Source: original site/ Troops land at P’ohang-Dong, Korea during the Korean war. (Photo: Expert Infantry / Flickr)
US political leaders and media pundits trumpet North Korea’s recent testing of missiles and nuclear weapons as a great threat. But the US mass media do not tell the whole story. Without the context of history and current events, the actions of North Korea look insane, but when put in context we find that the United States is pushing North Korea on this path. North Korea is really not a significant threat compared to what the United States is doing with nuclear weapons, the Asia Pivot and war games off the Korean coast. In this article, we seek greater understanding by putting ourselves in the place of North Korea.
Historical Context: Korea, a Pawn for Big Power, Brutalized by the United States
The history between Korea and the United States goes back to the late 1800s when the US had completed its manifest destiny across North America and was beginning to build a global empire. In 1871, more than 700 US marines and sailors landed on Kanghwa beach in west Korea, seeking to begin US colonization (a smaller US invasion occurred in 1866). They destroyed five forts, inflicting as many as 650 Korean casualties. The US withdrew, realizing it would need a much larger force to succeed, but this was the largest military force to land outside the Americas until the 1898 war in the Philippines. S. Brian Willson reports that this invasion is still discussed in North Korea, but it has been erased from the history in South Korea as well as in the United States.
Korea succumbed to Japanese rule beginning in 1905, often serving as a pawn between Japanese conflicts with China and Russia. This was a brutal occupation. A major revolt for Korean democracy occurred on March 1, 1919, when a declaration of independence was read in Seoul. Two million Koreans participated in 1,500 protests. The Koreans also appealed to major powers meeting in Versailles after World War I, but were ignored as Japan was given control over the East. The Japanese viciously put down the democracy movement. Iggy Kim, in Green Left, reports they “beheaded children, crucified Christians and carried out scores of other atrocities. More than 7,500 people were killed and 16,000 were injured.”
Near the end of World War II, as Japan was weakened, Korean “People’s Committees” formed all over the country and Korean exiles returned from China, the US and Russia to prepare for independence and democratic rule. On September 6, 1945, these disparate forces and representatives of the people’s committees proclaimed a Korean People’s Republic (the KPR) with a progressive agenda of land reform, rent control, an eight-hour work day and minimum wage among its 27-point program.
But the KPR was prevented from becoming a reality. Instead, after World War II and without Korean representation, the US quite arbitrarily decided with Russia, China and England, to divide Korea into two nations “temporarily” as part of its decolonization. The powers agreed that Japan should lose all of its colonies and that in “due course” Korea would be free. Korea was divided on the 38th parallel. The US made sure to keep the capital, Seoul, and key ports. Essentially, the US took as much of Korea as it thought the Russians would allow. This division planted the seeds of the Korean War, causing a five-year revolution and counter-revolution that escalated into the Korean War.
Initially, the South Koreans welcomed the United States, but US Gen. John Hodge, the military governor of South Korea working under Gen. Douglas MacArthur, quickly brought Koreans who had cooperated with the Japanese during occupation into the government and shut out Koreans seeking democracy. He refused to meet with representatives of the KPR and banned the party, working instead with the right wing Korean Democratic Party – made up of landlords, land owners, business interests and pro-Japanese collaborators.
Shut out of politics, Koreans who sought an independent democratic state took to other methods and a mass uprising occurred. A strike against the railroads in September 1946 by 8,000 railway workers in Pusan quickly grew into a general strike of workers and students in all of the South’s major cities. The US military arrested strike leaders en masse. In Taegu, on Oct. 1, huge riots occurred after police smashed picket lines and fired into a crowd of student demonstrators, killing three and wounding scores. In Yongchon, on Oct. 3, 10,000 people attacked the police station and killed more than 40 police, including the county chief. Some 20 landlords and pro-Japanese officials were also killed. A few days later, the US military declared martial law to crush the uprising. They fired into large crowds of demonstrators in numerous cities and towns, killing and wounding an unknown number of people.
Syngman Rhee, an exile who had lived in the US for 40 years, was returned to Korea on MacArthur’s personal plane. He initially allied with left leaders to form a government approved of by the US. Then in 1947, he dispensed with his “left” allies by assassinating their leaders, Kim Ku and Kim Kyu-Shik. Rhee consolidated power and the US pushed for United Nations-sponsored elections in May 1948 to put a legal imprimatur on the divided Koreas. Rhee was elected at 71 years old in an election boycotted by most parties who saw it as sham. He came to power in the midst of an insurgency.
On Jeju Island, the largest Korean island lying in a strategic location in the Korea Strait, there continued to be protests against the US military government. It was one of the last areas where people’s committees continued to exist. Gen. Hodge told Congress Jeju was “a truly communal area that is peacefully controlled by the People’s Committee,” but he organized its extermination in a scorched-earth attack. In September, Rhee’s new government launched a massive counterinsurgency operation under US command. S. Brian Willson reports it resulted in the killing of “60,000 Islanders, with another 40,000 desperately fleeing in boats to Japan. Thus, one-third of its residents were either murdered or fled during the ‘extermination’ campaign. Nearly 40,000 homes were destroyed and 270 of 400 villages were leveled.” It was an ugly attack, Iggy Kim notes: “Torture, mutilation, gang rape and arbitrary execution were rife. . . a quarter of the Jeju population had been massacred. The US embassy happily reported: ‘The all-out guerilla extermination campaign came to a virtual end in April with order restored and most rebels and sympathizers killed, captured, or converted.’” This was the single greatest massacre in modern Korean history and a warning of what was to come in the Korean War. As we will see, Jeju is part of the story in today’s US Asian escalation.
More brutality occurred on mainland Korea. On October 19, dissident soldiers in the port city of Yosu rose up in opposition to the war in Jeju. About 2,000 insurgent soldiers took control of the city. By Oct. 20, a number of nearby towns had also been liberated and the People’s Committee was reinstated as the governing body. People’s courts were established to try police officers, landlords, regime officials and other supporters of the Rhee dictatorship. This rebellion was suppressed by a bloodletting, planned and directed by the US military.
“The Korean War that lasted from June 1950 to July 1953 was an enlargement of the 1948-50 struggle of Jeju Islanders to preserve their self-determination from the tyrannical rule of US-supported Rhee and his tiny cadre of wealthy constituents. Little known is that the US-imposed division of Korea in 1945 against the wishes of the vast majority of Koreans was the primary cause of the Korean War that broke out five years later. The War destroyed by bombing most cities and villages in Korea north of the 38th Parallel, and many south of it, while killing four million Koreans – three million (one-third) of the north’s residents and one million of those living in the south, in addition to killing one million Chinese. This was a staggering international crime still unrecognized that killed five million people and permanently separated 10 million Korean families.”
Bragging about the massacre, USAF Strategic Air Command head General Curtis LeMay, who blanket-bombed Japan in World War II and later ran for vice president with segregationist George Wallace, summed it up well, “Over a period of three years or so we killed off – what – twenty percent of the population.” Willson corrects LeMay, writing “it is now believed that the population north of the imposed 38th Parallel lost nearly a third its population of 8-9 million people during the 37-month long ‘hot’ war, 1950-1953, perhaps an unprecedented percentage of mortality suffered by one nation due to belligerence of another.”
Context Today: Korea Targeted, Mock Attacks, Learning from Iraq and Libya and the Asia Pivot
This historical context results in North Korea taking the threats of the United States very seriously. It knows the US has been willing to kill large portions of its population throughout history and has seen what the US has done to other countries.
In 2002, President George W. Bush labeled North Korea part of the “axis of evil” along with Iraq and Iran. S. Brian Willson traveled 900 ground miles through six of North Korea’s nine provinces, as well as Pyongyang, the capital, and several other cities, talking with dozens of people from all walks of life; all wanted to know about the “axis of evil” speech. He found that North Koreans “simply cannot understand why the US is so obsessed with them.”
Of course, the North Korean government witnessed the “shock and awe” campaign of bombardments against Iraq and the killing of at least hundreds of thousands (credible research shows more than 1 million Iraqis killed, 4.5 million displaced, 1-2 million widows and 5 million orphans). They saw the brutal killing by hanging of the former US ally, now turned into an enemy, Saddam Hussein.
And, they can look to the experience of Libya. Libya was an enemy but then began to develop positive relations with the US. In 2003, Libya halted its program to build a nuclear bomb in an effort to mend its relations with the US. Then last year Libya was overthrown in a US-supported war and its leader Moammar Gadhafi was brutally killed. As Reuters reports, “‘The tragic consequences in those countries which abandoned halfway their nuclear programs… clearly prove that the DPRK (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea) was very far-sighted and just when it made the (nuclear) option,’ North Korea’s KCNA news agency said.”
The United States stations 28,500 troops in South Korea. In November 2012 the US upgraded its weapons systems and announced an agreement with Japan that would allow South Korea to bomb anywhere in North Korea. In June 2012 the Pentagon announced that Gen.l Neil H. Tolley would be removed as commander of US Special Operations in South Korea after he revealed to a Japanese foreign affairs publication that American and South Korean troops had been parachuting into North Korea on spy missions.
US troops and bases are not popular. Protests erupted in 2002 after two Korean woman were killed and a court martial found the US soldiers not guilty of negligent manslaughter. Several pubs and restaurants put up signs saying “Americans Not Welcome Here.” In anAugust 2005 protest against US troops by 1,100 people, 10 were injured by police. One month before that, 100 were injured in a protest. In 2006 protesters occupied land on which the US planned to expand a base, resulting in a conflict and their eviction followed by installing barbed wire around the area to protect it from South Koreans. The South Korean government banned a rally that was expected to draw more than 10,000 protesters.
•”The first joint military exercises between the US and South Korea since Kim Jong-il’s death suddenly changed their nature, with new war games including pre-emptive artillery attacks on North Korea.
• Another amphibious landing operation simulation took on vastly larger proportions following Kim Jong-il’s death (the sheer amount of equipment deployed was amazing: 13 naval vessels, 52 armored vessels, 40 fighter jets and 9,000 US troops).
• South Korean officials began talking of Kim Jong-il’s death as a prime opportunity to pursue a regime-change strategy.
• South Korea unveiled a new cruise missile that could launch a strike inside North Korea and is working fast to increase its full-battery range to strike anywhere inside North Korea.
• South Korea openly began discussing asymmetric warfare against North Korea.
• The US military’s Key Resolve Foal Eagle computerized war simulation games suddenly changed, too, simulating the deployment of 100,000 South Korean troops on North Korean territory following a regime change.
• Japan was brought on board, allowing the US to deploy a second advanced missile defense radar system on its territory and the two carried out unprecedented war games.
• It is also not lost on anyone that despite what on the surface appears to be the US’ complete lack of interest in a new South Korean naval base that is in the works, this base will essentially serve as an integrated missile defense system run by the US military and housing Aegis destroyers.”
North Korea has shown anger at these drills. In response to the announcement of the largest annual joint exercises for US and South Korean troops scheduled for March and April of this year, in a rare direct message to US Gen. James Thurman, North Korea warned the top American commander in South Korea on Feb. 23 of “miserable destruction” if the US military presses ahead with the joint drills with South Korea set to begin next month.
Add to these drills the “Asia Pivot” President Obama is implementing, which will result in 60 percent of the US Navy being moved to Asia, and one can understand why North Korea believes that it is necessary to have nuclear weapons. Part of this Asia Pivot includes Jeju Island, where the US military is trying to install a massive Navy base. The village of Gangjeong, where the base is to be built, and the elected assembly of Jeju Island have voted to stop the naval base construction. The people of Jeju have mounted protests and resistanceefforts against the base. But the base is a key location for the Asia Pivot. Jeju faces Shanghai across the East China Sea, the South China Sea lies south of the island, and the mainland of South Korea lies to the north.
Jeju – designated as the “Peace Island” as part of an apology for the 1948 massacre – is a UNESCO World Heritage site and is a destination for honeymooners. Bruce Gagnon visited Jeju Island twice and reported on the protests there, which include the mayor of Gangjeong being arrested in protest and Professor Yang Yoon-Mo, who is now in jail on a hunger strike. This is his third hunger strike. The previous one lasted 74 days and he almost died. Gagnon works with the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space.
Beyond that, as S. Brian Willson points out, the US is remaking its nuclear arsenal so that nuclear weapons can be used in a war. Three weeks before his “Axis of Evil” speech, President Bush presented a “Nuclear Posture Review” report to Congress that ordered the Pentagon to prepare contingency plans for use of nuclear weapons. The first designated targets for nuclear attack were the “axis of evil” members – along with Syria, Libya, Russia, and China. The US remains the only country to have used nuclear weapons against another nation. The US has approximately 5,113 nuclear warheads, including tactical, strategic, and non-deployed weapons. According to the latest official New START Treaty declaration, the United States actively positions 1,722 strategic nuclear warheads on 806 deployed ICBMs, SLBMs, and strategic bombers.
While calling for a world without nuclear weapons, President Obama has instead continued Bush’s plan and has increased the budget for nuclear weapons. He has been giving the nuclear arsenal a massive and costly overhaul, modernizing the land-sea-air combination of planes, submarines and missiles that deliver nuclear bombs and warheads. Obama made a commitment in a letter to the Senate in February 2011 to accelerate, “to the extent possible,” the design and engineering of a new plutonium facility at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico while sustaining a facility in Tennessee. What would a North Korean leader think of all this?
And when it comes to talks with North Korea, there is no progress. As our guests on “Clearing the FOG” – Bruce Gagnon and Elliot Adams, both active with Veterans for Peace – pointed out: China encourages talks, but the US refuses. Gagnon and Adams suggest a first step would be a peace treaty with North Korea – an end to the Korean War, something that was never agreed because the fighting ended in a truce. The US needs to stop boxing North Korea into a corner with escalating rhetoric, military actions off its coast and crippling sanctions, and allow North Korea into the community of nations.
Once again, Korea is a pawn in a bigger battle between the US and China and Russia. Countries like Australia and Japan have joined the US and NATO, which has also been brought into the Asian Pivot. As Gagnon points out, North Korea is very independent and does not want to be anyone’s puppet and feels it must always show it is ready to defend itself. Adams adds, the US military does not fear “pipsqueak” North Korea with their low tech missiles and bombs, but in the media they use every test by North Korea as an excuse to escalate. Adams clarifies, “the US military needs a bogeyman to justify spending 60 percent of US discretionary spending on an insane, incompetent and bloated military.”
The solution begins with the American people understanding what is really going on in Asia and the Koreas. When the context is examined, and Americans try to stand in the shoes of North Korea, a different picture emerges. This is not easy with the misinformation and inadequate reporting by the mass media, which is complicit with the escalation, but this contextual understanding is essential as the US increases military action in Asia, threatens China and uses North Korea as an excuse.
You can hear our interview with Bruce Gagnon and Elliott Adams on North Korea, Nuclear Weapons and US Expansion into Asia and Space on Clearing the FOG Radio (podcast).
Copyright, Truthout. May not be reprinted without permission.
Source: SPARK/ The large size annual US-ROK war exercise started on March 1. The SPARK (Solidarity for Peace And Reunification of Korea) said. “The biggest problem of the Key Resolve/ Foal Eagle this time is that it could bring the Korean peninsula being at the risk of war. The war exercise this time is more aggressive than ever…After the North Korea conducted nuclear test, the ROK-US ministries of defense made an agreement that the ROK-US war excise could be an actual pressure against North Korea by expanding and strengthening it.. All the aggressive arms are mobilized; such as the George Washington, US nuclear aircraft carrier, F-22, B-52 that were not mobilized last year… President Obama declared on strengthening MD against North Korea and the Ministry of National Defense said it would establish ‘Kill Chain,’ a preemptive attack strategy. That shows the military exercise is to openly become an aggressive military strategy… The Korean peninsula was laid at the risk of war crisis even in days after a new President, Park Geun-Hye was inaugurated. If she wants peace, she should stop the Key Resolve war exercise and start dialogue.” See more photos here.
# About Key Resolve/ Foal Eagle War exercise
The Foal Eagle exercises are scheduled to continue until Apr. 30. The Key Resolve command post exercises (CPX) are also scheduled to take place over a two-week period from Mar. 11 to 21. (Source)
The Foal Eagle exercise is composed of 20 coalition and joint outdoor training such as large size landing training and ROK-US munitions support, air, maritime, special operation training. About 200,000 South Korean personnel from the army corps, fleet command headquarter, flight units and 10,000 US military personnel from the army, navy, air, marine units mostly reinforced from the overseas could join. (Source)
Statement Opposing U.S.-South Korea Joint Military Exercises Key Resolve Foal Eagle
Stop War Games, Start Peace Talks
The Korean War, known in the United States as “The Forgotten War,” has never ended. Every year, the United States stages a series of massive joint war games with its ally, South Korea (ROK). These coordinated exercises are both virtual and real. Among other things, they practice live fire drills and simulate the invasion of North Korea—including first-strike options.
While we – peace, human rights, faith-based, environmental, and Korean solidarity activists– are deeply concerned about North Korea’s third nuclear weapons test, we also oppose the U.S.-ROK joint war games as adding to the dangerous cycle of escalation of tensions on the Korean peninsula. North Korea views these war games as an act of provocation and threat of invasion like that which we have witnessed in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Libya and routinely condemns these maneuvers as aimed at “bring[ing] down the DPRK by force” and forcing it to“bolster up the war deterrent physically.” South Korean activists also decry the role of these war games in the hostile perpetuation of the division of the Korean peninsula and are often persecuted for their protests under South Korea’s draconian National Security Law.
The U.S.-ROK “Key Resolve” and “Foal Eagle” annual war games, usually staged in March, and “Ulchi Freedom Guardian” in August, typically last for months and involve tens of thousands of U.S. troops stationed in South Korea and deployed from the United States, as well as hundreds of thousands of their ROK counterparts. U.S. Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine, and Space Command forces will participate in these exercises and practice scenarios including the removal of North Korea’s leadership, occupation of Pyeongyang, and reunification of the peninsula under U.S. and South Korean control.
In South Korea, peace and reunification groups have long opposed these war games. They have called for peninsula-wide demilitarization entailing the eventual removal of U.S. troops. As one organization puts it, “Unless and until US forces are completely and permanently withdrawn from South Korea, it will be impossible to establish peace on the Korean peninsula.”
We call upon the U.S. and South Korean governments to stop the costly and provocative war games and take proactive steps to deescalate the current tensions on the Korean peninsula.
The Perils of the U.S. Pivot
In the past five years, hard-won efforts by the Korean people to ease North-South tensions have been reversed. Through its massive military buildup across the region, the United States has amplified regional tensions. Recent years have been witness to North Korea’s nuclear and missile tests, increasing nationalism and militarism in Japan (the world’s sixth greatest military spender), and a host of increasingly militarized territorial disputes. The global Cold War may have ended 20 years ago, but as the recent round of U.S.-led sanctions on the DPRK and threat of a third DPRK nuclear weapons “test” illustrate, the anachronism remains alive and well on the Korean peninsula.
Crisis on the Korean peninsula furnishes a rationale for U.S. militarization of the region, and the Pentagon has committed to deploy 60% of its air and naval forces to Asia and the Pacific to reinforce its air sea battle doctrine. Announced as the “pivot” of U.S. military resources to Asia and the Pacific, President Obama’s policy, which necessitates more training areas, runways, ports of call, and barracks for the massive shift of U.S. military forces, disregards the impact of militarization on the lives of ordinary people in the region.
The disastrous ecological and human costs of this “pivot” are acutely apparent in the current construction of a naval base on Jeju, an “island of peace” in South Korea known for having the planet’s densest concentration of UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Once celebrated for its pristine beauty and sea-based culture, Gangjeong, a 450-year-old fishing and farming village is being torn to shreds by the South Korean government in collaboration with the United States, which can freely use any ROK military installation. Base construction crews are dredging acres of world-class, bio-diverse coral habitats and covering them with concrete. The obliteration of these coastal ecosystems also destroys the millennia-old livelihoods of the villagers, 94% of whom voted against the base in a local referendum. Gangjeong villagers are watching their heritage, economy, vibrant local culture, spiritual center, and very core of their identity collapse into rubble.
This same multi-facted people’s struggle is being played out in many places across the Asia-Pacific. Within President Obama’s “pivot” policy, U.S. bases in South Korea, Japan, Okinawa, Hawaii, and Guam are ever more important. Moreover, his administration has been pressing hard to open up previously closed U.S. bases in geostrategically vital nations such as Vietnam and the Philippines.
This year marks the 60th anniversary of the July 27, 1953 Armistice Agreement that brought the combat phase of the Korean War to a temporary halt but did not end the war. The Armistice Agreement stipulated that a peace agreement be realized within three months and that negotiations take place for the withdrawal of all foreign forces from Korea. Over the past several decades, North Korea, often portrayed in mainstream media as an irrational rogue state, has repeatedly requested peace negotiations with the United States. Yet today, we station nearly 30,000 military personnel and operate over 40 military bases on the Korean peninsula. We have spent the past 60 years living not in a post-war era, but under a ceasefire whose consequences are borne most acutely by the Korean people. On this anniversary of the irresolution of the Korean War, the longest conflict the United States has been involved in, we as human rights, Korean solidarity, faith-based, peace, and environmental organizations call for attention to the human and ecological costs of permanent war as the modus vivendi of U.S.-Korean relations. Efforts that promote increased militarization and conflict and the destruction of the rich biodiversity in Korea are immoral and go against universally shared values of building peace, caring for Earth, and respecting the human dignity and worth of every person.
Resolution for Peace
We, the undersigned peace, human rights, faith-based, environmental, and Korean solidarity activists, call upon the U.S.-ROK governments to cancel their dangerous and costly war games against North Korea.
We strongly urge the United States to turn to diplomacy for common and human security rather than militarization, which will only undermine regional and U.S. security. We further request that the Obama administration focus its strategic shift to the Asia region on finding diplomatic and peaceful solutions to conflict, and building cooperation with all nations in the region, including China, DPRK, and Russia.
On this anniversary of the 60th anniversary of the signing of the Armistice Agreement, which several decades ago called for a peaceful resolution to the Korean War, we join with our peace-minded brothers and sisters in Korea and call on the Obama administration to deescalate the current tensions and do its part in realizing “Year One of Peace” on the Korean Peninsula.
Working Group for Peace and Demilitarization in Asia and the Pacific
Christine Ahn, Gretchen Alther, Rev. Levi Bautista, Jackie Cabasso, Herbert Docena, John Feffer, Bruce Gagnon, Joseph Gerson, Subrata Goshoroy, Mark Harrison, Christine Hong, Kyle Kajihiro, Peter Kuznick, Hyun Lee, Ramsay Liem, Andrew Lichterman, John Lindsay-Poland, Ngo Vinh Long, Stephen McNeil, Nguyet Nguyen, Satoko Norimatsu, Koohan Paik, Mike Prokosh, Juyeon JC Rhee, Arnie Sakai, Tim Shorrock, Alice Slater, David Vine, Sofia Wolman, Kevin Martin, Amy Woolam Echeverria
Additional Signers:
– Paki Wieland, Committee to Stop War(s), Western Mass CodePink, Northampton, Massachusetts
– Lindis Percy, Laila Packer, Christine Dean, Anni Rainbow of Campaign for the Accountability of American Bases, Yorkshire, England
– Jill Gough, National Secretary, CND Cymru (Wales), UK
– Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists Social Justice Committee, California
– Pax Christi Florida
– Alice Leney, Coromandel, New Zealand
– Georgiann Cooper, PeaceWorks, Freeport, Maine
– Nodutdol for Korean Community Development, New York, New York
– Philip Gilligan, Chair, Greater Manchester Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament
– Susan V. Walker, Lake Arrowhead, California
– H. J. Camet, Jr., Seattle, Washington
– Helen Travis, Denver, Colorado
– David Swanson, WarIsACrime.org, Charlottesville, Virginia
– Jane Sanford, Belfast, Maine
– Christine Roane, Springfield, Massachusetts
– Natasha Mayers, Union of Maine Visual Artists, Whitefield, Maine
– Lee Loe, Houston, Texas
– Amy Harlib, New York, New York
– Roger Leisner, Radio Free Maine, Augusta, Maine
– Joyce Smith, Tucson, Arizona
– Christine Ahn, Korea Policy Institute and Global Fund for Women, Oakland, California
– Angie Zelter, Trident Ploughshares, UK
– Tim Rinne, State Coordinator, Nebraskans for Peace
– Ellen Murphy, Veterans for Peace Ch. 111, Bellingham, Washington
– Jerry Mander, Founder & Distinguished Fellow, International Forum on Globalization,
San Francisco, California
– JT Takagi, New York, New York
– David Smith, Belfast, Maine
– Jon Olsen, Jefferson, Maine
– Ernest Goitein and Claire Feder, Atherton, California
– Roger Dittmann, Ph.D., Scientists without Borders, Fullerton, California
– Jenny Maxwell, Secretary, Hereford Peace Council, UK
– Anita Coolidge, Americans for Department of Peace, Cardiff, California
– David Diamond, Dover, New Hampshire
– Jennifer Kwon Dobbs, St. Olaf College, Northfield, Minnesota
– Jack & Felice Cohen-Joppa, The Nuclear Resister, Tucson, Arizona
– Jacques Boucher, Chambly, Canada
– Pax Christi Long Island, New York
– Robert Dale, Veterans For Peace, Brunswick, Maine
– Stephanie Son, Livermore, California
– Kevin and Maggie Hall, Dunedin, Florida
– Betty McElhill, Tucson, Arizona
– Don Richardson, Brevard, North Carolina
– Filson H. Glanz, Professor Emeritus of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of NH, Durham, New Hampshire
– Sasha Davis, Hilo, Hawaii
– Leah R. Karpen, Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, Asheville, North Carolina
– Sung-Hee Choi, Gangjeong Village International team, Jeju Island, Korea
– Wil Van Natta, Riviera Beach, Florida
– Luis Gutierrez-Esparza, President Latin American Circle of International Studies, Barrio San Lucas Coyoacan, Mexico
– Harry van der Linden, Indianapolis, Indiana
– Lydia Garvey, Public Health Nurse, Clinton, Oklahoma
– Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space
– Joan Costello, Omaha, Nebraska
– Maine Campaign to Bring Our War $$ Home
– Tony Henderson, Lantau, Hong Kong
– Herbert J. Hoffman, Veterans For Peace, Ogunquit, Maine
– Gladys Schmitz, SSND, Mankato. Minnesota
– Loyal C. Park, President Nebraska Peace Foundation, Lincoln, Nebraska
– Jane Milliken, Riverside, Connecticut
– Peter Woodruff, Arrowsic, Maine
– Jeanne Green, CodePink Taos, El Prado, New Mexico
– Maine Green Party
– Peace Action Maine
– Jacqui Deveneau, Old Orchard Beach, Maine
– James Deutsch, M.D., Ph.D., Toronto, Canada
– Judith Deutsch, M.S.W., Toronto, Canada
– Gene Keyes, Berwick, Nova Scotia, Canada
– Norma J F Harrison, Central Committee Member, Peace & Freedom Party, Berkeley, California
– Sandy Herndon, Kauai, Hawaii
– Lillia Langreck, SSND, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
– Gerson and Debbie Lesser, Bronx, New York
– Patricia J. Patterson, United Methodist Asia Executive retired, Claremont, California
– George and Dorothy Ogle, Lafayette, Colorado
– Jewel Payne, Davis, California
– Alice Slater, New York, New York
– Harold J. Suderman, Registry of World Citizens-Canada, Guelph, Ontario, Canada
– John Stewart, Pax Christi Tampa Bay, St. Petersburg, Florida
– Ronald and Caterina Swanson-Bosch, RN, MPH, Mt Snow, Vermont
– Sarah Lasenby, Oxford, UK
– CODEPINK State of Maine
– Lisa Savage, Solon, Maine
– Hye-Jung Park, La Paz, Bolivia
– Fred Jakobcic, Marquette, Michigan
– Makiko Sato, Oita, Japan
– Sister Valerie Heinonen, o.s.u., Ursuline Sisters of Tildonk for Justice and Peace, New York, New York
– Terao Terumi, Yashio, Saitama, Japan
– Ken Ashe, Veterans for Peace, Marshall, North Carolina
– Kathy Ging, Eugene, Oregon
– Benjamin Monnet, No war base on Jeju Island, France
– Penny Oyama, Burnaby, B. C., Canada
– Tarak Kauff, Board member, Veterans For Peace, Woodstock, New York
– Sergio Monteiro, Los Angeles, California
– Paul Cunningham and Jen Joaquin, South Portland, Maine
– Mary Beth Sullivan, Social Worker, Bath, Maine
– Glen Anderson, Lacey, Washington
– Ron Engel, Professor Emeritus, Meadville/Lombard Theological School, Chicago, Illinois
– Occupy Damsels in Distress, Palm Springs, California
– Nikohl Vandel, Palm Springs, California
– Katherine Muzik, Kauai, Hawaii
– Carolyn S. Scarr, Program Coordinator Ecumenical Peace Institute/CALC, Berkeley, California
– Don Lathrop, Canaan, New York
– Karen Boyer, CodePink Portland, Oregon
– Joan McCoy, Home for Peace and Justice, Saginaw, Michigan
– Douglas Hong, Stony Brook, New York
– Alice Zachmann, SSND, Mankato, Minnesota
– Sandra Frank, Toledo, Ohio
– Jeanne Gallo, North Shore Coalition for Peace and Justice, Gloucester, Massachusetts
– Martha Shelley, CodePink, Portland, Oregon
– Kevin Zeese, October2011.org, Baltimore, Maryland
– Margaret Flowers, October2011.org, Baltimore, Maryland
– Alfred L. Marder, President, US Peace Council, New Haven, Connecticut
– Charlotte Koons, CODEPINK Long Island, Northport, New York
– Jodi Kim, Associate Professor, University of California-Riverside
– Granny Peace Brigade, New York, New York
– Art Laffin, Dorothy Day Catholic Worker, Washington DC
– Jean Sommer, Performers and Artists for Nuclear Disarmament, Cleveland, Ohio
– Lee Siu Hin, national coordinator of National Immigrant Solidarity Network, South Pasadena, California
– Robert Palmer, Rosemount, Minnesota
– Yoshiko Ikuta, Cleveland, Ohio
– Dr Kate Hudson, General Secretary, Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, UK
– Professor Dave Webb, Chair, Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, UK
– Helen Caldicott, the Helen Caldicott Foundation, Australia
– Coleen Rowley, Women Against Military Madness, Apple Valley, Minnesota
– Marylia Kelley, Tri-Valley CAREs, Livermore, California
– Rebecca Barker, Los Angeles, California
– Rosalie Riegle, author of Crossing the Line: Nonviolent Resisters Speak out for Peace, Evanston, Illinois
– Amy Chung, Diamond Bar, California
– Theodore Chung, Diamond Bar, California
– Dale Nesbitt, Berkeley, California
– Sally-Alice Thompson, Veterans For Peace, Albuquerque, New Mexico
– Cynthia Howard, Biddeford Pool, Maine
– Paul Liem, Berkeley, California
– Dr. Bill Warrick, Veterans For Peace, Gainesville, Florida
We called him, “Benj.’ The villagers used to call him, ‘Benjari,’ which sounds similar to the name of a fish, “jari,’ very common in the Jeju Island. It was Miryang, a village woman, who put him with such nickname. A villager poet, Kim Sung-Gyu wrote a poem for ‘Benjari,’ from the intimate feeling toward him. Benjamin Monnet, a French peace maker, as we often miss him now, has been our close friend. Despite the different language, he loves Gangjeong, Gureombi, and prays for the peace and lives of the Jeju. He first came to Gangjeong upon the moment of Women’s film festival in May, 2011. Since then, Gangjeong became a kind of his spiritual hometown.
His feeling on justice was very strong so because of it, he got the injunction order on March 14, 2012. He was inhumanly forcefully deported from Korea on March 15. On the day, a UK activist and Nobel Peace nominee, Angie Zelter, also got the order of forceful exit on her planned date (See more on it, here). It happened that three members of the Veterans for Peace of the United States were also violently deported on March 14 (See more on it, here). It was a time that the government, changing the chief of the Seogwipo Police station with a figure from the mainland, forcefully started to blast 10 % of the Gureombi Rock, on March 7, 2012. It was a time that 10 internationals had been arrested on Feb. 26 when they tried to enter the Gureombi Rock underneath a wire razor that was suddenly set up on Feb. 24, the 1st day of the Jeju International Peace Conference (20th anniversary of the Global Network against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space). See more on it here. The oppression on international peace activists around the time and since then have been remarkable. There have been at least 20 internationals that have been denied entries to South Korea, related to the issue of the naval base project in Gangjeong from Aug. 26, 2011 (See the summary on it, here)
Benj has continued supports on Gangjeong. In May 2012, we could see him with Seri in Paris for the solidarity protest with the struggle in Gnagjeong (See the video here)
Thanks to Seri who recently visited him, we could get his postcards to the Gangjeong Village international team, villagers and Prof. Yang Yoon-Mo. We share those here.
Remembering Benj
Photo by Lee Wooki
On March 12, 2012, he climbed up a crane with Kim Seri. He was arrested for the 3rd time and got the injunction order from the Immigration Office two days later. For the detailed situations, please click here. After injunction, he filed a suit against the Jeju Immigration Office for the ‘cancellation on the injunction and supervision orders,’ through representative of him. The first trial was on June 13, 202 (related Korean article). However, the Administrative department of the Jeju District Court dismissed his suit saying he did not have the qualification for an applicant on July 15, 2012(related article). The court said, “Mr. Monnet brought about not a little obstacles in the progress of the [Jeju naval base] project by joining many times in the opposition rallies against the [project] and has gotten the warnings on his long-term visit…The injunction order to devise for the interest and safety of a nation is never neither a excessive deviation nor abuse of discretionary power.” To the surprise, the judge was Mr. Oh Hyun-Kyu who made a sentence of direct arrest of Prof. Yang Yoon-Mo from the court on Feb. 1 (See here)
On March 12, Benj and Seri stopped the destruction of the Gureombi Rock for two hours in suim suits in cold weather. The beautiful site that they tried to keep has now become the ugly 3~4000 ton caisson production area. The navy eventually blasted the 10 % of the Gureombi Rock in the east and west parts of it during March and April last year. And It started to produce caissons for 24 hours since Oct. 25, 2012. However, we will restore the Gureombi Rock unless our hearts and determination disappear.
His message shows his continuous heart for the Gangjeong and Gureombi Rock. We thank and miss him, our brother!
2. Benj’s postcard to the Gangjeong Village international team and villagers
Dear Gangjeong International Team, Villagers
Kathmandu, Nepal
Feb. 17, 2013
Thanks to Seri, I have well received all your gifts. I truly appreciate it. So please receive some hand-made embroidered t-shirt of my creation. I was thinking to put them on website, Peace Center for the people to buy it. The proceedings of the sales could help to strengthen the movement or pay the court fines. What do you think? We can also sew a Korean version…I am searching for new ways to help Gangjeong. I am in contact with two French journalists who are ready to make a documentary about Gangjeong situation.
With patience, determination & Universal love, Benjari
3. Benj’s postcard to Yang Yoon-Mo
Photo of the postcard: Tashi R Ghale/ Tilicho lake, the highest lake in the world
Kathmandu, Nepal, 17 Feb. 13
Professor Yang,
I ignore where you are, But I heard you were surprisingly sentenced to jail for 18 months. I sent some t-shirts to Gangjeong with “Free Yang Yoon-Mo ♡“ embroidery. Hoping the people will buy it in solidarity with our resistance movement.
I remember when we were in the cell together, at Dongbu in March 2012.
You were practicing some kind of meditation.
As a meditator, I wish that inner-insight practices, will help you to pass sense fully through the term of your sentence-Concentrating on your breathing and observing your inner sensation to purify your mind. You will come out stronger.
Hopefully, the picture of this Himalaya landscape will inspire you-
With Patience, Determination, and universal love
Benjamin
Photo by Benj
“The struggle for Harmony continues.
~ FREE Pr YANG YOON MO ~
Here is a picture of Pr Yang holding a photo of the undercover police beating him, he said humorously to a villager: “Keep this photo, someday it will worth millions!”” (Benj)
4. T-shirts to people
The front side of t-shirt sent to mayor Kang Dong-Kyun. While the front is of the embroidary letters of “Why Crimes Against Humanity?,” the letters of ‘savejejunow.org’ is described at the end of a sleeve. One green T-shirt is of the embroidary letters of ‘Free Yang Yoon-Mo.’ Benj designed himself and asked embroidaries. As seen in the below photos, T-shirts for women are green while the T-shirts for men are blue and black.
The back side of T-shirt is the embroidary letter of “Jeju Island, Hiroshima, Himalaya.” In the right bottom of the image, it is signed in embroidary of ‘Benj’.
Photo by the Village International team/ On Feb. 28, Mr. Koh Gilchun, Jeju artist, and Oh Soon-Hee (Sister of the ‘Jiseul‘ movie director, Oh Myul ) Visited Yang-Yoon-Mo and showed him his t-shirts to the delight of Yang Yoon-Mo. Benj’s postcard to Prof. Yang was also delivered to him on the day.
5. Benj is always with us.
Photo by Gonyang/ Post by Paco Booyah
The banner hung in the background of the photo is what Benj designed and Mr. Lim Ho-Young (media team leader then) made a production for the Jeju International Peace Conference (the 20th anniversary of the Global Netwwork against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space) from Feb. 24 to 26, 2012. Whenever we see this banner, we always think of Benj
The National Network of Korean Civil Society for Opposing to the Naval Base in Jeju Island states
GUREOMBI!
WE NEVER GIVE UP!!
Gangjeong Village, Jeju, 4 pm, March 2nd (Sat), 2013
It has been a year that the blast of the [10% of ] the Gureombi Rock, the Gangeong coast, started on March 7, 2012. However, our struggle is neither belated nor finished. Our struggle to save all the lives of the Gureombi Rock and Gangjeong from being destroyed and to save the peace of Gangjeong will be continued until the suffering of Gnagjeong finishes. [..]
Let’s see you in Gangjeong
Contact: National Network of Korean Civil Society for Opposing to the Naval Base in Jeju Island
Peace Disarmament Center of the People’s Solidarity for Participatory Democracy, 02-723-4250, peace@pspd.org
Following the Jan. 27 event, the 2nd event to build the Jeju as the Demilitarized Peace Island is held in the Gwandeokjeong, Jeju City, Jeju island on March 1, from 11 am to the afternoon. Internationals are welcome to join. Please see the detailed information in the below (translation of the event notice sent by the preparatory people)
Otherwise, Dr. Song Kang-Ho has written an article on the meaning of the Jan. 27 event for the monthly newsletter. See the top article in its 1st page, here.
Photo by Paco Booyah/ A gathering for the declaration of the Jeju as the demilitarized Peace Island on Jan. 27, 2013
On Jan. 27, we, gathering at the Jeju 4.3 Peace Park, declared that “the Jeju Island is the demilitarized Peace Island.’ It was to emphasize that the Jeju should not be armed but be the Demilitarized Peace Island with neither military nor military base.
For that, we, the 111 declarers, made a resolution to realize the Demilitarized Peace Island by constant practices and peaceful efforts not merely by one time declaration event. We also decided to hold the 2nd meeting to make the Demilitarized Peace Island in front of Gwandeokjeong (*see the bottom) on March 1st, to reconfirm our resolution and practical will and to share the will with many more citizens.
March 1 is the 94th anniversary of the March 1 movement [ in 1919] when [the Koreans] declared that Korea is a self-reliant and independent nation in a non-violent and peaceful way, against the violence of Japanese imperialism. It is also a date when the ceremony commemorating the 28th anniversary of the March 1st was held in Jeju [in 1947] that became the fuse of Jeju 4.3 uprising.
Drawing on the incident of March 1st, 1947, by Kang Yo-Bae, Jeju artist. The drawing is included in his famous drawing book on 4.3 incident (Source). The current political prisoner, Yang Yoon-Mo has a personal historical connection to the incident. See here.
The Gwandeokjeong is the place that has been with the history of Jeju. It was the historic site at the time of Lee Jae-Sou-led uprising in 1901 ( *Jeju people’s uprising against the dominance and oppression by the French Catholic Missionaries) and 3.1 ceremony in 1947 when about 20,000 people gathered. It is the site of the living spirits of the patriotic forefathers who resisted against the wickedness of foreign power and made efforts to save the precious Jeju Community.
The reason that we set ‘the Gwandeokjeong, March 1’ for the date and venue of the event is to succeed the spirit of our forefathers. It is to cherish the memory of the patriotic forefathers who faced against unjust violence and to break through the deplorable reality in which justice is suffering.
Participation by the conscientious citizens who love peace becomes the force to change the world. We have a confidence that a small action can fill you and your children’s future with peace. We oppose the Jeju naval base. Yang Yoon-Mo who was imprisoned for the forth time and is making prison fast, risking one’s life, urgently hopes your participation as well.
We invite you to the Gwandeokjeong on March 1.
Feb. 22, 2013
17 People present in the preparatory meeting including Dr. Song Kang-Ho and Prof. Yang Yoon-Mo (Prof. Yang Yoon-Mo in prison also agreed to be as one of the proponents for the March 1 event)
The 2nd declaration rally for the Jeju Demilitarized Peace Island
Schedule and program
March 1, Friday, 2013
Part 1: declaration ceremony
11am, Gwandeokjeong
12pm Moving to the Seoyoodang (a small library) and lunch
Part 2: Small group discussions at Seoyoodang, 1 pm
In this month’s issue: Launch of the new demilitarize Jeju campaign, Samsung above the law?, U.S. military wrecks in coral reef, more prisoner releases, Yang Yoon-Mo arrested and on hunger strick, Interview with former prisoner, continued environmental regulation problems, and more!
Update: See the photos on the candle vigil for Yang Yoon-Mo in front of the Jeju prison, here, here and here
Update: See the photos of solidarity for Yang Yoon-Mo in Okinawa, see here.
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International Solidarity Messages for Prof. Yang Yoon-Mo
(Feb. 11 to 14, 2013)
The Gangjeong Village International Team has requested the peacemakers in the world to send the solidarity message for Prof. Yang Yoon-Mo with about 100words, through the website and facebooks. Here are the messages collected from Feb. 11 to 14. You can see the Korean translations here. Thanks so much, friends to send the messages.Thanks, Mr. Kang Dong-Seok, and Ms. Park Youn-Ae, for translation.
# Alphabet order by last name
Catherine Christie
Dear Professor Yang,
From the U.N. Environmental Sabbath Program:
We join with the earth and with each other, To bring new life to the land To restore the waters To refresh the air
We join with the earth and with each other, To renew the fields To care for the plants To protect the creatures
We join with the earth and with each other, To celebrate the seas To rejoice in the sunlight To sing the song of the stars
We join with the earth and with each other, To recreate the human community To promote peace and justice To remember our children of the earth
We join with the earth and with each other We join together as many and diverse expressions of one loving mystery: For the healing of the earth and the renewal of all life.
Professor Yang – you have showed us this prayer in your living and acting for Gangjeong land and sea. Thank you. –
Catherine Christie, Seoul
Coco (Peninsula Peace & Justice of Blue Hill, Maine, United States)
We invite you to sing these lightly revised words from Les Miserables as Mr. Yang liked the movie and the book so much:
Will you join with us today? Who will be strong and stand with me? Somewhere beyond the barricade Is there a world you long to see? Do you hear the people sing? Say, do you hear the distant drums? It is the future that they bring When tomorrow comes…
Peninsula Peace & Justice of Blue Hill, Maine, sings with you as we hold Mr. Yang in our thoughts during his courageous hunger strike. May his release from his unjust imprisonment be swift.
(Coco on behalf of the Peninsula Peace & Justice of Blue Hill, Maine, USA)
Ron Engel
‘Dear Professor Yang Yoon-Mo,
We have never met in person but it is clear that we have met in spirit.
When you say your faith is to save the things of beauty in the world we understand and share this with you.
We visited Gangjeong Village last September and we beheld there a thing of beauty that should be preserved.
We tried to bring this to the attention of the world through the World Conservation Congress with the help of wonderful people like.
We revere your courage and commitment on behalf of the beauty of the people and place of Gangjeong Village and stand in solidarity with you.
Ron and Joan’
# Ron Engel has greatly supported the Gangjeong village and made a beautiful speech for Gagjeong on Sept. 15 during the 2012 WCC Jeju. You can hear Ron’s speech on Sept. 15, here.
Bruce Gagnon
‘Professor Yang:
I am once again deeply touched by your determined stand to hunger strike while in jail to call attention to the illegal and unjust “laws” that protect the destruction of nature so an insane and provocative Navy base in Gangjeong can be built. How can good people go to jail for trying to protect nature while people who destroy the future are not charged with any crimes?
I can assure you that I will do all that I can to help educate people in the US and around the world about the struggle to stop the Navy base.
Please know that you are not alone in your effort. Please take good care of yourself. You are important to all of us.
Thank God men cannot fly, and lay waste the sky as well as the earth. ~Henry David Thoreau’
Andrew Jackson
I can’t think of a more perfect example of an ‘unharmful gentle soul misplaced inside a jail’ than Yang Yoon Mo. He has already been imprisoned for the struggle for peace and nature on Jeju, and has suffered greatly due to his hunger strikes in prison. The ridiculous South Korean law against ‘obstructing business’ is designed to frustrate legitimate protest, and in Gangjeong peacemakers can be picked off at will for huge fines or spells in prison.
One of my favourite videos about the Gangjeong struggle is Yang Yoon Mo interviewed at The Gurumbi rock. In this long interview his words are full of intelligence, wisdom, morality, justice and love. He is overflowing with the human qualities that can not even be traced among the greedy, the blind, the ignorant and the corrupt who are bringing this disaster to Jeju. His return to jail, following appealing the terms of his probation, is the result of spite, and possibly insanity, in one judge. The decision must be reversed.
Last year I was fortunate to visit Gangjeong for a few days in summer. I can’t count the number of wonderful, kind, loving people I met. I also met Yang Yoon Mo, but it was not until my last night in Gangjeong that I realised this quiet, dignified, seemingly elderly man, who I had greeted daily at the destruction site gates and who had sat silently as we drank rice wine outdoors with villagers in the evening, was the youthful-looking middle aged guy in the Gurumbi interview. His 70 day hunger strike seemed to have changed his physique and appearance. I was pleased I could express my admiration to him and receive words of kindness from this wonderful man.
The news of Yang Yoon Mo’s imprisonment is simply terrible. His renewed hunger strike is something I wish was not happening. But one can only respect his decision and pray that liberty and health is restored swiftly to this ‘unharmful gentle soul’.
FREE YANG YOON MO!!
Andrew Jackson
London
Masami Kawamura
Message from Okinawa to Prof. Yang Yoon-Mo
The Okinawan islanders’ hearts are broken to hear that you are in prison again.
We send our solidarity to you, Prof. Yang Yoo-Mo, brave activist, struggling for the peace, environment and justice of Jeju.
While we light candles in Okinawa together with Gangeong people on February 15, we believe, Prof. Yang Yoon-Mo, you yourself are the candle which shows us the right direction to move on to.
You are not alone. We stand with you.
Masami Kawamura
Okinawa Outreach
Renie Wong Lindley
‘Dear Yang Yoon-Mo,
I understand why the Gureombi Rock is so beautiful to you. I too love rocks. In California I have hiked far above the timberline where there is only sun, rock and water and where the energy between those simple forces make a profusion of life happen. Our lives belong to these forces. You are not misled. You are led by your heart, your soul.
I will think of you every day and hold you in the Light.
Judy Robbins, Peninsula Peace & Justice of Blue Hill, Maine, USA
To the people of Gangjeong Village and Jeju, Island of Peace.
The Peninsula Peace & Justice Committee of Blue Hill, Maine, USA, sends greetings and solidarity for your struggle for justice and peace. The courage and love of Mr. Yang inspires the world to be strong and to sustain. We light a candle for you in the 15th day of your fast. Thank you.
Peter Simpson
My name is Peter Simpson, and I am an associate professor at Okinawa International University. As a teacher, and a responsible human being, I feel it is my duty to raise awareness of the environmental crisis facing our planet, and to make sure that we leave a legacy of peace, equal rights and environmental justice. For this reason I support Professor Yang Yoon-Mo’s responsible action in trying to prevent the destruction of Gureombi and support the campaign for his immediate release from jail.
Last year, I visited the island of Jeju.
I know all of you facing the problem Jeju U.S. military base there.
You also do not need to strain the U.S. military base in East Asia, I want to cherish the nature of Jeju.
Please free up and Mr. Yang Yoon-Mo.
田中 雄二
Yuzi Tanaka
Regis Tremblay
‘Dear Professor Yang;
You have my great admiration for your principled stand against the construction of this base in Gangjeong Village.
I met you while I was in Gangjeong during September of last year. I was there to film a documentary about Jeju and have many images and video clips of you. At the present, I am in post-production of my film and hoping to receive funding from the Sundance Film Fund.
It was only at the end of my stay that I was able to visit the April 3rd Peace Museum. Our mutual friend, Gilchun Koh accompanied me. Until then, I could not understand why everyone, including Bishop Peter Kang were telling me I had to visit the museum in order to understand the protest. Gilchun’s exhibit overwhelmed me with sadness and grief.
I was angry, ashamed, and tearful at what I learned and came home determined to tell the whole story of the American complicity in Jeju and Korea since 1945. The film places the protests against the base in the broader context of the American military expansion in its attempt to encircle China and dominate and control the Pacific Ocean. The protest in Gangjeong represents the modern-day struggle of people around the world against militarism, violence, and the destruction of the environment, no to mention the total disregard for self-determination, human rights, and social justice.
The curator of the museum, with Gilchun’s help, provided me with 8 DVDs packed with archival film, photos, and documents that I will use in my film, including interviews with some of the survivors. I am also using film and photos from the U.S. National Archives and from the Associated Press.
I have already filmed interviews with Bruce Cumings, and Charles Hanley who wrote the book, The Bridge at No Gun Ri. These are very powerful and will add a great deal of credibility to the film. Also, Bruce Gagnon was interviewed about America’s real plans for world domination. It is an expose of the supposed Pax Americana.
I have created a 38 minute rough-cut of the film to apply for a grant from the Sundance Film Fund and to raise money by showing it to small Peace & Justice groups. The reaction is always the same. Some people cry, some express disbelief that their government could be guilty of these crimes, most are angry to learn, and nearly all ask what can they do. That is my hope for the film, that it will motivate people to take action.
Finally, I believe you have become a powerful symbol of the protest through your imprisonments and fasts and I thank you for the example you have set for the entire world.
Hardly a day goes by when I don’t think about you and the people of Gangjeong Village.
Peace to you, Professor Yang and thank you for your witness to peace and justice in the world,
Regis Tremblay
Maine, United States‘
Ana Traynin
‘Dear Prof. Yang,
I was so privileged to join a tour of Gangjeong village with you,
just a few days before they took you away.
Your peaceful yet strong and resilient character, recognition of real
beauty, love of nature and unbending struggle to save both will stay with me forever.
As Utah Phillips said “the degree to which you resist is the degree to which you are free.”
Prof. Yang, your courageous and self-transcending actions in the name of peace, even as the state steals your physical freedom, show the freedom you hold inside. You are a visionary and inspiration to us all.
I send you light and endless positive energy from this crazy world.
In solidarity,
Ana Traynin’
Hideki Yoshikawa
Solidarity Message to Prof. Yang Yoo-Mo from Okinawa:
Outraged by the repeated imprisonment of Prof. Yang Yoon-Mo,
Dismayed by the Korean government’s disregard for human rights and environmental justice,
Still encouraged by Prof. Yang Yoo-Mo’s determination to fight to keep Jeju Island as “the Island of Peace,”
I am sending my solidarity message to Prof. Yang Yoo-Mo and my friends in Jeju.
Hideki Yoshikawa
Citizens’ Network for Biodiversity in Okinawa
Save the Dugong Campaign Center
Update: You can see the collection of international solidarity messages upon Yang’s 15th prison fast day, here.
Prof. Yang Yoon-Mo who was arrested and imprisoned directly from the court on Feb. 1 hits his 15th prison fast on Feb. 15.
There is a peace candle culture event, praying for the release of Yang Yoon-Mo.
In front of the Jeju Prison, 7 pm, Feb. 15 (Friday), 2013
Hosted by the Gangjeong Village Association and People loving Yang Yoon-Mo
Source: Park Yongsung
If you could, please send a solidarity message for Yang Yoon-Mo no later than Feb. 13
: About 100 words, for the reason of translation, to the Gangjeong village international team (gangjeongintl@gmail.com)
: Update: You can see some solidarity messages in the bottom
You may also write letters to him (Prof. Yang can read Japanese):
Yang Yoon-Mo (No. 301)
Jeju Prison, 161 Ora-2 dong, Jeju City,
Jeju, the Demilitarized Peace Island, Korea
We thank Coco from the Maine, United States, who sent us a message days ago as the below.
‘Last night our peace and justice group distributed letter writing materials so Mr. Yang should be receiving letters of support soon. We also plan to paint a banner that we’ll carry to all rallies, regardless of the event, in the hopes to get questions from other activists as well as some TV media images. I’ll send a photo once the banner is made.’
Thank you.
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More on Yang Yoon-Mo
A movie critic born in Jeju, summoned to save Beauty
Prof. Yang welcoming the visitors from Okinawa and Japan on the Gureombi Rock on April 2, 2011 (Source)
“I am a (movie) critic. The role of a critic is to save the beauty to the end of one’s life. I have been enthusiastic to be voluntary to promote wonderful movies. Some people who could not understand me used to say whether I am misled by heroism or not. However, it is my faith to save the beautiful things.”
Prof. Yang looked peaceful and bright despite his status. The Gureombi Rock must be the venerable beauty for him that he is willing to pay his life.
In fact, his daily fast is carried out from hard resolution. According to Park Hee-Sou, Chairman of the Island Provincial Council, who visited Prof. Yang in the jail along with other two Council representatives and strongly recommended him stop of fast on Feb. 5, Prof. Yang said:
” I hear the sound of the Gureombi Rock being broken by construction(destruction) even sleep during the night. Even though I suffer every day, I am taking fast from the resolution that I have to inform the people the fact that the naval base construction itself is by evil law. If I spend one year and six months without difficulty, it means I acknowledge that I committed crimes.” ( Source)
However, it is true that his health has been rapidly weakened after the long time fasts of more than 74 days (including about 60 days’ prison fast) and 42 days (in jail, too) in 2011 and 2012 each. Many people hope him stop the fast from the worry of his health.
Photo by Kang Bang-Sou/ It was the inside of Prof. Yang’s tent on the Gureombi Rock from 2009 to 2011, until the navy forcefully set up the fence around the coast on Sept. 2, 2011. For the source, click here or here.Prof. Yang who used to work in the villagers’ farming house in the village, April 10, 2010 (Source)
A movie critic who inherited the trauma of 4.3 incident
Prof. Yang protesting against naval base construction, lying on the tetra pod frames in the construction site on April 4, 2011, the next day of commemoration day of 4.3 incident. (Source)
As a Jeju native, he is personally connected to the April 3rd incident (massacre and people’s uprising in the Jeju Island from 1947 to 1954). The younger brother of his grandmother (mother’s side) was one of the six victims killed by the bullets from the police governed by the US Army Military Government in Korea (USAMGIK) on March 1st, 1947. It was the commemorating day of people’s independence movement in 1919 against the Japanese imperialism from which the Korea was liberated on Aug. 15, 1945. The incident on March 1st, 1947 sparkled the period of the 4.3 incident afterward.
Prof. Yang was also told that his grandfather of mothers’ side was killed, too, during the 4. 3 incident. He has said that he could not forget those stories throughout his life and those stories must have become the source of his current fierce struggle against the war base- building in the Jeju.
According to the result of the investigation of the truth by the National Committee for Investigation of the Truth about the Jeju April 3rd Incident, the March 1 incident occurred when people’s complaints against the USAMGIK that governed South part of Korea from Sept. 9, 1945 to Aug. 15, 1948 were gradually spreading, while people’s expectation from liberation had become frustrated by the USAMGIK that allowed the succession of the police during the Japanese occupation under its governing.
The report reads (summarized and translated):
The US Army Military government recognizing that the commemoration rally on the 3.1 movement happening in the Jeju Island was led by the left wing [..] did not permit people’s street march and demanded them to change the rally venue to the Jeju west air field. However, about 30,000 crowd including the 17,000 people organized by the Namrodang (Workers Party of South Korea) and People’s Committee [..] etc. gathered near the North Jeju Elementary school. About 430 policemen including 330 from the Jeju and 100 from the main land carried security activities nearby.
After the event, the crowd started street march. At the time, a child was hit by a horse of a ranger. When the ranger was to continue to proceed whether he knew it or not, the crowd nearby him, infuriated to see the accident, ran into the site. The aiding armed policemen, mistaken that the crowd are to attack the police station, fired toward them. Six were killed and another six got heavy injuries.
The USAMGIK who did not know the whole truth of such firing incident asserted later that it was by self-defense, despite its acknowledgement of the wrongdoings. It also began to arrest the rally event staffs and students, defining the incident as the ‘incident of the protesters attacking the police station.’
The total civilian-government strike occurred from March 10, with the start from the Jeju Island government. About 40,000 people which are about 95 % of the whole workers from 23 institutes (which are mostly administrative institutes excluding the police and judiciary institutes), 105 schools, post offices, electric companies in the Jeju joined the strike. Even about 20 % of the Jeju police also joined the strike.
The Police started to roundup the strike-related personnel from March 15. During the process, another firing incident happened on March 17 when the crowd demanded the release of the prisoners. The police arrested about 500 people by April 10. Among the arrested, 66 policemen were laid-off and those men’s posts were replaced by those belonging to the West North Young People’s Association which was the right wing subjugation group that existed by the Korean War.The confrontation and conflict between the Jeju Island people and police and such group under the UAMGIK were more increased.
In the intelligence report by the UAMGIK on Match 19, 1947, the UAMGIK considered about 70 % of the Jeju Island people as the left wing or its sympathizers.
It is tragic that the Jeju Island, designated as the Global Peace Island by the South Korean government on Jan. 27, 2005, to overcome the pain of 4.3, is currently suffering again from the history still present. Prof. Yang bears the history of Jeju in the past and present in his own soul.
Drawing on the incident of March 1st, 1947, by Kang Yo-Bae, Jeju artist. The drawing is included in his famous drawing book on 4.3 incident (Source)Jeju Artist Koh Gilchun’s works on 4.3 massacre and people’s uprising, displayed in the 4.3 Peace Park(Source)Archive photo on the 4.3 incident (source)
In the morning of Feb. 8, Paco Booyah got the court decision of probation, meaning postponement of sentence. we are so pleased to inform this and thank a lawyer Paik Shinok. we also congratulate, Silver, his significant other!
Paco has been investigated by the police including the coast guard for four cases and the prosecutors have indicted him for the charge of ‘obstruction of business.’ regarding the incident during last summer.
He was just sitting in a catholic mass while taking photos in front of the naval base project building complex. It was only 8 min.
On Dec. 21, he became the 1st international who stood in the Jeju court in person regarding the naval base issue.
At the rime, the prosecutors suggested six month imprisonment against him.
Today, the judge Kim Kyungsun told that ‘ even though he is guilty, the court made a decision on probation on him since he has no crime career before; it happened during the NGO activities; the time of obstruction of business was short therefore it was not great damage.
We had worried about him especially after the case of Prof. Yang Yoon-Mo but now feel relieved.
We are happy to see him who would have some precious lunar holidays with his family ! we are also happy to be able to keep him with us for the life here and many important works!
However, unless the vicious Korean immigration law is revised, we cannot stop all the hardships that our grateful international friends had to get through.
We are so sorry bout that and hope we can have some common measure about it. we are not forgetting Benjamin Monnet, Angie Zelter and all the friends who were arrested or entry- denied for the support of struggles.
Park Seung-Ho who was arrested near the communal restaurant in the village on Sept. 14, 2012 (during the 2012 WCC period) was released on bail on Feb. 5, 2013 after 144 days’ imprisonment. He had been arrested for the reason that he had not responded to the police call. However, the truth is that he had been targeted by the police for a long time for his struggles against unjust government policies. We hope Prof.Yang Yoon-Mo who was arrested and imprisoned directly from the court will be freed soon, also.
Around 6:30 pm he was out of prison in the rainy evening.People welcoming Park Seung-Ho
Photo by Park Yongsung/ Tofu is a traditional food in Korea for the prisoners who were just released.
Returning to the village, Park Seung-Ho made a short statement to the people in the Peace Center where people were busy to prepare for distribution of materials during the public relationship event throughout the Island.
