It has been a full decade since the sinking of the South Korean "Sewol".
On April 16, 2014, a passenger ship with 476 people on board sank in the sea north of Pyeongdondo Island, Jindo County, Jeollanam-do, killing a total of 304 people, 250 of whom were high school students from Danwon High School in Ansan.
The 16- and 17-year-olds were supposed to embark on a school trip to Jeju Island. However, the trip was frozen at 8:48 a.m., when the ship began to tilt violently and came to a sharp stop after a loud bang, capsizing and sinking at 10:21 a.m.
Three days (noon on April 18, 2014) is the time it takes for the ship to sink completely to the bottom of the sea, three years (March 25, 2017) is the time it takes for the ship to be salvaged ashore, and 10 years later, how long will it take to repair the families and children shattered by the accident?
There is only one person
commencement
Park Jun-hyuk of Danwon High School was the last survivor to be rescued on the "Sewol", standing in the corridor of the ship, he was washed into the water, when he was holding the hose, the water had already flooded his neck, and he was not very good at holding his breath in order to survive, and found that he could hold it for a long time.
Park Joon-hyuk when he was rescued
Before Park Junhyuk was rescued, there was a girl named Kim so-jeong who stayed with him, and the two who didn't know each other were holding each other's hands in the water to survive, when suddenly a wave hit and the hand was washed away, and so-jeong couldn't come back.
Later, Park Jun-hyuk once dreamed of the last picture of himself and so-jeong staying together, and in the dream he was so-jeong's perspective. "Looking back now, I wish I could have done something back then," he said. ”
Su-jeong's parents have always wanted to meet Joon-hyuk, but Jun-hyuk hasn't had the courage to face them yet, and even thinks it's his fault. Xiujing's parents said: "Whenever his heart is calm, he can come at any time when he feels that he can meet, in the middle of the night." ”
A photo of Xiujing when she was a child
After all, no matter who so-jeong's parents resent, they won't be Junhyuk.
Joon-hyuk's friends, who grew up together, were also killed in the accident, and in his words: he has no friends anymore. Jun-hyuk, who has lost his friends, no longer goes out, and after returning home from school, he has nowhere to go and no visible friends.
Joon-hyuk always felt that his friends were still there somewhere.
Two years after the accident, in early 2016, Joon-hyuk decided to take photos of his friends and so-jung to Jeju Island to take them on this unfinished school trip.
Jeju Island in winter is very windy and the snow is cold, but this is Joonhyuk's first trip with his friends, and he is glad to be with them.
After returning from Jeju Island, Joon-hyuk meets with so-jeong's parents and tells them about a trip to Jeju Island with so-jeong. Su-jeong's mother holds Joon-hyuk's hand tightly.
In January 2016, Danwon High School ushered in the graduation ceremony, but the difference was that Park Jun-hyuk was the only one in the boys' class of the 5th class of the 3rd year, just like he was the only one who was promoted to the 3rd grade at that time.
The classroom stayed on the day the students went on a school trip.
However, Park Jun-hyuk has to face not only a person who graduates, but also the outside world and the abuse he has to face because of the special admission when he chooses to appear in public.
In the same year as the accident, South Korea promulgated the "Special Law for the University Admission of Danwon High School Third-Year Students", which allows second- and third-year students of Danwon High School who have suffered direct death to be recruited through unplanned enrollment in university admission. Such "differential treatment" caused dissatisfaction among some members of the public, and Park Joon-hyuk felt that he had no reason to hide because of this.
"Wait until you're rescued"
Launched in 1994, the Sewol was originally a Japanese passenger liner called "Ferry Wave Top", with a 6,586-ton hull and a full capacity of 804 people. After 18 years of use, the ship was purchased by South Korea's Cheonghae-jin Shipping Company in 2012 and converted into a 6,825-ton ship with a full capacity of 960 people and a capacity of 180 cars, making it the largest Korean passenger liner of its kind at the time.
On the day of the accident, in addition to the passengers, there were 410 tons of steel bars for construction purposes and 150 cars on board. The Special Investigation Committee on the April 16 "Sewol" tragedy said that at the time of the incident, it had only obtained permission to load 987 tons of cargo, but the ship had loaded a total of 2,215 tons of cargo, which was 1,228 tons overloaded.
The Sewol left Incheon Port at around 21 p.m. on April 15.
Due to fog that night, the Incheon Air Traffic Control Center issued a low visibility alert at around 17:30, and the Korea Shipping Association suspended all routes. After the Incheon ATC lifted the low visibility alert, the shipping association lifted the restrictions on the Sewol leaving the port of Incheon, and it became the only ship to leave the port that night.
When the shipwreck happened, some students recorded a picture of waiting for rescue, saying, "Let's say goodbye when we are rescued." ”
A father's decade
Although 10 years have passed since the accident, there are still documentaries that try to remind people not to forget.
On April 3, 2024, a documentary called "The Years of the Wind" (바람의 세월) was released, but the difference is that the film is made from images taken by the father of a victim.
The father's name is Moon Jong-taek, and he lost his daughter Moon Ji-sung in the accident.
Poster for the documentary "The Windy Years".
Over the past 3,654 days, the father has shot more than 5,000 videos and updated them on a YouTube channel called "Sewol Survivor Broadcast" (세월호 유가족방송 416 TV) to document the daily lives of the victims' families.
Father Wen wrote in the channel introduction: We are very clumsy and incompetent, but we only capture the truth.
Two weeks ago, Wen's father released a video calling for media from all walks of life to pay attention to 4.16 TV and this documentary, and he hung a photo of his daughter on the camera.
In April 2014, he personally approached marine accident experts to try to find underwater footage and divers' testimonies from the Sewol.
In September 2014, during the preparations for the "National Conference to Promote the Promulgation of the Special Law on the Sewol Shipwreck", police officers from various regions were on their way to the conference.
Father Wen recorded a video at the highway toll station and updated everyone on the progress. In the video, a police command vehicle is caught on camera on 416 TV and flees in a hurry.
In March 2017, when the wreckage of the ship was being salvaged, he went to the fishing village where the salvage team was located to broadcast the salvage progress live.
He also recorded a lot of footage from the salvage scene.
On October 19, 2017, Father Wen came to commemorate the wreck of the Sewol in Mokpo New Port.
In 2018, Father Bun and a non-governmental organization transformed the abandoned shipping container into a memorial site for the sinking of the Sewol, and it also became the physical office of 4.16TV.
In 2020, the sixth anniversary of the class was celebrated.
In 2023, the 9th anniversary commemorative class.
A photo of Wen's father and his daughter in the past
"To me in 10 years"
At the end of the documentary "The Children Who Can't Graduate from School - Sewol", which records Joon-hyuk's story, five days before going on a school trip, the children of Danwon High School took a video of themselves ten years later.
️ If these children are still alive, they will be 26 years old this year. As the documentary says:
"Everyone has a past as a child, and I don't know at that time, not everyone can grow up to be an adult. ”
In November 2023, the Supreme Court of South Korea (Supreme Court) issued a verdict on the case of ineffective rescue of the sinking passenger ship "Sewol", and upheld the acquittal of nine people, including then director of the Maritime Police Agency Kim Seok-kyun, former deputy head of the Coast Guard Choi Sang-hwan, former head of the West Coast Guard Kim so-hyun, and former director of the Coast Guard Security Bureau Lee Chun-jae.
In the previous two verdicts, it was also difficult to find the relevant officials guilty of professional negligence.
In the 10 years since the Sewol shipwreck, some parents have committed suicide after losing their children, some families have broken up, some have been forced to leave the city of Ansan, and some have continued to fight for the truth like Father Bun......
Can these records change society for the better? While change won't happen anytime soon, it's important not to forget to try to keep the tragedy from happening again.
Header image from Reuters
Picture from: Documentary "Children Who Can't Graduate from School - Sewol", YouTube@Remember0416
Sources:
https://www.donga.com/cn/article/all/20140716/438782/1
Hatpas://china. hani. ko. kr/arti/politics/1223. HTML
https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E4%B8%96%E8%B6%8A%E5%8F%B7%E6%B2%89%E6%B2%A1%E4%BA%8B%E6%95%85
Hatps://global.flight.com/global_vision/story/8663/3090733
https://m.c.com/GB/articles/2022-06/16/content_zoomewazo.html#:~:text=%A4%BB%96%A6%98%AF2014%A5%B9%B44,%A5%B1%B1%A5%B8%82%A6%A%A%80%A5%9B%Ad%A9%Ab%98%A4%B8%Ad%A3%80%82
Hatps://vv.youtube.com/@रिमेम्बर0416/videos
Hatps://news.cctv.com/2023/11/02/artikasdanvalpeelerme2ii8vbj231102.
编辑:Yidan 监制:Alke