Text Fwd: Bloody history buried under Jeju International Airport

▲ An estimated 700 people were executed at the present site of Jeju International Airport, and though there was a full-scale excavation during 2007, the remains of only 237 bodies were found. Photo courtesy Jeju 4.3 Peace Foundation
Jeju Weekly
Bloody history buried under Jeju International Airport Some mass graves of April 3 victims still unexcavated
Saturday, March, 26, 2011, 17:59:18
Koh Yu Kyung

As airplanes land on the gray runway, passengers feel their stomachs churn with excitement. Millions of people visiting Jeju each year begin their trip at this very place: Jeju International Airport. Along with Jeju Island’s development as Korea’s number one tourist attraction, Jeju International Airport has been visited by millions of people last year alone.

While the airport is now a busy tourist intersection filled with animated footsteps, it has not always been the case. In fact, a tragic history is hidden beneath its lively exterior.

“The crack of gunshot continued at the airfield all day long,” reminisced Kim Eui Hyup, whom I interviewed last summer.

Kim was 11 years-old when he witnessed the massacre at the airport. He was ordered to dig air-raid shelters at the current spot of Jeju International Airport. One day while he was working, trucks filled with hundreds of people entered the airfield. Soldiers sent by the government dragged people out of the trucks and started to shoot them. Dead bodies were ruthlessly thrown into big holes. Kim saw this horrific scene from over a fence.

“About 60 years have passed since then, but I still remember it vividly,” Kim said with a sigh.

What he experienced was a part of Jeju’s unresolved past, the infamous April 3 Massacre. Estimates vary, but approximately 30,000 Jeju people, many falsely accused of being communists, died during the incident. Jeju airfield, which has since developed into the current Jeju International Airport, was a significant execution spot where hundreds of people were killed; many of their bodies are still buried under the runway of the airport.

Unfortunately, this is not a well-known fact. The airport now stands as if nothing had happened, and people walk around it totally unaware of the sad history buried under their feet. Even the inception of Jeju airfield was based upon a depressing history of the island. Dating back to the Japanese colonial period, the airfield was built originally as a military base for the occupiers by the hands of exploited Jeju people. After the Japanese withdrew from Korea, it was taken over by the U.S. military. However, the airfield was not used by U.S forces, making it a perfect place to carry out a mass-death sentence.

There were two major events that caused the massacres at the airport: the infamous court martial and the preventive custody measure. The court martial refers to special judicial procedures that deal with crimes under military criminal law or other punishment legislation. In other words, the trials for those who violated military law are held by the military, not by a civil court. During the Jeju April 3 Massacre, two courts martial were held, on December 1948 and on July 1949. Most people who were brought to trial were executed.

Among the accused were some who had started unrest on April 3rd, but most of them were innocent civilians who escaped to the mountain to avoid retribution. Furthermore, trials were not properly held; the records of lawsuits, including the sentencing, do not exist, and the accused themselves were not aware of whether they had stood trial. Trials during the April 3 Massacre cannot be called legal. Hence, on March 14, 2007, the Korean government defined all 868 convicts executed by the courts martial as victims.

According to records of The United States Military Advisory Group to the Republic of Korea, Jeju airfield was where on Oct. 2, 1949 a mass-execution of 249 people was performed. The preventive custody measure, another event that caused mass murder at the airport, is a type of imprisonment used to confine people who are likely to commit a crime. During the April 3 Massacre, only the military had authority to hold people under preventive custody. Since this act confined people who did not commit crimes, many innocent Jeju citizens were unfairly arrested.

According to official police documents, a total of 820 people were confined due to the preventive custody order, and executions of prisoners were carried out over two separate dates: Aug. 4 and 19, 1950.

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아프가니스탄 전쟁 관련들 국문 번역 모음Collection of the Korean Translations Related to Afghanistan War

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Tuesday, December 8, 2009
[국문 번역]Text Fwd: Message to Obama: You Can't Have Muhammad Ali
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오바마에게 보내는 메시지: 당신은 무하마드 알리를 가질 수 없소.
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2009년 12월 3일, 헌팅턴 포스트

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2009년 9월 7일

[국문 번역]Text Fwd: Message to Obama: You Can't Have Muhammad Ali

*국문 번역은 마우스를 내려가시길

* Text Fwd from Bruce Gagnon (globalnet@mindspring.com) on Dec. 7, 2009

Message to Obama: You Can't Have Muhammad Ali
Huntington Post
Dave Zirin (dave@edgeofsports.com)
Posted: December 3, 2009 09:54 AM

On November 19th, President Barack Obama wrote a stirring tribute in USA Today to the most famous draft resister in US history, Muhammad Ali. On Tuesday, Obama spoke at West Point, calling for an increase of 30,000 troops into Afghanistan, with a speech that recalled the worst shadings of George W. Bush's "war on terror."

On November 19th, Obama wrote about why Ali's photo hangs over his desk, praising "The Greatest" for "his unique ability to summon extraordinary strength and courage in the face of adversity, to navigate the storm and never lose his way." On Tuesday, Obama showed neither courage nor strength but the worst kind of imperial arrogance. He asserted America's right to go into a deeply impoverished country that -- from Alexander the Great to the USSR to today -- has made clear to the world's empires that it wants to be left the hell alone.

On Tuesday, Obama summoned the spectre of 9/11 and said, "It is easy to forget that when this war began, we were united -- bound together by the fresh memory of a horrific attack, and by the determination to defend our homeland and the values we hold dear." He didn't mention how many innocent Afghans had already died in eight years of "horrific attacks" on their homeland or how many would die in the months ahead, defending their own homeland.

On November 19th, Obama praised Ali as "a force for reconciliation and peace around the world." On Tuesday the Nobel Peace Prize winner reconciled himself with war.

Would that Muhammad Ali still had his voice. Would that Parkinson's disease and dementia had not robbed us of his razor-sharp tongue.

Today, Ali has been described as "America's only living saint." But like Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, both postage stamps before people, Ali has had his political teeth extracted.

But in a time when billions go to war and prisons while 50% of children will be on food stamps for the coming year, we can't afford Ali, the harmless icon. Maybe Muhammad Ali has been robbed of speech, but I think we can safely guess what the Champ would say in the face of Obama's war. We can safely guess, because he said it perfectly four decades ago:

"Why should they ask me to put on a uniform and go 10,000 miles from home and drop bombs and bullets on brown people in Vietnam while so-called Negro people in Louisville are treated like dogs and denied simple human rights? No, I'm not going 10,000 miles from home to help murder and burn another poor nation simply to continue the domination of white slave masters of the darker people the world over. This is the day when such evils must come to an end. I have been warned that to take such a stand would cost me millions of dollars. But I have said it once and I will say it again. The real enemy of my people is here..... If I thought the war was going to bring freedom and equality to 22 million of my people, they wouldn't have to draft me, I'd join tomorrow. I have nothing to lose by standing up for my beliefs. So I'll go to jail, so what? We've been in jail for 400 years."

Replace Vietnam with Afghanistan and it's a message Barack Obama and our troops need to hear. But we shouldn't wait for some celebrity or athlete to make that statement for us. Muhammad Ali may have helped shape the 1960s, but those years of resistance also shaped him. We need to rebuild the movement against war. We need to revive the real Muhammad Ali to inspire draft resistors of the future. We need to reclaim Ali from warmongers who would use his image to sell a war that will create more orphans than peace. This is the struggle of our lives and we have the Nobel-minted President of the United States on the other side of the barricades. Barack Obama can have the fawning media, the adoring generals, the RNC, and the liberal apologists on his side. But he can't have the Champ. Remove that poster from your wall Mr. President. Your Ali privileges have been revoked.

Dave Zirin is the author of A People's History of Sports in the United States (The New Press) Receive his column every week by emailing dave@edgeofsports.com. Contact him at edgeofsports@gmail.com.




* 아래의 번역된 원문은 우주의 무기와 핵을 반대하는 글로벌 넷워크 사무 총장 브루스 개그논 (globalnet@mindspring.com, http://www.space4peace.blogspot.com, http://www.space4peace.org)이 2009년 12월 7일 보낸 것입니다.

오바마에게 보내는 메시지: 당신은 무하마드 알리를 가질 수 없소.
데이브 지린
2009년 12월 3일
원문: 헌팅턴 포스트

바락 오바마 대통령은 11월 19일, USA 투데이지에 미국 역사상 가장 유명한 징병 저항자, 무하마드 알리에게 감동적인 헌사를 썼읍니다.

오바마는 화요일(12월 1일), 웨스트 포인트에서 아프가니스탄에 3만 군대를 증파할 거라는 연설을 했는데 그것은 조지 W. 부쉬의 가장 나쁜 그림자인 “테러에 대한 전쟁”을 회상시키는 것이었읍니다.

오바마는 11월 19일 왜 알리의 사진이 그의 책상 위에 걸려 있는가에 대해 썼는데 그것은 [알리가]“역경 앞에서 초인적인 힘과 용기를 불러내는 독특한 능력을 지니고 폭풍을 뚫고 결코 길을 잃지 않기 때문에”[알리를] “가장 위인”이라고 칭찬하는 것이었읍니다. 오바마는 화요일, 용기도 힘도 아닌 가장 나쁜 제국주의적 오만함을 보여 주었읍니다. 그는 아주 가난한 나라에 갈 미국의 권리를 주장했는데 그 나라는 알렉산더 대왕부터 현대의 소비에트 연방에 이르기까지 세계의 제국들에게 홀로 있고 싶다고 분명히 톡톡하게 한 바 있읍니다.

오바마는 화요일, 9/11의 유령을 불러내며 말했읍니다. “이 전쟁이 언제 시작했는지 잊는 것은 쉬운 일입니다. 우리는 끔찍스러운 공격의 생생한 기억으로, 우리의 조국과 소중하게 여기는 가치들을 지키기 위한 결심으로 결속되어 단결되어 있었읍니다.” 그는 얼마나 많은 무고한 아프가니스탄인들이 8년간 그 들 고국의 “끔찍스러운 공격”으로 죽었는지, 얼마나 많은 이들이 또 그들 고국을 지키기 위해 몇 개월안에 또한 죽을지 언급하지 않았읍니다.

오바마는 11월 19일, 알리를 “세계의 화해와 평화를 위한 추동력”이라 말했읍니다. 화요일, 노펠 평화상 수상자는 전쟁에 타협했읍니다.

무하마드 알리가 아직도 그의 목소리를 가졌다면. 파킨슨 병과 치매가 그의 날카로운 혀를 우리로부터 앗아가지 않았다면.

오늘날 알리는 “미국의 유일한 살아있는 성자”로 묘사되어 왔읍니다. 그러나 우표로 남아있는 말컴 엑스와 마틴 루터 킹처럼 알리의 정치 이빨은 뽑혀져 있었읍니다.

그러나 수억명들이 전쟁과 감옥으로 가고 50% 어린이들이 음식 배급표로 살아갈 해에 우리에겐 무해한 우상, 알리가 없읍니다. 알리는 그의 연설을 뺐겼는지 모릅니다. 그러나 우리는 오바마의 전쟁을 보며 챔피언이 무엇을 말했을 거라는 것을 조심스럽게 짐작할 수 있다 생각합니다. 우리는 조심스럽게 짐작할 수 있는데 왜냐하면 그는 40여년 전에 완벽하게 말했기 때문입니다.

“ 왜 그들은 저보고 군복을 입고 집으로부터 1만 마일 떨어진 곳에 가 베트남의 갈색 피부를 지닌 이들에게 폭탄과 총알을 떨어뜨리라는 겁니까? 루이지애나의 소위 니그로들은 개들처럼 다루어지고 단순한 인권조차 거부되는데요? 아니오, 저는 단지 백인 노예주들의 세계의 더 어두운 색깔의 피부를 지닌 이들을 계속 지배하는 것을 돕는 목적으로 집으로부터 1만 마일 떨어진 곳에 가 살인을 돕고 다른 가난한 국가를 불태우기 위해 가지 않을 것입니다. 그러한 악마들이 끝날 때가 왔읍니다. 저는 제가 [정의의 편에] 선다면 수백만 달러가 저에게서 없어질 것이라 경고받았읍니다. 그러나 저는 한 번 말했고 앞으로도 다시 그렇게 말할 것입니다. 제 민족의 진짜 적들은 여기에 있읍니다… 만약 제가 전쟁이 제 2천 2백만 민족에게 자유와 평등을 가져올 거라 생각했다면 그들은 저를 징용할 필요가 없읍니다. 내일이라도 참가하지요. 저는 제 신념을 지키기 위해 잃을 것이 아무 것도 없읍니다. 그러므로 저는 감옥으로 갈 것입니다. 그게 뭐 어쨌다는 겁니까? 우리는 400년 동안 감옥에 있었는데요.”

베트남을 아프가니스탄으로 바꾸면 이것이 바로 바락 오바마와 우리의 군대가 들을 필요가 있는 메시지입니다. 그러나 우리는 유명인들이나 체육 선수들이 우리를 위해 성명할 것을 기다려서는 안됩니다. 무하마드 알리는 1960년대를 형성하는 것을 도왔을 지 모르나 그 저항의 해들은 또한 그를 형성했읍니다. 우리는 전쟁을 반대하는 운동을 다시 세울 필요가 있읍니다. 우리는 미래의 징병 저항자들에게 영감을 줄 진정한 무하마드 알리를 부활시켜야 합니다. 우리는 [알리의] 이미지를 이용하여 평화보다 고아들을 더 양산해낼 전쟁을 팔려는 전쟁광들로부터 알리를 되찾아야 합니다. 이것은 우리 삶의 투쟁이며 병영의 반대편에는 노벨상으로 주조된 미국의 대통령이 있읍니다. 바락 오바마는 아첨떠는 언론과 [그를] 숭모하는 장군들과 공화당과 자유주의 호교주의자들을 가질 수 있읍니다. 그러나 그는 챔피언을 가질 수 없읍니다. 대통령 각하, 당신의 벽에서 포스터를 떼어내시오. 당신의 알리 특권은 철회되어야 합니다.

* 데이브 지린은 “미국 민중 스포츠사”(뉴 프레스사 출판)의 작가입니다. 그의 칼럼을 그에게 이메일해 매주 받으시길 수 있읍니다. dave@edgeofsports.com으로 연락하시길.