제주4·3사건과 주민의 동굴 피신생활

Abstract

This paper is a study on the experiences of Jeju residents in cave refuges during the Jeju 4‧3 incident, one of the most painful sources of memories for Jeju citizens. Jeju Island has always been easily differentiable from mainland Korea, and not only due to its distance from the capital and peculiar culture, but also due to the tendency of the local population to resist authority. Indeed, throughout history Jeju has consistently shown signs of resistance and protest towards the central government. The Jeju 4‧3 incident was the largest amongst these events, resulting in the deaths of thousands of innocent Jeju residents. According to official investigative reports, the incident began with the national independence day protest on March 1, 1947, when police shot into crowds of protestors, thereby increasing an already tense political atmosphere in Jeju. The armed uprising on April 3, 1948 triggered a series of conflicts between guerrilla forces of the Jeju branch of the Labour Party and the police and army search teams. This conflict resulted in the deaths of thousands of civilians. The incident ceased on September 21, 1954 with the reopening of the banned areas of Mt. Halla. The most severe period of the massacre was during the so-called scorched earth operations from October 1948 to March 1949. These operations of the search teams aimed to eliminate the base of the guerrilla forces established in the mid-mountainous territories and cut their connections to nearby civilian villages. The authorities' plan was to send all civilians from these territories to seaside villages. Many of the villagers, however, did not relocate to the designated areas, but rather took refuge in nearby forests and caves. They hid in those places because they feared the police and army, who were killing without distinction anyone with suspected connections to the Labour Party or any of the incidents. These refuge caves were not just simple hideaways; some of them served as temporary homes for families or even entire villages. In this paper I examine three villages: Sehwa, Dongkwang, and Seonheul. The caves in these three villages show commonalities though each has distinguishing characteristics. Darangsi cave in Sehwa village hosted approximately 20 civilians from nearby Jongdal and Hado villages. Civilians hid in that cave for almost a month after their villages were repeatedly attacked by guerrillas and the authority forces, despite being seaside villages. In the case of Dongkwang village, around 120 people hid for two months in a cave called Keunneolgwe after their village (located in the mid-mountainous area) was burned down by the army. Both in Darangshi and Keunneolgwe caves the residents tried to maintain their old lifestyle by dividing the space according to their villages or houses. People from different villages would live in separate places inside the cave, and even spaces for kitchens or bathrooms were designated. These refuge caves were usually hard to find and even harder to enter due to their narrow entrances. Once inside, however, the space widened, allowing many people to take refuge. The caves in Seonheul have similar features, but because of their rapid discovery they were used only as short-term refuges. Seonheul village was also burned down and its residents were forced to hide in four of the nearby caves. According to survivors, one of them hosted around 200 residents, before being discovered after only a few days of refuge. Most caves were discovered by the police or army and many refugees, who were mostly civilians, were killed. The truth about these caves and the massacres related to them had been silenced for decades as the government labeled the incident as a communist uprising. However, along with the start of the democratization movement in the 1980s, a movement for the investigation of the truth of these incidents also started. The caves became important symbols of the incident as they played an important role in reinterpreting these events from the viewpoint of ordinary Jeju civilians. These caves allow for the ideological conflict to be put aside and have became symbols of the hardships endured by individuals during the incident. In 1992 the first of the caves was discovered, the Darangsi cave in Sehwa village. It was a major discovery as the remains of 11 residents who died of asphyxiation after being suffocated in the cave by the army were found. This was the first piece of evidence concerning the brutality used by authorities during the incident and it also became the first report of its nature to be reported nationwide. Despite the fact that the cave itself was blocked off and the remains of the victims were hurriedly cremated, local reporters and scholars continued researching it. Articles and documentaries were made about Darangsi and other caves as survivors began discussing these events after many decades of silence. It was not until the premier of Jiseul in 2013, however, that these events became known nationwide. Jisuel is a black and white movie about the 4‧3 incident that focuses on the history of events in Dongkwang village and the Keunneolgwe cave. This movie has played an important role in spreading the truth and sharing local memory about the incident in recent years. Currently, in 2016, the Education Office of Jeju has made an educational short movie about the incident focusing on Darangsi, which finally shows the official acceptance of the caves and local memories. The Jeju 4‧3 incident is still considered ongoing, as many of its issues remain unsolved. However the memories of ordinary people, just like the discovery of these caves, are the keys to achieving reconciliation and coexistence, which is considered to be the aim of Jeju 4‧3 incident research in the scholarly world.