northwestern area indicates that Jeju brought in advanced products from China and the Korean mainland. During the 1928 construction of the Jeju Port, relics from China’s Han(漢) period (B.C. 202 to A.D. 220, the most powerful period of Chinese history as 92% of the Chinese population were from Han) were discovered, indicating the factual history where Jeju played the role of a stopover port along the trade route connecting China, Korea, and Japan. Marado Island’s lighthouse, built on March 4, 1915 (Proclamation No. 46, General Government of Chosun), was registered as an international marine aid to navigation because of its importance in maritime transportation. Due to its geographic position, the culture of Jeju Island came to feature distinctiveness and diversity, different from that of the mainland of Korea.

Dating back to the Goryeo period, Jeju Island which used to be a strategic position between China, Japan, and Southeast Asia, emerged as an area of collision internationally. Although the island had maintained an independent culture and political order as Tamna, a kingdom, it was annexed to the mainland of Korea during the Goryeo era. Jeju became the scapegoat of a heated hegemonic rivalry among ancient powers. The Yuan Dynasty first noticed the geopolitical value of the southern island when it took control over the Goryeo Dynasty which had reached the south by suppressing the resistance of the Sambyeolcho (the private patrol forces of Goryeo). Consequently, the Mongolian empire established direct command on the island to use it as a foothold for keeping Goryeo, Southern Song, and Japan in check. Problems occurred when the empire collapsed. Ming, the then-emerging dynasty which took over the power of Yuan, claimed ownership of the island. Among the people of Tamna, many still strongly supported the Mongolian empire because it brought economic prosperity to their community. However, Goryeo’s King, Gongmin, who had suffered indignity caused by Yuan Dynasty, considered Jeju unfavorable. Under these circumstances, King Gongmin ordered General Choe Yeong to subjugate Jeju. General Choe started a battle which led to multiple incidents of the mass murder of Jeju residents. The island in the peripheral region turned out to be a victim of violence committed by the state power.

After experiencing suppression due to direct military invasion during Goryeo era, Jeju faced a new phase of suppression and plunder when the Joseon Dynasty was established. Jeju, with its peripheral location, far away from the central government, became a place of exile where nearly 200 people were banished throughout the 500-year history of Joseon. The statuses of those exiled to Jeju covered all levels of society, from top to bottom, including dethroned kings such as Gwanghaegun, royal family members, politicians, scholars, Buddhist monks, eunuchs, and robbers. During that period of time, the regions that were difficult for the government to control had to endure exploitation and plunder by state-appointed bureaucrats. Of the peripheral regions, Jeju Island was located even farther from state control than the others. Hence, it had to suffer even more severe exploitation and plunder. Given that the residents of Jeju Island built a socioeconomic community to survive the harsh natural environment, it was inevitable that the local attitude of staying vigilant and protective against outsiders was created. This is the reason why the local community pursued openness internally, while strongly excluding external forces.

During the Japanese colonial era, the entire nation of Korea experienced hardships, but Jeju experienced more severe agony. Just before national liberation, Imperial Japan turned the island into the last bastion of defense for the main islands of Japan, establishing Operation Ketsu-Go [a decisive battle] No. 7. In other words, during the Pacific War, Japan was prepared to use Jeju as the ‘last bastion of the decisive battle against the United States’ to protect its main islands. By deploying around 75,000 troops (half of the total Japanese forces stationed in Korea) to Jeju Island, the Japanese government prepared the so-called ‘Operation Gyokusai’ (“Gyokusai” is a Japanese term translated into ‘shattering like a jewel’), resolving to fight until the last soldier died. This means that the-then great powers newly recognized anew the strategic value of Jeju Island. In the meantime, Jeju residents were forcibly mobilized to construct a Japanese airfield in preparing for the final battle against the U.S., and also suffered an air raid by the U.S. forces.

It is also widely known that not just the United States, which expanded its control over the Korean Peninsula after World War II, but also the Soviet showed keen interest in the geopolitical location of Jeju Island. Amidst the increased attention from the great powers hoping to use the Korean Peninsula for their respective strategic positions, a genocide occurred on Jeju, known as Jeju 4·3, where one tenth of the residents were massacred by state power.

Furthermore, in the late 1960s, the Park Chung-hee administration expressed its intent to establish a U.S. military base on Jeju Island in the event of its withdrawal from Okinawa. The South Korean government announced in the late 1980s that it would zone the area including Songaksan Mountain into a military base and installation protection zone. Considering the latest construction of the naval base in Gangjeong, Jeju Island has experienced the same pattern in history from the Goryeo period until recently, where external forces suppressed the islanders for geopolitical reasons, under the pretext of ‘strategic’ importance.

With the heightening geopolitical value, Jeju Island has continued to suffer military invasions: starting from the Goryeo period, the invasion recurred even after national liberation, throughout Jeju 4·3 and then during the subsequent proposal for a military airport and the construction of a naval base in Gangjeong. Furthermore, its peripheral location distant from the mainland resulted in plunder by officials appointed by the state government. All of the cases of suppression and exploitation were activated with the logic of power, and by external forces at all times.

From all this history of suppression and exploitation, why did Jeju aim for ‘peace’?

Returning to the primary question, in order to survive the naturally rough environment of Jeju, the residents had to establish a social and economic community. The above conflicts that came from external forces only strengthened the internal solidarity. For this, the ideological community spirit had to be “peace”.

In a situation like this, 4·3 was an event that reinforced ‘peace’ in another dimension.

The trauma that scarred the hearts of Jeju islanders does not relate to their fear of war or exploitation and plunder by external forces. It is a fear that you would feel when having to suspect your neighbor, guard against him, and even murder him to keep your family and yourself safe a fear that you would feel when realizing that you could be killed by a neighbor you trust a fear that after 4·3, you must become a member of the village community where the killer of your parents also lives and a fear that you must admit that the killer of your friend’s father could be your father or grandfather. This is why the people residing on Jeju Island had no choice but to speak nothing of it for a long period of time. Only by remaining silent, not disclosing your own scar nor that of your counterpart, can you maintain the village community and reside in it.

Thus, ‘peace,’ to Jeju islanders, is neither an idealistic dream nor an unreachable hope. To live, peace was a mechanism for survival.

2018, the world has shared an unexpected experience. Every time the inter-Korean summit or North Korea-United States summit would be held, the world’s eyes focused on the Korean Peninsula, the past era of predominant military power and ideology is being replaced by the era of society led by culture and economy.

Amidst the global change, the era of peace has just begun on the Korean Peninsula, with the ending of the Cold War regime. The thawing of the Korean Peninsula shifted the paradigm of the inter-Korean relations, which were formerly based on the logic of politics and military power, into the one valuing society/culture and economy, with the focus on exchange and economic cooperation. Now, it is forecast that a new geo-economic trend may emerge where the entirety of Korea as an economic community can be expanded to Northeast Asia and to Eurasia.

With the growing importance of cultural exchanges and the economic community, Jeju Island, whose growth is deeply rooted in the tourism industry, could no longer set aside the controversial issues. Jeju is surrounded by 18 cities, each within 2 hours by plane and with populations exceeding 5 million people. The recent controversy over the 2nd Jeju Airport goes in line with this change of the time. The 2nd Jeju Airport issue brought up internal conflict. Again, the residents of Jeju Island got caught in the whirlpool of conflict caused by external forces. We cannot just demand limiting the number of visitors to safeguard the ecological environment. It is obvious that the enhanced environment will attract not just tourists but also migrants. Inevitably, the structure of the logic here is formulated as [ “A good environment = Expansion” ⇒ “More infrastructure” ]. We already have so many controversies over the extent and the criteria of how much more should be appropriate and also over the maintenance and the management of the appropriate extent and criteria. The problem arises here concerning the agent that solves the issues and the method it employs.

This paper does not discuss the issue of whether we should stand ‘for’ or ‘against’ the 2nd airport construction, or make any suggestions on the issue. Turn your attention slightly away from the Korean Peninsula, and you will notice that the international community has already experienced enormous changes over the past seven decades since the end of World War II, and that that change has taken place in diverse aspects. The naval base issue emerged due to the island’s geopolitical position, while the 2nd airport issue should be viewed from the geo-economic perspective. When likening geopolitics to destiny, geo-economics could be understood as a strategic approach to one’s own destiny and move forward.

Now, Jeju needs independence from the external force and self-sustainably cultivate its own destiny. The point is that it is important for the Jeju residents to publicly debate the matter and take a preemptive stance about whether or not to construct the airport and hold themselves responsible for the result of their decision. If the decision is made through the process of publicizing the issue and by engaging the people residing on Jeju Island, and if the residents readily take full responsibility for whatever decision is made, the Jeju community will gather recuperative power again even when problems (e.g. degradation of the environment, the ecosystem, etc.) arise due to the 2nd airport.

So far, the history of Jeju has been developed with its geographic, geopolitical, and geo-economic importance strategically used by the national government and in international relations.

Since inter-Korean relations are moving toward peace, it is now time to make arrangements in advance so that the symbolic geographic position of Jeju will contribute to the era of peace on the Korean Peninsula. In this context, it is necessary to utilize the nation’s well-known saying, Korean Peninsula is from Baekdu to Halla.

Over the years, Jeju has implemented its inter-Korean exchange project continuously, unlike other local governments in South Korea. Particularly, the campaign for sending mandarin oranges to the North continued for almost 10 years. In addition, for the inter-Korean summit held last year, Seoul selected mandarin oranges for the gift-exchange ceremony. This exemplifies that Jeju will play a key role in the changing circumstances on the Korean Peninsula.

The two Koreas are now walking together toward the era of exchange and cooperation based on peace, the era of shared prosperity, and the era for the new Korean Peninsula. This has gained momentum to become a huge, irreversible stream. This indicates that there has been a shift in inter-Korean relations from prioritizing political and military logic to valuing social, cultural, and economic logic. The island, which was long considered a peripheral area in Northeast Asia, has been designated as an island advocating peace, and is now positioning itself for a transition into a central area of the region.

In the past, the residents reached an agreement to visions and core values for the island. In the current era of citizen autonomy and decentralization, how to pursue the goals also requires consensus by citizens. It is because ‘autonomy’ here contains the concept of citizen responsibility. To protect the mechanism for the future of Jeju, there should be active participation. Jeju’s ‘peace’ does not refer to a peaceful island but an island that seeks for peace and this will play a key role strategically in opening a sluice gate for inter-Korean relations and a strategic location for peace in Northeastern Asia.