Park Myung-lim, Professor at Yonsei University

Park Myung-lim

Park has been with Jeju 4·3 since the 1980s when he visited the historical sites and interviewed people on Jeju to write a dissertation on Jeju 4·3. His major research areas include Korean politics, East Asian international relations, peace, and political theory. He served as a collaborative researcher of the Harvard-Yenching Institute at Harvard University, a visiting professor at the French School of Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences, a visiting professor at the Free University of Berlin, and an overseas chair professor at Jilin University. He is currently a professor at the Graduate School of Area Studies, Yonsei University, and the director of the university’s Center for Human Peace and Healing. His books include The Korean War: The Outbreak and Its Origins (Vol 1 and 2), Korea 1950: War and Peace, and History, Knowledge and Society.

The Land, an epic saga written by Park Kyongni, is regarded to have reached the highest level of contemporary Korean literature. The first chapter of the first volume begins with “Sound of footsteps in the darkness”. The last chapter of the last volume is titled “Into the light”. This is quite unusual. On the first day at the beginning of the novel, eyes gazing at the rising moon are subtly mixed with “moonlight, tears, and wishes”. On the last day, however, the main character, hearing the finale of national independence, “feels the chains that used to wrap around her falling to the ground with a loud noise.” Those “wishes in the beginning” that had been built up for a long time, and those “chains at the end” that fell off with a loud noise; what would they mean? After the chains are broken off of the main character, four repeated shouts of joy follow.

When the National Assembly passed the budget bill on the reparation for damage related to Jeju 4·3 this year, the scenes that came to my mind were the beginning and the end of The Land. It felt like our wishes came true after passing a long loop of time, while the unchaining happened so abruptly. Certainly, the long and exhausting life of Jeju residents, which resembles that described in The Land, entered my mind again. If the police firing on March 1 and the formidable tragedy of April 3 were the “sound of footsteps in the darkness”, would the law and a series of measures be the move “into the light”? Or, would they be a move from the “eyes full of wishes” to the “breaking of chains”?

From the beginning of the tragedy to today, Jeju 4·3, on both its bright side or its dark one, appeals to the world as one of the most obvious signs of an exemplary model of resolving past historical issues. Particularly, the resolution process after Jeju 4·3 is sufficient to set a universal model representing the world in relation to overcoming the past events caused by state violence which humanity faced in the 20^th century. Of course, this statement is not an exaggeration. It is merely an expression of the objective facts that Jeju residents achieved through tolerance and wisdom.

Immediately after World War II ended, Jeju Island, off the tip of the Korean Peninsula — which was the outpost of the global ideological confrontation — turned into one of the most victimized areas of global ideological violence and the Cold War confrontation. Foreign forces and ideologies infiltrating the island, which had a strong sense of community, eventually resulted in excruciating bloodshed and slaughter. This means that the overall situation in the world and on the Korean Peninsula brought violence and slaughter to Jeju. Needless to say, this was a state-organized crime. As will be described later, however, Jeju shows in return justice and reconciliation, and forgiveness and generosity, to the Korean Peninsula and to the world.

Sadness, anger, oppression, and fear after the outbreak of Jeju 4·3 drove Jeju residents into a deathlike life. Corpses and despair covered the whole island. The entire island of Jeju has since evoked tears in our eyes. Thus, those with a courageous and gleaming spirit, who have endured the hardships that are as severe as the tragedy at the time of Jeju 4·3, help us take a pious attitude. It was oppression and perseverance that followed tragedy and slaughter. However, their inner longing and will for life and consolation of sorrow, discovery of truth and exoneration, and human rights and justice burned continuously and intensely behind the oppression. The wave of resistance from below against state power — the agent of violence, slaughter, and oppression — might have been weak and thin at the beginning; as time passed, it turned into a deeper and wider river. It was the strength of desperation and the product of human vitality.

It was a time when the victims, paralyzed during a nightmare, were still holding their breath, but the Jeju 4·3 activists and the victims’ families soon became united. After forming that spiritual and practical solidarity, a transition toward justice began at last from within Jeju. Since the 1980s, I have witnessed the transition in the field. The will and aspiration for truth and consolation of sorrow, and human rights and justice on Jeju, the subject and site of the tragedy, which is now called the Jeju 4·3 movement, was the starting point and source of all practices and struggles. This is why we divide Jeju 4·3 into the Jeju 4·3 massacre and the Jeju 4·3 movement. In other words, it was a model of participation from the bottom up towards justice. In this model, the Jeju community willingly acted to overcome Jeju 4·3.

When the eruption from below for consolation of sorrow and revelation of truth as well as pursuit of the value of life and justice was joined by the nationwide demand for democracy, efforts were finally made in earnest to overcome the past through laws and institutions, the national and local government bodies, and the legislature. It was a great leap forward and transition from the local to the center and from the movement to the institution. Therefore, with regard to the ideal gearing-up of participation from below and democratization of the country, Jeju 4·3 remains a world-class example.

In the end, it reaches a point where it can be called the Jeju 4·3 model. In other words, across all essential areas involving victims and their families and the state, victims and perpetrators, the private and public sectors, the national and local governments, and progressives and conservatives, Jeju 4·3 is a world-representative model that shows a universal path where dialogue and communication, compromise and coexistence, truth and apology, generosity and mutual prosperity, justice and reconciliation, healing and integration were harmonized at the highest level in a post-violence society. Dialogue led to compromise, truth brought about apology, justice coexisted with reconciliation, and generosity and healing brought about mutual prosperity and unity. It is indeed a praiseworthy route.

Just to touch on only the core processes and cases, there was ▲ the enactment of the Special Act on Discovering the Truth of Jeju 4·3 and Restoration of Honor to the Victims, or the Jeju 4·3 Special Act (legislation), ▲ the establishment and operation of the Committee for Discovering the Truth of Jeju 4·3 and Restoration of Honor to the Victims (organization), ▲ the approval, content, and publication of the Jeju 4·3 Incident Investigation Report (approval of the official national report), ▲ the establishment, nature, composition, operation, and role of the Jeju 4·3 Peace Foundation (executive body), ▲ the construction of the Youngmowon memorial site in Hagwi-ri and the expanded recognition of the victims ▲ the declaration of reconciliation and mutual prosperity announced by the Association of the Bereaved Families of Jeju 4·3 Victims and the Korean National Police Veterans Association, ▲ the designation of April 3 as a national memorial day and hosting of the memorial ceremony (official memorial ceremony), ▲ the general revision of the Jeju 4·3 Special Act and stipulation of reparation for damage and ex officio retrials. All stages, individual cases, and the entire process symbolize the exemplary nature and universality of Jeju 4·3 as if they were a compressed microcosm and entire landscape. We now need to conduct an in-depth study of each of these processes, mechanisms, and cases representing the Jeju 4ㅓ·3 model and present them to the world.

The participants of the U.N. Symposium on Human Rights and Jeju 4·3 show a keen interest in the Jeju 4·3 issues. The conference was hosted by the Permanent Mission of the Republic of Korea to the United Nations, and organized by the Jeju Special Self-Governing Province and the Jeju 4·3 Peace Foundation in June 2019.

The process of overcoming Jeju 4·3 is a wonder in which the whole process is demonstrated in each case and the specific case within describes the whole process. Every process reflects justice and reconciliation, the shared core spirit found in the process of overcoming Jeju 4·3. The Jeju people never considered justice and reconciliation as a mutually exclusive relationship based on the selection between one or the other. They pursued justice but did not give up on reconciliation; they dreamed of reconciliation but did not abandon justice. In that sense, Jeju 4·3 can be called a justice and reconciliation model that is capable of replacing, at the world level, the truth and reconciliation model represented by South Africa.

The simultaneous pursuit of justice and reconciliation led to democracy. Conversely, of course, adherence to the spirit of democracy was also manifested as the simultaneous realization of justice and reconciliation. As far as overcoming the Jeju 4·3 issues, the differences and confrontations between progressives and conservatives in the central authorities, legislature, political parties, and local governments created no particular obstacles. They ultimately accepted the agreement and demands of the Jeju community. That is, the resolution process of Jeju 4·3 itself is the only case in Korea with a serious social confrontation where the confrontation was overcome and a high-level democratic compromise was reached through the resolution process. This is a firm disproof that the tragedy of Jeju 4·3 was not a problem of ideological confrontation, and at the same time, a proof that its resolution was an evident process of realizing democracy.

However, there is an even more critical issue here. Before taking the matter to the national government and the National Assembly, an almost perfect agreement was already reached within the Jeju community through maximum discussion and deliberation. Over the past decades, I have witnessed this countless times in every node of policy and debate for the resolution of Jeju 4·3. Therefore, the resolution process of Jeju 4·3 can only be an extension of Jeju society’s advanced democratic consciousness and sense of compromise. They always avoided the maximalist line, the biggest hurdle in realizing democratic values, ​​and pursued the minimalist virtues of self-control and moderation. This implies that the resolution process of Jeju 4·3 originated from Jeju and was accepted by the nation’s central authorities, which demonstrates a case of Korea overcoming the past through a path of compromise and a process of practicing democracy. The central forces presented to Jeju a violent confrontation, whereas Jeju taught the central forces to compromise.

As mentioned above, the world has considered South Africa’s truth and reconciliation model as the most representative path for overcoming the past. It has had an immense impact on the world. However, looking back with the present point of view, due to the many weaknesses and limitations found in the truth and reconciliation model, the justice and reconciliation model of Jeju 4·3 is considered to be a universal model that exceeds the truth and reconciliation model in almost all respects. In particular, Jeju 4·3 shows advanced achievements not only in the process of resolution, but also in terms of healing, recovery, integration, and stability after resolution. Victims’ bereaved families and Jeju residents also exhibit a very high level of participation and trust in the Jeju 4·3-related organizations and the administration, while actively networking and forming solidarity with them. Thus, from the perspective of sustainability, the process of overcoming Jeju 4·3 shows no regression or setback but has made stable progress.

In the meantime, the status of the Republic of Korea has advanced from a weak nation to a middle-income one, then again to a middle-power country, and now it stands at the entrance of being a developed country heading into being a leading country. I can’t help but feel proud and dignified. Over the past years, we have exported our goods and technologies to the world. Now, Korean steel, petrochemicals, automobiles, ships, and mobile phones can be found anywhere in the world. Cutting-edge products such as semiconductors and LCDs, TVs, and batteries are leading the world standards. We have also risen to a leading position in the fields of democracy and human rights, freedom and public health, and international accountability.

I insist we add one more aspect here. It is our mind and soul. To put it differently, it is a model of surmounting the past issues and achieving justice and reconciliation together, which is represented by Jeju 4·3. Koreans now have the Jeju 4·3 model of overcoming past historical issues, which exemplifies a desirable path in almost all aspects, including the revelation of truth, restoration of honor, apology and generosity, justice and reconciliation, reparation for damage, remembrance and memory, education for the future, and sustainability. Indeed, Jeju is a culmination where we have shown ourselves and the world our hopes and possibilities as human beings. This is why Korea, and the world, should appreciate Jeju and learn from it.

Kang Hye-lim, Division of Public Cooperation and External Relations, Jeju National University

 

Reflecting on Jeju 4·3 allows one to revisit the contemporary history of Korea. It is now time for the Korean people to properly rebuild their sense of value towards improved inter-Korean relations and gain a far-sighted vision of the future. The promising young generation should be able to start the quest for future-oriented values themselves.

 

Choi Tae-sung, a Korean history lecturer, and Yang Jo Hoon, president of the Jeju 4·3 Peace Foundation, brief the students on the lessons learned from Jeju 4·3 and the role of the coming generations at the 4·3 Humanities Course for the Promising Youth, a Jeju National University lecture event held in the Ocean Hall at the school’s College of Ocean Sciences.

 

Jeju National University or JNU (President: Song Seok-eon) and the Jeju 4·3 Peace Foundation (President: Yang Jo Hoon) held a two-day lecture course on June 23 and 24. Titled the “4·3 Humanities Course for Promising Youth”, the program addressed key Jeju 4·3 issues from the perspective of humanities studies.

JNU is the only national university in the Jeju region that fosters advanced intellects for balanced regional growth. As the cradle of the Jeju 4·3-related truth-finding movement, the university co-hosted the lecture event with the Jeju 4·3 Peace Foundation, a leading institute dedicated to bringing peace to humanity and improving human rights by sublimating the values pursued during Jeju 4·3.

 

A JNU-Jeju 4·3 PF lecture program for June

The 4·3 Humanities Course for Promising Youth consists of four sessions, including two special lectures, a ‘book concert’, and a field trip. The in-person and virtual lectures were live streamed so that those students who were unable to visit the venue could join the program’s Zoom meetings or watch them live on YouTube. The JNU’s network with the nation’s national and private colleges also enabled the attendance of other students and researchers who are interested in learning about history. Additionally, the hybrid format of the course broadened the audience spectrum, attracting more than 240 participants that included people from outside the campus and Jeju Island. The success of the event was the outcome of diversifying its channels of communication from the planning stage, with the COVID-19 pandemic in consideration, for the purpose of extending the opportunity to learn about peace and human rights, which are the key values inherited from Jeju 4·3.

The first program of the course was the lecture that took place on June 23, featuring Bishop Peter Kang U-il of the Catholic Diocese of Cheju, who is highly reputed as “a priest of peace and justice”. The local Catholic leader spoke on the topic of “What does Jeju 4·3 mean to us today?”, inspiring the audience to start off on the two-day program with an earnest and sincere attitude.

Bishop Peter Kang guided the participants to understand Jeju 4·3 from its background to its significance, and encouraged them to have their own thoughts on Jeju 4·3. He explained that Jeju was the only constituency that refused to join the General Election which intended to establish a separate government on the southern part of the Korean Peninsula. Jeju 4·3 occurred as an extension of the refusal, which turned out to be the onset of Korea’s national division, he added.

According to the Catholic priest, reflecting on Jeju 4·3 allows one to revisit the contemporary history of Korea. He emphasized that it is now time for the Korean people to properly rebuild their sense of value towards improved inter-Korean relations and gain a far-sighted vision of the future. The promising young generation should be able to start the quest for future-oriented values themselves, he urged. The spiritual leader also asserted that the greatest achievement that a man can accomplish would be that he or she has the ability to make efforts to change themselves.

The lecture evoked the public anticipation about the changes that could be made in young Koreans’ perception of Jeju 4·3 and their attitudes toward the historic event. After listening to the Bishop’s speech, the participants expressed their impressions of the program, freely asking questions about the religious leader’s journey of defending peace and human rights and about the significance of Jeju 4·3.

The second lecture was offered by Choi Tae-sung, a Korean history lecturer also dubbed the “Big Star Teacher”. Under the topic of “Jeju 4·3, a memorable aspect of Korean history”, Choi shared with the audience his own experience about what sparked his interest in Jeju 4·3, as well as the timeline and keywords to help the participants have a better understanding of the historic turmoil.

The “Big Star Teacher” mentioned the dramatic scene of August 2013, where victims’ families and former police officers reconciled by holding their hands. According to his assessment, the touching moment signifies that Jeju 4·3, a movement for reconciliation and peace, has left us with a lasting heritage amid the reality where the victims and the victimizers coexist. The course of disentangling the complicated conflicts and relieving the resulting pain represents the best answer to resolving all those contradictory issues that swept over the Korean Peninsula, he added. The lecturer also reiterated that Jeju 4·3 is not just a past event but features a future-oriented aspect that blooms as a lotus of hope despite the muddy, painful contradiction.

Concluding his lecture, the historian impressed the participants by introducing memorable historic figures who admirably fulfilled their respective roles and eventually lost their lives during Jeju 4·3. While the presentation solemnly proceeded, some participants shed tears of condolence to the figures as well as to all the other Jeju 4·3 victims. The interactive lecture allowed both the lecturer and the audience to ponder the significance of Jeju 4·3.

A participant who introduced herself as a student with a particular interest in history commented in her review that Jeju 4·3 was a chaotic event where an innocent bystander gets hurt in a fight. She said we learn history in order not to repeat the mistakes of the past, and that admitting wrongdoings should also be a part of history. The lectures were a good opportunity to better understand the perspective of others through history, she added.

Another student who watched the lectures online said that the program motivated the audience to think about the different views of history. The lectures shocked him in a positive sense, helping broaden his narrow view of history, he commented. The high level of satisfaction of the online and offline audience built up the anticipation that the ‘book concert’ and the field trip, slated to be held in September and October, respectively, would also be successful.

 

Efforts to hand down the historical lessons to the coming generations

There is a saying that history does not teach us anything if nobody remembers it. To prevent the historical suffering from being repeated, the efforts to remember the past should further usher us into the stage of sympathy. Then the youth will be able to give shape to both memory and sympathy, which will be handed down to our coming generations.

In September 2019, JNU and the Jeju 4·3 Peace Foundation agreed to cooperate on the education regarding peace and human rights and towards the public awareness of the history surrounding Jeju 4·3. The two institutes’ first joint project, held in November 2020, was a program for the local youth titled, “A day with thinking and living”. (‘Thinking’ and ‘living’ have the same Korean pronunciation as 4·3.) During the program, the students took a tour of the Jeju 4·3 Peace Memorial Hall and the Jeju 4·3 Peace Park, in memory and mourning for the victims of the poignant, miserable historic event.

In 2021, JNU and the Jeju 4·3 Peace Foundation expanded their joint efforts by co-hosting the 4·3 Humanities Course for Promising Youth. From its planning to its operation, the program featured a broader spectrum, diversifying the lecturers, topics, and content. The course also made changes to its operational format to enable interactive communication with the participants. The latest event bears great significance in that it allowed the two institutes to lay the steppingstone for the handing down of the historical lessons of Jeju 4·3. JNU and the Jeju 4·3 Peace Foundation will continue to work together in providing mutual assistance to more diversified educational, cultural, and art programs down the road.

Ko Eun-kyung, Research Department, Jeju 4·3 Peace Foundation

 

The Peace Radio Show of Youth session was held at Haevichi Hotel & Resort Jeju on June 24, as a side event of the Jeju Forum for Peace & Prosperity 2021.

The 16^th Jeju Forum for Peace & Prosperity, which was opened at Haevichi Hotel & Resort Jeju on June 24, successfully concluded its three-day program on June 26. This year’s forum, whose theme was determined for “Sustainable Peace, Inclusive Prosperity”, was held soon after the general revision of the Jeju 4·3 Special Act. The forum was a significant opportunity to revisit the spirit of peace of Jeju 4·3 by viewing as an incident of significance to world history.

 

Peace Radio Show: An emphasis on the role of the generation of the future

The forum began on June 24 with the Peace Radio Show session, co-hosted by the Jeju 4·3 Peace Foundation and the Jeju Free International City Development Center (JDC). It was a program to have a talk with young people, deeply examining on the implications of Jeju 4·3 and the goal of realizing a peaceful, inclusive society. With the emceeing of announcer Oh Sang-jin, the show proceeded with an interview of Yang Jo Hoon, the president of the Jeju 4·3 Peace Foundation, and Moon Dae-lim, the CEO of the JDC, as well as a lecture on Jeju 4·3 by Choi Tae-sung, a Korean history lecturer. The session was joined by many panelists to deliver the significance of Jeju 4·3 regarding peace to the future generation, including Fabien Corbineau, a broadcaster, Shin Hye-rim, a Christian Broadcasting System (CBS) producer, Kim Sung-hyun, a screenwriter, and Ban Young-kwan, a Jeju 4·3 Peace Foundation researcher.

JDC leader Moon said, “Jeju is designated as “an island of world peace”, which symbolizes the realization of coexistence by overcoming conflict and discrimination. The spirit of reconciliation and co-prosperity represented by Jeju 4·3 contains the humanistic value and foundation of Jeju Island.” President Yang of the Jeju 4·3 Peace Foundation added, “Jeju 4·3 is an incident with a historical importance at a global level, which took place on Jeju Island as a result of the Cold War. We all need to empathize with it so as to be reminded of the incident and pass on its value of peace.” Speaking up about “young people’s active participation,” he also stressed to the young generation that “to empathize about Jeju 4·3, we need to renew our view of national division and the Cold War and have a new understanding of how we are addressing them at present.”

Korean history teacher Choi explained the unfolding of Jeju 4·3 and lessons to be learned from the tragic incident in his lecture. He demanded that we expand Jeju 4·3 into the realm of human rights, which are the universal values to be shared by people around the world. Jeju 4·3 would usher in a future where we focus on human rights rather than ideology,” he expected.

Screenwriter Kim, French broadcaster Corbineau, CBS producer Shin, and Jeju 4·3 researcher Ban led the talk show following the opening remarks. The panelists spoke on the past and present of Jeju 4·3, and of an island of peace in the future.” They discussed the people’s efforts to engrave Jeju 4·3 as a symbolic historical event of peace and human rights in their respective positions and reaffirmed the intent to realize peace.

 

(From left) Professor Chu Chinoh of Sangmyung University, Professor Park Tae-gyun, the director of the Graduate School of International Studies at Seoul National University, Huh Ho-joon, a Hankyoreh senior correspondent attended the session, titled “4·3, World Cold War and Peace”. The session was hosted by the Jeju 4·3 Research Institute.

 

Jeju 4·3 Research Institute’s session on Jeju 4·3: A review of Jeju 4·3 as an event of significance to world history

On June 25, the Jeju 4·3 session organized by the Jeju 4·3 Research Institute was held. It was a forum to view Jeju 4·3 and of the Cold war from an international perspective under the theme of “4·3, World Cold War and Peace.” The session attempted to predict the future of peace, national unification, human rights, and harmony of the people. Particularly, the participants re-examined the efforts to discover the truth of Jeju 4·3 by building a correct understanding of the Cold War, a major cause of Jeju 4·3. Jung Keun-sik, the chairman of the nation’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission, delivered the keynote speech with the topic of “4·3, the (Post-)Cold War Era and Peace”. Jung pointed out that the Cold War was deeply entwined with Taiwan’s 2.28 incident, the Chinese Civil War and Jeju 4·3. Understandably, the three incidents have a commonality in times which can expand the temporal and spatial horizon of Jeju 4·3, he added. The national commission leader also reiterated that it is now time to think about what it implies for Jeju to achieve peace while talking about Jeju 4·3.”

In a speech with “Massacres in Southeast Asia in the 1960s and Jeju,” Seoul National University’s professor Park stated that Jeju 4·3, which occurred in 1948, was a massacre case that “culminated the trajectory of the Cold War.” Park also mentioned that we needed to broaden our perspective of viewing Jeju 4·3 from a local one to a world historical one. “We must see and understand Jeju 4·3 from a world historical view in connection with other massacres that occurred in Vietnam and Malaysia, he stressed. He said that establishing such a perspective could expand the perception and create social consensus in which Jeju 4·3 is not an issue of ideology but of the universal issue of humanity. Concluding his speech, Jung asserted that in doing so, we could secure the universality and specificity of Jeju 4·3.

The session was moderated by professor Chu of Sangmyung University, with professor Hajimu Masuda of National University of Singapore and journalist Huh Ho-jun invited for the discussion. The panelists and discussants exchanged their opinions about the past political issues related to Jeju 4·3, the need to discuss them together as social issues, and how to resolve the issues once the revised Jeju 4·3 Special Act goes into effect.

(From left) Park Myung-rim, a professor of Yonsei University, Won Hee-ryong, the governor of Jeju Special Self-Governing Province, and Yang Jo Hoon, the president of the Jeju 4·3 Peace Foundation met at the forum’s closing session, titled, “Towards a Universal Model of Reconciliation, Peace, and Healing: From Jeju to the World.”

 

4·3, emerging as a model of resolving issues related to past history

At the closing session on June 26, Won Heeryong, the governor of Jeju Special Self-Governing Province, Park Myung-rim, a professor of Yonsei University, and Yang Jo Hoon, the president of the Jeju 4·3 Peace Foundation, shared their suggestions with the audience concerning the universal model of Jeju 4·3’s reconciliation, peace, and healing, under the topic of “4·3 and Justice, Reconciliation and Restoration.” Professor Park of Yonsei University said, “Jeju 4·3 was a local incident that represented a global-scale conflict. Park pointed out that Jeju residents were the victims of international violence back then; however, they are now advancing towards international peace and reconciliation. Walking along the path of violence and massacre, testimony and accusation, justice and truth, reconciliation and coexistence, as well as locality and universality, Jeju has finally emerged as a universal model of reconciliation and restoration, breaking away from violence, tragedy, and massacre, he added. Governor Won Heeryong expressed his opinion, saying that Jeju 4·3 has now become an identity and value of Jeju in making history, including an official apology from the national government, the designation of a national memorial day, and the passing of the revised bill of the Jeju 4·3 special act.

Yang Jo Hoon, the president of the Jeju 4·3 Peace Foundation, stated that Jeju 4·3 could be viewed as an incident where Jeju residents were sacrificed in the course of re-drawing the 38^th parallel, which was originally drawn by the United States and the Soviet Union. Even though Jeju 4·3 took place on Jeju Island, it bears a historical significance to the world, as the case eventually led to the national division of Korea and the Cold War, he explained. Yang introduced the audience to the value and spirit of Jeju 4·3 in six elements: (1) autonomy and self-determination; (2) justice; (3) unification; (4) peace and human rights; (5) reconciliation and coexistence; and (6) healing and consolidation.

The renowned 4·3 researcher and activist also emphasized the significance of the revised Jeju 4·3 Special Act, the six elements of Jeju 4·3’s value and spirit, the case of the Youngmowon memorial site that demonstrates the truth and reconciliation, and the test operation of the Jeju 4·3 Trauma Center. Yang finally commented that the indemnification and compensation to the victims of Jeju 4·3 would be accomplished when the state extends, at the very least, courtesy to those who received indelible scars. Concluding his speech, he aroused sympathy, saying, “Jeju 4·3 is now bound to be the model of addressing past history.”