VISIT JEJU

Tomb of some of the people who were sacrificed by preventive custody during Korean War. Back then, 347 innocent civilians were held in custody in granary under jurisdiction of Moseulpo Police Station since early July. In August 20th (Lunar calendar July 7th) in 1950, 250 of these innocent people were dragged out from the granary under cooperation of marines and police to the foot of Seotal Oreum Volcanic Cone (One of the peaks in Songaksan Mountain) and was shot to death with 61 persons and 149 persons each at 2am and 5am early morning. Unnamed Korean War Victims refers to the 132 deceased who were found in 1957 and are currently placed in graveyard boundary among the 210-250 estimated victims back then. The 61 bodies of those who were executed around 2am were excavated secretly avoiding the eyes of the police after 3 years (some say 6 years), and was placed in Gaetgeori Oreum Volcanic Cone cemetery in Hallim-eup. However, the list of 40 people and the bodies are yet to be found. After being taken away the rights to retrieve the bodies who were shot to death, the times were spent with tears for 6 years and 8 months. Then 149 unidentifiable bodies were excavated, and of those, 132 bodies are placed in current cemetery. (In case of identifiable body by clothes or other distinctive characteristics, bodies were individually retrieved by their families) In 1960, family of the deceased built tombstone and named it “Cemetery of Unnamed Korean War Victims”, and inscribed the names of the victims behind the tombstone. Since the bodies were unidentifiable, it was named with meaning of “One Descendant of Grandfather Baek”. However, in 1961, it went through hardship of memorial stone being destroyed due to violence in 5.16 coup d’eta. Memorial stone displayed in nowadays is reproduced memorial stone in 1993, and the destroyed memorial stone was buried at the ground, but was excavated in 1999, and is currently displayed beside the current memorial stone.