Jeju Island

Jeju’s people are known to be stalwart, tenacious, frugal, independent of spirit, free-thinking, and strong-willed, as well as outspoken and simultaneously welcoming and suspicious of outsiders. With what has been referred to as the “Tamna mindset,” the island has made the transition from functioning independently—first as a tribal agrarian society, and then an independent regency trading with and influenced by its neighbors—to experiencing a series of invasions and resistance efforts, along with occupation and subjugation by others.

Furthermore, for the 5,000 years that they have lived on this island, the people of Jeju have had to struggle merely to subsist under harsh natural topographic and climatic elements. As a result, they formed multiple collective labor practices, economic cooperatives, systems of village-oriented kinship, and a myriad of other practices of mutual aid.

Jeju’s history of hardship and sorrow has resulted in the collective psychological strength and community bond characteristic of this island society.

A HISTORY OF MISFORTUNE, BANISHMENT, AND SUFFERING

Jeju Island is known for its “three abundances,” or samda: rocks, wind, and women. In contrast, ancient Jeju locals spoke of excessive rocks, wind, and drought. In other words, samda for the islanders did not represent a sentimental empathy for natural phenomena, but natural obstacles that posed a challenge to their very existence. The history of the volcanic island of Jeju is the history of everyday lives for a steadfast, resolute people forced to cultivate barren fields and endure incessant wind and droughts.

The island was first settled over 10,000 years ago. Evidence of the first inhabitants of the island can be found at a prehistoric site in Gosan Village in Hangyong Township. Home to the oldest relics on the island, the Gosan site is very significant in understanding the origin of the Jeju people. Excavations of the site have yielded an abundance of pottery shards and stone tools, including exquisitely fashioned arrowheads. The area’s ancient inhabitants used the arrowheads to hunt and apparently caught fish along the nearby coast and in the marshes. The primitive pottery unearthed suggests that in addition to hunting and fishing, the people also experimented with agriculture.

The characteristics of Jeju’s people are their diligence, thrift, strong will, positive and cheerful personality, and spirit of cooperation.

Prehistory earthenware and stoneware relics excavated from Gosan Village

Prehistoric site in Samyang Village

Scattered along coastal areas, the inhabitants gradually organized themselves into community groups. The legend of the “three clans” attests to this process. The ancient story describes how clans—represented in the legend by three divine figures known as Ko, Yang, and Bu—transformed the island into a state known as Tamna.

In the legend, these three demigods came out of a hole in the ground at Moheunghyeol (now Samseonghyeol) and took up residence in the area. One day, they discovered a giant wooden box that had washed up on a beach on the east coast. Inside the box, they found the seeds for five grains, a horse, a cow, and three princesses from a country called Byeongnang. The three divine figures married these princesses and began to expand their influence on the island. They engaged in agriculture and raised livestock. Eventually, they were able to create the kingdom called Tamna.

In ancient records, Tamna is known by a number of different names, including Takna, Somna, Tammora, and Chuho. It should be kept in mind that ancient Tamna was not the dominion of any other state on the Korean peninsula, but an independent kingdom that enjoyed reciprocal trade ties and diplomatic exchanges with China, Japan, and the states on the Korean Peninsula. Rather than being an isolated island in the middle of the ocean, it was a strategic base for maritime exchange within Northeast Asia.

Around the latter part of the third century, according to the Chinese work Samguozhi (History of the Three Kingdoms), Tamna was already conducting trade with the three Han states in the southern part of the Korean Peninsula. Chinese currency dating to around the first century was discovered in Sanji Harbor in 1928, providing further proof that ancient Tamna engaged in active maritime trade. From the late fifth to tenth centuries, Tamna expanded its commercial activities to Goguryeo, Unified Silla, Tang China, and Japan.

“Samseonghyeol” refers to the three holes where the progenitors of the island’s Ko, Yang, and Bu clans are said to have emerged. Legend has it that these divine figures dressed in leather and hunted for food before marrying the three princesses of Byeongnang—who brought with them the five grains, a horse, and a cow—and beginning lives of agriculture.

STONE CULTURE

The unique features of Jeju Island are often summed up as the samda, or “three abundances”: rocks, wind, and women. The samda are generally regarded as negative features, but the islanders have adroitly turned them to their advantage. In particular, they have creatively capitalized on perhaps the most difficult of the three: the area’s numerous rocks.

On Jeju, rocks have long been used to build walls around crop fields and grave sites, as well as fortresses, breakwaters, buildings, and tutelary pagodas. They have even been used for carving dolharubang (“stone grandfather”) figures, which once served as symbolic sentry figures outside of gates but are now primarily sold as souvenirs. In these ways, the island’s ubiquitous rocks have become an essential aspect of its lifestyle and culture.

Geumneung Stone Garden

Bangsatap

In addition to functioning as boundaries, the stone walls around fields served as barriers against another of the island’s abundances: wind. The stone walls have irregular surfaces filled with holes. But a closer look at their construction reveals the builder’s exquisite skill. Large stones are stacked and the cracks are filled with small pebbles, but holes are created in the walls at regular intervals. At first glance, this makes the walls appear very precarious. Yet by letting air through, the holes actually keep the structures from being toppled by strong gusts.

A number of dome-shaped stone pagodas, called bangsatap, can be found at tourist sites such as Mokseokwon Garden and Sangumburi. These are the tutelary pagodas, derived from the Joseon era pagoda placed near villages to ward off evil. According to principles of geomancy, these pagodas were set up in “empty” spots as symbolic bulwarks against negative forces. It is said that before such pagodas came into being, a broken cauldron or some other similar object was placed on the ground. Even now, the original form of these pagodas can be seen at Iho-dong in Jeju City and various other places around the island.

In addition to using stones for walls around fields, the islanders stacked them to create “sea fields.” At various points along the coast, villagers used stones to block off part of the shore and create small basins called wondam—similar to the manmade fish ponds found on the islands of Hawaii. Typically, individuals or villages would manage a few of these basin areas, while some villages had as many as five or six of them. The wondam would trap anchovies, octopuses, eel, and other fish that came in with the tide and were unable to get back out as the tide ebbed. Whenever there was a large catch, there would be a great feast on the coast. Folk songs sung during this time, such as the “Song of the Anchovy Harvest,” have been passed down to the present day.

In addition to being utilized for the living, stones were used to provide structures for the dead. Tombs from this region, called yongmyo (dragon graves), have a distinctive design, typically surrounded by a double wall of stacked stone. In addition to walls, graves included statues of children or mother sculptures. The expressions and poses of the child figures differ noticeably among the regions of the island, providing important clues to everyday life and thinking among the villagers during various eras.

These are good examples of the infinite potential of human wisdom and determination to overcome difficult circumstances. The Jeju people’s ingenious use of stone can be seen everywhere throughout the island.

Ruins of a Jeju castle built in the Tamna era and used in the Goryeo era to defend against Japanese raiders

Yongmyo (stone-ringed Jeju tombs)

East Asia in the seventh century. The independent Tamna, the precursor of Jeju Island, was not an isolated place but a key maritime trade center for the region.

In particular, the fall of Baekje in 660 allowed the island to engage in independent diplomacy free from Baekje interference. From the fifth lunar month in 661 to the second lunar month in 662, Tamna sent envoys to Silla, Tang China, and Japan and made considerable efforts to monitor the international political environment. In 661 and 665, the Tamna king and envoys visited the Tang royal palace. During the “rites to heaven” held at Taishan Mountain, they participated as equals with representatives from Silla, Baekje, and Japan—an indication that Tang China accorded Tamna the same diplomatic respect it extended to other nations in the region. Tamna was also actively involved in events on the peninsula. During the 663 Baek River Battle, part of an effort to revive the Baekje Kingdom, Tamna supported Baekje and Japanese forces.

In a development related to this external exchange, the political and social ruling class responsible for diplomacy and trade flourished as Tamna grew into a strong state. Around the seventh century, Silla’s Queen Seondeok erected a massive nine-story pagoda at Hwangnyong Temple in the Silla capital, today’s Gyeongju, as a spiritual bulwark to fend off invasions from nine countries. It is interesting to note that Tamna was fourth on the list of countries. Ancient Tamna’s status as a maritime state can also be surmised from the fact that around the eighth and ninth centuries. Tang China regarded it as an important trading partner.

With the rise of the Goryeo Dynasty during the 10th century, Tamna soon lost its standing as an independent state. As Goryeo power came to extend as far south as Tamna, the island kingdom finally became a territory of its mainland counterpart in 1105. During the reign of Goryeo’s King Gojong (1213–1259), Tamna’s name was changed to “Jeju,” which generally meant “province across the sea.”

ANTI-MONGOLIAN RESISTANCE AND SUBJUGATION

In the immediate wake of the annexation, the islanders suffered greatly from the burden of having to offer tribute to the Goryeo regency. On a number of occasions, the islanders rebelled against the exploitative demands of the government. When the Three Elite Patrols (Sambyeolcho), a military troop from the mainland that had worked its way down from Ganghwa Island to Jeju, revolted against the central government and the occupying Mongols on the island in 1270, the islanders joined forces with them. As the island residents mobilized for the struggle, they built a number of fortifications such as the Hangpaduri, Aewolmok, and Hwanhaejang fortresses, which were built along the coast to prevent enemy landings. Their remains can still be seen in the villages of Goseong, Gonae, and Aewol.

After the subjugation of the Three Elite Patrols, Jeju Island came under the direct control of the Mongols for a hundred years. As a result, horse breeding operations were set up in various sites around the island. Unlike the Goryeo government, which saw little value in the island, the Mongols showed an avid interest, regarding it as a forward base for their advance across the sea into Japan. With this in mind, the Mongols initiated a number of projects, including the construction of ships, the breeding of war horses, and the reconstruction of Beophwa Temple, all while attempting to construct a palace. At the Beophwa site in Seogwipo’s Hawon district, tile shards and roof-end tiles bearing inscriptions of dragons and phoenixes have been excavated. Not far from the temple site, a tomb believed to belong to a descendant of the Mongolian leader Genghis Khan is currently being excavated.

ANTI-MONGOLIAN RESISTANCE SITE: A DISCOVERY

Hangpaduri Hangmong Historical Site is the location of an earthen fortress built in 1270 as part of a struggle against Mongolian invasion. The Three Elite Patrols, a rogue military combat unit from the mainland, overtook the island’s armed forces upon arrival and were joined by local residents in their efforts. Nearby Pagunbong, a gently sloping oreum, was the site of their annihilation by Mongolian-Goryeo forces three years later.

Officially designated Local Monument No. 29, the historic site has long held world anthropological and cultural heritage value: the Three Elite Patrols also acted as a provisional government, the first of its kind. The ruins have been frequently visited, and restoration work was undertaken in 1978. Recently, archaeologists made a remarkable discovery: there are indications of a large palace at this location. While written historical records of same existed, no physical evidence had been discovered until now.

A prospecting survey conducted by the Jeju Institute of Archaeology in May 2011 unearthed approximately 100 relics, all from the 13th century, indicating a large residential structure built using techniques reflecting advances made in civil engineering during that era. A number of the pieces are made of celadon, owned at that time by the elite class of the Goryeo kingdom. Some of the stonework discovered indicates columns around the structure’s center. The archeology institute has deemed the excavation “urgent,” and the Cultural Heritage Administration of Korea has joined the effort, with a future restoration in the realm of possibility.

Several legends are associated with the area. The Jangsumul is a spring said to have emerged from the deep, giant footprints left by General Kim of the Three Elite Patrols as he leapt from the fortress wall to the ground. The purportedly medicinal spring was alleged to have been the source of Goseong villagers’ resistance to a cholera outbreak that affected neighboring villages. Following that period, further legends characterized it as a spring of immortality.

Hangpaduri Hangmong Historical Site is located in Goseong Village, Aewol District, between Hallim District and Jeju City. Jeju Olle trail No. 16 passes the site.

During the Joseon Dynasty (1392–1910), the government was much more centralized than in the preceding Goryeo era, and Jeju Island was treated as a frontier region. Mainlanders tended to think of it not as the home of fellow citizens but as a faraway place where horses were bred and political prisoners exiled. To make matters worse, in the 17th century King Injo issued a royal edict that prohibited the islanders from entering the mainland. The edict remained in effect for 200 years until the early 19th century, reinforcing the complete isolation of the islanders.

During the Joseon era, the inhabitants of Jeju Island were sometimes referred to as ryukgoyeok (“the six hard labors”). The term meant that the islanders were engaged in six physically demanding occupations: diving for shellfish, constructing ports, herding livestock, maintaining fruit orchards, constructing boats, and cultivating rice. Among these workers were those responsible for gathering and delivering the abalone, mandarin oranges, horses, and medicinal herbs paid in tribute to the king. In order to meet the mandatory quotas, the islanders were forced to risk their lives diving into the deep waters off the coast and farming the high terraces of Mt. Halla.

For the beleaguered islanders, the sea was a barrier separating the island from the mainland. Facing such inhospitable conditions, they naturally developed a philosophy of life that was centered on basic survival. This philosophy can be found embodied in forms of collective labor such as sunurum (mutual aid) and in extreme frugality, as typified by the practice of jonyang.

Unwilling to endure the oppressive conditions, islanders rebelled against the central government on a number of occasions toward the end of the Joseon era. The 1862 Kang Je Geom Rebellion, the 1898 Bang Seong Chil Rebellion, and the 1901 Lee Jae Su Rebellion were large-scale uprisings of the common people that struck fear into the heart of the government. Through these movements, the people of Jeju Island fostered a spirit of direct defiance against nepotism and exploitation. In particular, the Lee Jae Su Rebellion, a struggle against corruption within the area’s burgeoning Catholic church, resulted in a stern response from France, which had led the missionary effort, and from other countries. A movie made about these events was given an international release, an indication that the incident was of great significance not only to Koreans but to the international community as well. Relics and sites associated with the incident include the plaza at Gwandeok Pavilion in Jeju City, the public Catholic cemetery at Hwangsapyeong in Jeju’s Hwabuk district, the Inseong Village Town Fortress, and the Samuisabi (Monument of the Three Martyrs) in the northern part of the island. The last of these commemorates Lee Jae Su and two other leaders of the rebellion.

In addition, Jeju Island was a favored place for the banishment of political exiles. Members of the royal house (among them Prince Gwanghaegun) and high-ranking politicians found guilty of intrigue were banished to the island. Many of these people became important in later genealogical records as the first of their clan to live on Jeju Island. Some of the exiles were brilliant scholars who had a profound influence on scholarship on the island. In particular, the islanders highly regarded Kim Chong (pen name Jung-am), Cheong On (pen name Dong-gye) and Song Si-yeol (pen name Woo-am). These scholars were part of the group of “Five Sages” venerated at Gyullim Seowon, a local Confucian school. At the former site of the school, which lies within Jeju‘s South Gate Fortress Site, is the Ohyeondan (Five Sages Shrine), housing a monument to commemorate these scholars.

In 1840, Kim Jeong-hui (pen name Chu-sa), a scholar famous for his philologico-biographical studies, was falsely accused of amid factional disputes and exiled to Jeju. During his eight years of exile, he lived at the home of Kang Do-sun at Daejeonghyeol in the southern part of the island. He had a significant influence on the area’s young Confucian scholars, teaching a number of them his distinctive calligraphy style, which is known today as the “Chu-sa Style.” Kim’s famous work Sehando (Landscape in Winter) is said to have been painted during this period. The site of the house where he stayed is still preserved within Daejong District Fortress.

After Japan annexed Korea in 1910, the people of Jeju Island lived in poverty and hunger. In order to survive, many went to Japan to work under wretched conditions in mines and textile factories. In particular, many islanders relocated to Japan after the opening of a direct route between Jeju Island and Osaka in 1923.

During this oppressive period, the islanders were actively involved in the struggle against Japanese occupation. Following the 1919 independence demonstrations, young socialists led the island’s anti-Japanese movement. From the formation of the Shininhoe (New People’s Association) in 1925 to the mid-1930s when the movement was driven underground by Japanese suppression, these activists represented the mainstream of the province’s struggle against colonialism. The peak of the movement came with the resistance of the island’s diving women, which took place between 1931 and early 1932 in six villages in Gujwa and Seongsan Townships. It occurred when the women who earned a living diving for shellfish off the island’s coast rose up against the heavy-handed actions of the Divers Association, which was overseen by the Japanese. About 17,000 people participated in the struggle, and over 100 were arrested in what would go down as the island’s most notable anti-Japanese protest and Korea’s largest protest ever led by women and people working in the fishing industry. The movement was quashed by harsh suppression from Japan, with local leaders conscripted into military service or forced to labor for the Japanese war effort.

In Jocheon Township, the islanders’ anti-colonial movement is honored in the Jeju Anti-Japanese Memorial Museum. Some of the military facilities that the Japanese built on the island during World War II have been preserved as a further reminder of the suffering that the islanders endured. Examples include remnants of the Alduru Airport at Sangmo Village and remnants of cave fortifications on Mt. Songak along the coast.

With the country’s liberation from Japanese colonial rule, the island and all of Korea came under the jurisdiction of the U.S. military government. A couple of years later, in 1947, more than ten islanders were injured or killed when police opened fire on them during the anniversary of the Independence Movement of March 1, 1919. As a show of protest, many of the island’s public offices, schools, and other workplaces were closed in a general strike by their staff. The U.S. military government responded with a stern crackdown on demonstrators. In the year following the strike, approximately 2,500 people were arrested, and in March 1948 three incidents occurred in which people were killed during police interrogations.

In response to these events, some young Jeju inhabitants fled to the foot of Mt. Halla, where they prepared an armed revolt. These young people are said to have opposed elections for a distinct South Korean government, scheduled for May 10, 1948. Finally, in the early morning hours of April 3, 1948, armed units from this rebel group attacked 11 police stations throughout the island as well as the headquarters of various rightist organizations. This marked the beginning of the April 3rd Uprising.

In response, the U.S. military government, working in conjunction with the national military and local police forces, set out to subdue the “communist rebels” throughout the island. In the process, most mountain villages were burned down, and many law-abiding citizens were killed. During the short period from August 1948, when the government of South Korea was established, to the spring of 1949, thousands of people were persecuted and evacuation orders issued for residents of more than 130 villages. In the end, the island’s society was utterly devastated.

It is impossible to estimate the number of cases in which innocent people were victimized in some manner. For example, the people of Dosan Village in Pyoseon Township were forced to move from a mountain village to the coast. On December 14, 1948, soldiers arrested the villagers, brought them to Pyoseon Beach, and killed 157 of them. In another incident on January 17, 1949, soldiers surrounded Bukchon Village in Jocheon Township, claiming that the residents had been colluding with communist rebels. They burned down over 300 houses and assembled the residents on the athletic field of an elementary school, where they proceeded to execute approximately 400 of them. It makes one shudder to contemplate the thousands of people who died in such a short time on such a small island.

The tragedy did not end there. When the Korean War began on June 25, 1950, many relatives of the armed rebels were placed under arrest and eventually executed at Jeju Airport, Sarabong, and other locations. Most of those in prison on the mainland for their part in the April 3rd Uprising were also summarily executed. The 132 people buried in Donggwang Village of Andeok Township were killed at this time. On August 20, 1950, those incarcerated at Moseulpo in the Daejong district were taken to a munitions dump on the north side of Mt. Songak and executed. When the bereaved family members found the mass grave seven years later, the bodies had deteriorated to such a degree that identification was impossible. The corpses were therefore placed together in a mass tomb, and a monument was erected with the inscription Baekjoilsonjiji—“Place of a Hundred Grandfathers and One Grandson.”

For the people of Jeju Island, the April 3rd Uprising represents a horrific tragedy. While the circumstances of that era are complex and research insufficient, all parties agree that more than 85% of the killing was committed by the national and local security forces and that the “rebellion” was suppressed with a force now officially considered “excessive.”

The islanders boast a history of survival and struggle against harsh natural conditions, but much of their culture was lost during that terrible time. In a sense, the incident can be seen as the final chapter of the island’s history; following that time, there was strong political suppression and an effort by the military governments of the mainland to absorb Jeju into Korea once and for all. Islanders believe that the truth of that time must be fully brought to light so that Jeju can reclaim its history and regain its lost identity.

Many tourists who come to Jeju Island are entranced by its beautiful scenery and pristine environment. But few are aware of the tragic history that lingers on this small island.

Jeju Islanders carry the pain of their struggle as part of their character. They do not forget—but they are not a wounded people. Rather, they have developed a resistance to difficulty, a courage that rises to meet each challenge, and an indomitable spirit that has led the way from times of great hardship and deep sorrow to an era of prosperity. Today’s “Jejudo-saram,” or Jeju native, has inherited a DNA forged in the dual fires of labor and tragedy, emerging with a strength of will to be admired—and emulated.

APRIL 3RD PEACE PARK AND MEMORIAL HALL

The April 3rd Peace Park and Memorial Hall was opened to the public and dedicated on April 3, 2008—sixty years after the original episode of violence for which it is named. Its founders and the people of Jeju have noted that the sixty-year span is a significant one in a tradition inherited from Ancient China. Specifically, based on the Chinese zodiac, it represents an identical alignment of the stars to the date 60 years earlier, indicating a closing of one chapter and the beginning of another.

As of April 7, 2011, the memorial hall had received more than 500,000 visitors. More than 10,000 people attended its April 3rd memorial service. Its website offers a feature for “cyber-worship,” which permits the people of Jeju to remember their dead in a unique way.

The complex combines a wide range of facilities. Among them are the noted Peace Memorial Hall, which functions as a museum and gallery and houses a research department, and the All Souls Altar, the site of the annual service, within which a memorial wall with names of victims is housed. Additionally, there is a memorial tower and shrine entitled “Returning to Heaven,” another memorial hall that houses cremated remains in celadon urns and a recreation of a mass burial site, a graveyard, and numerous statues, along with other artwork and landscapes. Peace Park officials have plans for its expansion.

The work of many Jeju artists is on display in the Memorial Hall’s permanent exhibit, among them renowned Sa-sam (April 3rd) artists Kang Yo-bae and Koh Gill-chun.

Special exhibits are shown for short periods in the second floor gallery. In April 2010, the drawings and writings of survivor Im Gyeong Jae were exhibited. At the age of 75, Im, a lifelong farmer, began spontaneously and prolifically producing artwork that represented a flood of memories from that era, suffering a stroke in the process.

This year’s special exhibition was called Lost Villages and included photographs, artists’ renderings, poetry, and testimony describing villages that were destroyed.

The Peace Park serves as a reminder that the historical trauma and its victims, the devastated villages, and the more than 60 years of efforts toward truth, reconciliation, and healing need to be transformed into a lasting example of peace. A portion of the Berlin Wall stands at the entry as further evidence of this need. The park and memorial hall are open to visitors daily.

The April 3rd Peace Park and Memorial Hall, along with a chunk of the Berlin Wall donated by the city of Berlin as a symbol of peace

Inside the April 3rd Peace Park and Memorial Hall

Breastfeeding (2007) by Kang Yo-bae, a painter who depicted the April 3rd Uprising