제주평화연구원

Jeju April 3rd Uprising: A History of Resistance and Pain

  [caption id="" align="alignright" width="152"] Yang Jeongsim 
Research Professor at the Research Institute of Human Studies of Daejin University / Chief of the Academic Commission at the National Committee for the 70th Anniversary of the Jeju 4‧3[/caption] Seventy years ago at around 2 a.m. on April 3, 1948, the Jeju armed uprising began with the lighting of signal fires on Mt. Halla and nearby “oreum” (parasitic volcanic cones). However, the Jeju April 3 Uprising did not begin on April 3, 1948, as its moniker states, but on March 1, 1947. Also, the term the Jeju April 3 Incident envelopes the entire period from March 1, 1947, until the day when the ban on entry to Mt. Halla was lifted in 1954.     The Special Law for the Truth Investigation of the Jeju 4‧3 Incident and Honoring Victims defines the Jeju April 3 Incident as “a disturbance which occurred on March 1, 1947, and developed on April 3, 1948, and as a following, armed conflict and suppression until September 21, 1954, during which many Jeju citizens were killed.”     The designation of March 1, 1947, as the starting point of the incident carries crucial significance as that date is the key to understanding the reason for the uprising’s outbreak. Police firing at civilians right after the March 1st Independence Movement ceremony in 1947 — which would lead to a brutal crackdown by the U.S. military government on rioting — was the trigger for the April 3 Uprising.     The rally to commemorate the 28th anniversary of the March 1st Independence Movement at Buk Elementary School on March 1, 1947, was attended by some 30,000 people, an unprecedentedly large number. They had gathered under the slogan, “Let’s unify independent Korea in the March 1st spirit.”     After the rally, a child was struck by a police officer’s horse, causing the crowd to turn into protesters against the offence. In response, police opened fire into the crowd, killing six civilians and wounding eight others. A woman in her 20s holding a baby and a pupil of the Buk Elementary School were included in those killed by the gunfire. In protest against police atrocities, Jeju residents then staged a general strike, which was even joined by officials employed by the U.S. military government and some policemen. However, the military government and police refused to admit responsibility for the killings and went on to bring more police officers from the mainland and to mobilize rightist terrorists known as the Northwest Youth League to crack down on the protests. The brutal suppression by the U.S. military government here was the cause of the April 3 Uprising.     Another factor behind the April 3 Uprising was the popular struggle to sabotage the general elections held only in South Korea and to establish a unified Korean government. Across the South some political leaders, including independence fighter Kim Ku, joined the anti-election campaign in their belief that the election on May 10, 1948, would lead to national division. On Jeju Island, the results of two elections out of three polling districts were nullified due to a voter turnout of less than 50 percent. Therefore, Jeju became the sole region to successfully thwart the May 10 elections.     However, the island was to pay a disastrous price for its actions. After the election, about one-tenth of the population was victimized by government forces. It was a historical tragedy that became taboo for the subsequent 40 years. As of July 25, 2017, the number of officially recognized victims totals 14,233. Given that the official tally was based only on the reports of the bereaved, more people must have been sacrificed during the incident. The government’s “Fact-Finding Report on the Jeju April 3 Incident” stated that more than 80 percent of the victims are presumed to have been killed by the government’s police and military forces. Numerous residents were also victimized in the clash between government forces and armed rioters.     On Oct. 17, 1948, Song Yo-chan, commander of the 9th Regiment of the National Defense Guard, issued a decree that anyone found within the mountainous areas more than five kilometers inland from the island’s coast would be regarded as rioters and shot to death. After the decree, about 100 hamlets in the mountains were burnt down, and residents were forcibly relocated to coastal areas. From late October 1948 until March 1949, the punitive forces of the military and police carried out massacres during a scorched earth operation. In this process, “genocide” was committed where the majority of villagers, including young children and women, were killed as in the case of the “Bukchon-ri Incident.” On Jan. 17, 1949, an armed group attacked an army vehicle on the slopes of Neobonsungi in the vicinity of Bukchon village, killing two soldiers. In retaliation, government forces set fire to the village and killed the villagers after driving them into the Bukchon Elementary Schoolyard. They also opened fire on villagers in the fields, killing about 350 people in total. The next day, soldiers killed dozens of Bukchon village residents who had evacuated to a nearby village.     Right after the outbreak of the Korean War, there was a procession of death in the name of preventive custody. Members of the Bodo League, those blacklisted and families of escapees were held in preventive custody and then executed. They were collectively thrown into the sea or shot to death and secretly buried in Seogwipo, coastal areas, the Jeju airfield and Seosal Oreum. Ex-convicts from across the nation were also subject to summary execution. Those victimized during preventive custody or at prisons are estimated to number about 3,000.     In isolation, Jeju turned into an island of blood, tears and dead bodies. On the 50th anniversary of the April 3 Uprising in 1998, many raised their voices calling for a government fact-finding mission and the reinstatement of the victims’ honor, starting a nationwide campaign to enact special legislation on the April 3 Incident. Jeju residents, bereaved families and civic groups continued the campaign for special legislation before the advent of the 21st century. As a result, a special law was enacted on Dec. 16, 1999, and the government published the “Fact-Finding Report on the Jeju April 3 Incident” on Oct. 15, 2003, which defined the incident as a “violation of human rights by the government.”     The incident not only took many lives but destroyed communities. However, the fact-finding campaign itself was also a process that allowed for the settling of internal feuds on the island. The Bereaved Society of the April 3 Victims and the Jeju Police Veterans Association made an exemplary case of relinquishing the past by reconciling with each other. The scars of the Jeju April 3 Uprising still remain but efforts to heal still continue.     This year marks the 70th anniversary of the Jeju April 3 Uprising. For the survivors and the bereaved, this anniversary might be the last opportunity to remember what happened here. This anniversary is also a transitional point to open a new future of hope for the next generation. Drawing on this tragic history, we should ruminate on the value of reconciliation and coexistence and uphold the value of peace and human rights for the next generation. What should we do lest the painful history of the April 3 Uprising should remain fossilized for the next generation? Another struggle for remembrance starts now.