Jeju uprising

The Jeju Massacres (Korean: 제주 4·3 민중항쟁, Hanja: 濟州 4·3 民衆抗爭) refers to the massacres on Jeju island, South Korea, beginning on April 3, 1948. Between 14,000 and 30,000 innocent people were killed in extreme-rightist South Korean government's suppression of an uprising which consisted of 350 people. The suppression of the rebellion by the South Korean army has been called “brutal”, resulting in tens of thousands of deaths, the destruction of many villages on the island, and sparking rebellions on the Korean mainland. The rebellion, which included the mutiny of several hundred members of the South Korean 11th Constabulary Regiment, lasted until May 1949, although small isolated pockets of fighting continued into 1953.

Background

On November 14, 1947 the United Nations passed UN Resolution 112, calling for a general election under the supervision of the UN Commission. However, the Soviet Union refused to accept the validity of the UN resolution since all socialist parties were made illegal in the South by the occupying US forces. The UN Assembly adopted a new resolution calling for elections in areas accessible to the UN Commission which at the time, included only the United States Army Military Government in Korea, also known as USAMGIK.

Upset by the partition of the peninsula, the communist Workers Party of South Korea leaders planned rallies on March 1st to denounce and block the upcoming general elections scheduled for May 10th. The arrest of 2,500 party cadres, and the killing of at least three of them broke up the planned demonstrations. On April 3 1948, rebels attacked 11 police stations and mutilated those found inside, killing 85 policemen and rebels. Rebels also burned polling centers for the upcoming election and attacked political opponents and their families. They then issued an appeal urging the local population to rise against the American military government.

The Workers Party of South Korea and their appeal found sympathy among the local population due to the prevailing sentiment that the local government and police forces had readily collaborated with the Japanese occupation of Jeju and unrest caused by heavy taxation of agricultural commodities.

The rebellion

Seeking a speedy resolution to the insurrection, the South Korean government sent 3,000 soldiers of the South Korean 11th Constabulary Regiment to reinforce local police, but on April 29 several hundred soldiers mutinied, handing over large small arms caches to the rebels. The Seoul government also sent several hundred Northwest Youth Association members, a group of anti-communist North Korean refugees as part of a paramilitary force.

Lt. General Kim Ik Ruhl, commander of the South Korean force on the island, attempted to end the insurrection peacefully by negotiating with the rebels. He met several times with rebel leader Kim Sam-dal but neither side could agree on conditions. The government wanted what amounted to a complete surrender and the rebels demanded disarmament of the local police, dismissal of all governing officials on the island, prohibition of paramilitary youth groups on the island and re-unification of the Korean peninsula. General Kim Ik Ruhl was suddenly recalled to Seoul over his conciliatory approach with the rebels and was surprised when his replacement mounted a sustained offensive against the rebels by the end of the summer.

The guerrillas created base camps in the mountains and the government forces held the coastal towns. Farming communities between the coast and the hills became the primary battlezone. By October 1948, the rebel army consisted of approximately 4,000 combatants, and although many were poorly armed, they scored a number of minor victories over the Army. In late fall of 1948 the rebels began openly siding with the North Koreans by flying North Korean flags.

By spring of 1949, however, four South Korean army battalions arrived and joined the local constabulary, police forces and Youth Association partisans. The combined forces quickly finished off most of the remaining rebel forces. On August 17, 1949, the leadership of the movement fell apart following the killing of major rebel leader Yi Tuk-ku.

Reporters from Stars and Stripes provided vivid and uncensored accounts of the South Korean Army’s brutal suppression of the rebellion, the local popular support of the rebels as well as the rebels' retaliation against local “rightist” opponents.

Crackdown and massacre

Immediately after the North Korea's attack the South Korean military ordered "preemptive apprehension" of suspected leftists nationwide. Thousands were detained on Jeju, then sorted into four groups, labeled A, B, C and D, based on the perceived security risks each posed. On August 30 1950, according to a written order by a senior intelligence officer in the South Korean Navy instructed Jeju's police to "execute all those in groups C and D by firing squad no later than September 6."

South Korea's Truth Commission reported 14,373 victims, 86% at the hands of the security forces and 13.9% at the hands of armed rebels, and estimated that the total death toll was as high as 30,000. The Koreans committed these atrocities in front of the U.S. military. The Americans documented the massacre, but never intervened.

Aftermath

Many residents of Jeju escaped from massacre to Japan, and some of them made their Jeju town in Osaka.

The massacre had been largely ignored by the government. In 1992, President Roh Tae Woo's government sealed up a cave on Mount Halla where the remains of massacre victims had been discovered. But after civil rule was reinstated in the 1990s, the government made several case of apologies for the suppression, and efforts are being made to re-assess the scope of the incident and compensate the survivors. In April 2006, President Roh Moo-Hyun officially apologized to the people of Jeju Province for this massacre.

See also

• Bodo League massacre
• History of South Korea
• Korean War
• List of massacres

External links

• "Jeju April 3rd Massacre Not Forgotten". Retrieved 2006-07-06. Articles on the massacre
• "South Korean President Roh issues an apology". The Korean Times. Retrieved 2006-07-06.
• Wehrfritz, George (2000). "Ghosts of Jeju". Newsweek: 51. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
• Hermes, Matthew (2006). "Back in the Day: Col. Jimmie Leach, a former US Army Officer recalls the Jeju-Do Insurrection of 1948" ( – ^{Scholar search}). Beaufort (SC) Gazette. {{cite journal}}: External link in |format= (help); Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help) "This recent interview with Col. Leach who was the US Army liaison officer to the Korean 11th Constabulary from May-September 1948 is a direct, eyewitness report of the on-the-ground situation at the start of the insurrection. MH prepared this Wikipedia citation."

Further reading

• Merrill, John (1989). Korea: The Peninsular Origins of the War. University of Delaware Press. ISBN 0-87413-300-9. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help) "Examines the local backdrop of the war, including large-scale civil unrest, insurgency and border clashes before the North Korean attack in June, 1950."