제주평화연구원

 

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="159"] Hun Joon Kim
Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science, Korea University[/caption] The Jeju 4.3 events (4.3 events) is a series of communist armed uprisings and counterinsurgency actions that occurred between 1947 and 1954 in the region of Mt. Halla on Jeju Island. The counterinsurgency strategy was extremely brutal, involving mass killings, arrests, detentions, torture, and forced relocations, which resulted in an estimated 30,000 deaths. As of October 2018, the government officially announced that 15,483 victims and 61,030 family members of the victims had been identified.   After many years of advocacy by victims, families, local activists, students, and journalists, the National Commission for Investigation of the Truth about the 4.3 Events and Recovering the Honor of the Victims (4.3 Commission) was established in 2000. The path to the establishment of the commission was a long and arduous one. The first effort that the commission made was to launch an investigation, which ended in 2003 with the release of the final report. Since the release of the report, the commission focused on identifying victims and restoring the honor of victims.   It started with President Roh Moo-hyun’s official apology in 2003, which marked the first presidential apology for the abuse of state power in South Korean history. President Roh visited Jeju again in 2006, participated in a memorial service for the victims, and issued a further apology for the abuse of state power. Subsequently, the 4.3 Commission has focused on identifying victims, exhuming mass graves, and carrying out various commemoration projects, including the establishment of the permanent Jeju 4.3 Peace Foundation, the Jeju 4.3 Peace Memorial Park and Museum in 2008.   Along with these efforts, there was a parallel move to make Jeju as the World Peace Island. It was initially started as a local initiative and President Roh officially declared Jeju as the World Peace Island in January 2005. Among three main goals of making Jeju the World Peace Island, the second one was about exploring and disseminating the lessons from the 4.3 events in Jeju, particularly through promoting peace by transforming the tragedy of the 4.3 events into reconciliation and coexistence.   However, peace is a universal concept while the 4.3 events are particularistic and historically bounded events. What is the link between the 4.3 events and peace? To answer this question, I address the following question: Which aspects of the 4.3 events should be emphasized in the Peace City Initiative?   The 4.3 events have been understood using two concepts – the uprising and the massacres. The first aspect is to view the 4.3 events as a legitimate uprising against the repressive US military government and the South Korean regime. From this perspective, the 4.3 events are viewed as a unification movement. The second aspect is to see the 4.3 events as civilian massacres of Jeju residents by the military, police, and paramilitary groups. The 4.3 events, from this perspective, are understood as a human rights crisis. From this perspective, the 4.3 events are understood as a dark and painful history.   I contend, however, that each perspective represents the partial truth of the 4.3 events. Certainly, uprising against repressive regimes and civilian massacres both contain universal elements and can be linked to peace. However, I find both views have limitations and suggest the third understanding, which is to see the 4.3 events as sees as a movement for peace and justice.   The 4.3 events are not just a historical event that happened between 1947 and 1954. It was only the beginning of long movement toward peace and justice. Victims and activists in Jeju have successfully addressed the past abuses through seventy years of consistent and painful activism. This story, including the ups and downs of the process, should be the core contents of the Peace City Initiative.   Seventy years of this movement was not easy at all. The movement for peace and justice occurred under suppression by consecutive anti-Communist authoritarian regimes. Even after democratization, however, repression continued.   For examples, between February 2008 and May 2017, victims and activists faced the return of the conservative regimes of Lee Myung-bak and Park Geun-hye. Lee Myung-bak criticized the 4.3 Commission immediately upon assuming office, attempted to close down the commission, and greatly reduced its budget. The situation of the 4.3 Commission was no better under Park Geun-hye who considered any attempts to uncover past historical wrongdoings as a “personal offensive” against her.   However, even during those difficult times, the Jeju society effectively resisted this pronounced repression and made important and significant achievements, such as resisting the government’s effort to close down the commission, thwarting legal challenges by conservatives, and progressively revising the law to proclaim April 3rd as a national memorial day for the Jeju massacre.   With the inauguration of President Moon Jae-in, Jeju society is beginning a new phase and is awaiting another leap in the movement for peace and justice. The Peace City Initiative should commemorate this persistent and consistent movement by victims and activists. Only through these local and grassroots efforts can peace and justice be achieved in countries torn by gross and systemic human rights violations of the past.   By Hun Joon Kim (hunjoon7@korea.ac.kr)   Hun Joon Kim is Associate Professor at the Department of Political Science in Korea University. He has research interests in human rights, transitional justice, and international relations. He is the author of The Massacres at Mt Halla: Sixty Years of Truth-Seeking in South Korea (Cornell University Press 2014) and a co-editor of Transitional Justice in the Asia Pacific (Cambridge University Press 2014).