Jeju 4.3

The Jeju 4.3 Incident: A Foundation of Truth and Memory

The Jeju 4.3 Incident refers to one of the most tragic and defining events in modern Korean history. Beginning on April 3, 1948, and continuing well into the mid-1950s, it was a period of intense state-sponsored violence against the people of Jeju Island. In response to an uprising against the division of Korea and for local autonomy, the South Korean government, with the oversight of the U.S. Military Government, launched a brutal suppression campaign. This resulted in the massacre of tens of thousands of civilians, the destruction of the majority of the island’s villages, and the creation of a deep, collective trauma.

For decades, the truth of Jeju 4.3 was officially silenced by successive authoritarian governments. Victims and their families were forbidden from speaking about the massacre, and the official narrative was distorted or erased entirely. It was only through a persistent, courageous truth-finding movement led by survivors and civic groups that this silence was finally broken. This movement led to the enactment of the Jeju 4.3 Special Act in 2000, an official government investigation, a presidential apology, and the designation of Jeju 4.3 as a national day of remembrance.

This history of suppression and the subsequent fight for truth is the foundation from which all my professional work stems. Since joining the Jeju 4.3 Peace Foundation in 2019, I have led and managed several interconnected projects that address the legacy of this history — from securing international recognition to restoring the identities of the lost.

My Projects

UNESCO Memory of the World — I led the multi-year effort to inscribe the Jeju 4.3 Archives on the UNESCO Memory of the World Register, successfully achieving inscription in April 2025. This secures global, irreversible recognition for a history that was once suppressed.

Victim Identification — As project manager, I oversaw the excavation of clandestine graves and the DNA-based identification of victims — work I frame as a “memorial practice” that restores dignity and identity to those erased by state violence.

Archival Research — I conducted extensive research at the U.S. National Archives, collecting and analyzing approximately 38,000 declassified documents to establish the evidentiary basis for the national follow-up investigation.

jeju43.info — I am building an open digital ecosystem — spanning news, archival access, and collaborative knowledge — to ensure the memory of Jeju 4.3 remains accessible and alive in the digital age.