The Jeju Uprising

The Jeju Uprising

This article relates to We Do Not Part

Han Kang's latest novel, We Do Not Part, delves into a dark part of Korean history known as the Jeju uprising, the Jeju massacre, or (in Korea) "Jeju 4.3," for the day it began. Jeju, Korea's largest island, located southwest of the Korean peninsula, is sometimes today called "the Hawaii of Asia." In the introduction to a recent article about Jeju by the author Gary Shteyngart, Condé Nast Traveler referred to it as "the world's most eccentric island paradise." However, only 75 years ago, it was the location of horrific and devastating political violence, when 10% of the native Jeju population was killed and many more displaced.

At the close of World War II, the Japanese occupation of Korea (1910-1945) was ended by Allied forces, and the peninsula split between the United States and the Soviets. Many Koreans were determined to create an independent and united nation, and in Jeju, there was strong opposition to a divided Korea. What followed was a period of political upheaval as the US sought to counter Soviet and communist influence on the island. By 1946, the Jeju Island People's Committee (who were in favor of independence and a unified Korea) and similar groups were being intensely targeted by Jeju's police, which the US continued to invest in as right-wing paramilitary forces also grew.

A catalyst for the April 3rd incident was the police shooting of six people at the March 1st Movement anniversary rally in 1947. (The March 1st Movement began in 1919 and sparked Korean resistance to Japanese colonial rule. It resulted in a series of demonstrations for Korean national independence from Japan in the capital city of Seoul, which spread throughout Korea, and is still celebrated annually.) Authorities cracked down on resulting strikes and protests, leading to a mass rebellion on April 3rd of the following year that was met with widespread civilian massacres, and violence carrying on into the Korean War.

The southern part of the Korean Peninsula was under American military rule from September 1945 to August 1948, so many consider the US responsible for the massacre, and public efforts have been made to push the American government to apologize and acknowledge its role publicly.

For decades, the subject of the Jeju uprising was repressed in South Korea (by US-backed governments), and authors were arrested for publishing literary work with the incident as a theme. As is portrayed in We Do Not Part, many victims' families struggled to get any media representation for their loved ones. "They reported on how the victims' families were visiting the mine for the first time, ten years later, Inseon explained. The families took this picture at the time, but no outlet would print it, so they held on to a copy, hoping they would one day get it published."

Even after all these years, there are still many unanswered questions about the whereabouts of thousands of people who went missing during this time. We Do Not Part honors the true sentiments surrounding the harsh reality of the massacre: that many have still not found the remains of their loved ones. "In three years, around four hundred sets of remains were recovered before they halted the exhumations in 2009. Meaning more than three thousand people's remains are still down there."

It is a horrific part of history that shouldn't be forgotten, which is why stories like We Do Not Part are worthwhile and valuable, as they introduce readers across the world to what has happened in the past, in hopes of a better future and so the lives lost will not be forgotten.

Filed under People, Eras & Events

This article relates to We Do Not Part. It first ran in the February 12, 2025 issue of BookBrowse Recommends.