Addressing a difficult past in South Korea: Was Cheju 4.3 a genocide?

This paper discusses the memory of Cheju 4.3, a bloody conflict in South Korea that occurred between 1947 and 1954. Approximately 25,000–30,000 people lost their lives there, the majority of whom were innocent civilians. Drawing from collective trauma theory, the paper focuses on the phenomenon in South Korea of framing the incident as genocide. I demonstrate how, in the context of the memory battle over this difficult past, dissenting voices have been an obstacle for these efforts. Yet I also argue that, while Memory Studies scholarship commonly demonstrates how collective memory is influenced by struggles between memory agents with conflicting interests, the case at hand illustrates how choices made by memory agents who share a common agenda have hindered their own efforts. The paper identifies a significant discrepancy between the gravity associated with the term “genocide” and the vague manner in which Cheju 4.3 has been framed as such.