Chansik Park
National Committee on the Seventieth Anniversary of Jeju 4.3

Abstract

This year, as Jeju 4.3 met its seventieth anniversary, a wide array of events and activities are designed to inform the general public of Jeju 4.3 on a national scale, finally transforming Jeju 4.3 into a historical narrative that must be remembered by all Korean people. Furthermore, empathy for amendments of the Special Act aimed at a just settlement and healing including damage compensation spread, and the US responsibilities for the massacres of Jeju residents entered the sphere of public opinion. Along with such advances, various attempts to liberate the 4.3 discourse were forwarded, in the form of re-situating the Jeju residents at the time of 4.3 from victims to sovereign subjects in their community as well as in history. Now, the movement for truth and justice of 4.3 must move forward, with the seventieth anniversary as its foundation, by meeting the following challenges: search for specific methods for just settlement and healing; continuation of the success of nationalization; establishment and propulsion of mid-to-long-term plans for addressing US responsibilities; establishment of a system and activities that will continue the 4.3 movement through the coming generations; and locating the relevance of the spirit of 4.3 vis-à-vis liaison between this spirit and key issues at the current historical juncture.

Key Words : Jeju 4.3, History of Truth-Seeking of Jeju 4.3, Seventieth Anniversary of Jeju 4.3, Settlement of the Past, Transitional Justice, Nationalization of Jeju 4.3, 4.3 and the US, Rectification of the Name of 4.3