Walking into the Korea Peace Park, you will be greeted by a memorial tower in the shape of a "volcanic vent". From the endless tombstones around, you can also feel the oppressive atmosphere in the Peace Park. However, entering the depths of the Peace Park, there is only a tall white wordless monument, and there is no deed to describe what happened in the Peace Park at that time.
Tombstones of the victims in the Peace Park
And the reason why this white wordless monument is wordless is because it is an indictment of the atrocities of the American military; It has no words because that period of history has not yet been justified. All the residents of South Korea are waiting for the day when there will be no words on the monument. What exactly did the US military do at that time that would make the South Koreans wait so solemnly?
By 1945, the Japanese invaders had left the Korean Peninsula, and the residents of the Jeju area had a respite. However, within two days of the days of respite from freedom, the U.S. military became the "new colonizer" in the Jeju region.
After the surrender of Japan, soldiers evacuated Jeju Island
In order to strengthen its control over the Jeju Island area, the US military did not crack down on local pro-Japanese elements or pursue the criminal responsibility of pro-Japanese elements, but instead allowed them to continue to hold power and seek benefits for the US military. As the "doglegs" of the new colonists of the United States, pro-Japanese elements appeared more active, exploiting the residents of Jeju Island all year round.
On March 1, 1947, U.S. Army soldiers rode through the city on a war horse and seriously injured a young child from Jeju Island. The residents of Jeju Island, who were already dissatisfied with the arrogance and arrogance of the US military, immediately set off protests against American soldiers.
Residents of Jeju Island who were massacred by U.S. troops
What Jeju residents did not expect was that the American soldiers did not care about their protests at all, but directly turned their guns on the protesters. Six Jeju protesters were killed on the spot after more than a dozen gunshots, while more than a dozen others were injured. The shooting of residents in public sparked an outcry from officials and residents of Jeju Island, followed by a general strike.
And the US military once again put on a bloody face, asking the then Syngman Rhee's government to send troops. Subsequently, U.S. soldiers, Syngman Rhee's government forces and far-right organizations pulled the trigger on Jeju Island residents protesting the general strike.
Jeju Island strike protest (schematic)
A local village in Jeju called Chaocheon-eupb Village was purged by American soldiers, and about 400 local villagers were bloodily slaughtered. Faced with the massacre, South Korean residents decided to resist militarily. In April 1948, the Jeju Island Guerrillas were formed, firing the first shots against the U.S. Army and Rhee Syngman government forces.
The guerrillas' resistance made the American army and Rhee angry, and immediately strengthened the intensity of the Great Purge. Three months later, Syngman Rhee's government imposed a ban on a 5-kilometer area of the coastline as a safe zone, and the rest of the area was a "massacre zone" in which any residents entered the massacre area.
Jeju Island residents who died on the side of the road
After such a ban on massacres was introduced, American soldiers turned on the massacre mode. Any Jeju Island resident living in the "killing zone" became a target of slaughter by American soldiers. Statistics show that more than 30,000 Jeju residents died in the massacre of American soldiers.
However, this real history has been deliberately hidden by the South Korean government and the US government. It was not until South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun took office that an investigation into the Jeju massacre was launched. A few years later, the Peace Park officially opened, accusing the U.S. military of the massacre of Jeju Island. But because this history has not been justified, Peace Park can only warn South Koreans with a wordless monument.