75Th Commemorating the Victims of the Jeju April 3 Incident

Date and Time:

Thursday, April 6, 6 pm

followed by a reception at 7 pm.

Location

7th floor, Cabot Intercultural Center, Tufts Fletcher School

160 Packard Ave., Medford, MA

Host: Jeju 4.3 Memorial and Families Association of the U.S.

Support organizer: Jeju 4·3 International Network for Truth and Justice, Memorial Committee for the Jeju April 3rd Uprising and Massacre, Fletcher School North Korea Working Group

Sponsor: Jeju Special Self-Governing Province

RSVP: info@waldenkorea.org

Tel) 617-849-8433

The Boston-based Jeju 4.3 Memorial and Families Association of the U.S. strives to raise awareness on the tragic historical event known as the Jeju Massacre, urge the United States to uncover the truth and issue an apology, prevent future generations from repeating the same mistakes, and contribute to the development of a society that respects and protects justice, human rights, and peace.

The Jeju 4.3 Incident, a tragedy in modern Korean history, resulted in the killings of 30,000 people by the military and police during seven years and seven months of unrest from March 1947 until September 1954. Some scholars consider the Jeju 4.3 Incident as the starting point of the Cold War in Northeast Asia. In 2021, South Korea’s ruling and opposition parties passed the amendment to the Jeju 4.3 Special Act, making some progress in restoring the honor of the victims. However, the bereaved families of the Jeju 4.3 victims still face a challenging path amid ideological conflicts.

The U.S. military government, which held operational control of the Korean military during the most intense period of the crackdown,1948-1949, provided weapons to the Korean military and was directly and indirectly involved in the slaughter of Jeju residents, branding them as communists. In December 2022, our organization held the Jeju 4.3 Conference at the Woodrow Wilson Center, a U.S. Congressional think tank, and visited the U.S. Congress to urge them to uncover the truth about the Jeju 4.3 Incident.

Each year, the Commemoration of the Victims of the Jeju April 3 Incident is held on April 3 in Jeju, Korea. This date is the official memorial day of the Republic of Korea's government. It has now been 75 years since the Jeju 4.3 Incident.

In the United States, the Jeju 4.3 Victims Memorial Ceremony officially began last year. We invite you to attend this event to commemorate the victims of the Jeju 4.3 Incident and strengthen our bonds of friendship in the name of human rights that transcend ideology. A reception will follow the event from 7 pm to 8:30 pm. Please RSVP to confirm your attendance.

Lecture : Slavoj Žižek "Are There Still Masters or Are There Only Servants of Servants?"

Walden Korea Lecture Series

International School of Philosophy in Asia (ISPA)

Slavoj Žižek "Are There Still Masters or Are There Only Servants of Servants?"

10 am (EST-U.S & Canada), Wed, December 21

Webinar Lecture

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86835446597?pwd=WnpZSFgyc3c2Zkc2elhHajhYL04xZz09

Meeting ID: 868 3544 6597

Passcode: 4343

All are welcome to join by video or audio

Dr. Žižek will take questions from audience

Email: info@waldenkorea.org

Host: Walden Korea

Sponsor: Jeju 4.3 Peace Foundation

The Walden Korea Lecture Series aims to bring together preeminent scholars and intellectuals to address the most salient issues of the day. The development of global mobility that facilitated the “Global Value Chain” has transformed the regions of Asia and beyond into large-scale factories and shaped global capitalism in the 21st century. Widespread mass industrialization has precipitated the rise of metropolia and accelerated environmental crises and climate change. The economic subsumption of these regions to the global market has brought profound changes and shackled the distinct immanence of the locals to the norms of the monetary regime. Asia is no longer a particular region but instead the place of universal subject matter: global capitalism. For this reason, the lecture series posits Asia as a means to bring forth the potential conceptualization of planetary philosophy. The progress of technology increasingly separates our sense of certainty from concrete spatio-temporal experiences and imposes algorithmic intelligence upon our way of thinking. From coal and oil to electricity, the forms of energy for the sustainability of this vulnerable civilization stifles the infinity of today’s imagination. It obstructs the new idea of another future. However, the idea of the future is always related to a breakthrough in the present, and the virtual alternation is already internalized within today’s reality. From this perspective, the Walden Korea Lecture Series, an initial program of the International School of Philosophy in Asia, invites all interested in thoughts challenging the normative perception of today’s world and a search for an alternative method to the current knowledge systems.

The Walden Korea Lecture Series is the inaugural program in the launch of the International School of Philosophy in Asia (ISPA). The Jeju 4.3 Peace Foundation funds the series. The first lecture will be delivered by Slavoj Žižek, a renowned Slovenian philosopher, cultural theorist and public intellectual. He is the international director of the Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities at the University of London, visiting professor at New York University and a senior researcher at the University of Ljubljana’s Department of Philosophy.

Jeju 4·3 International Network for Truth and Justice established in Jeju City

The Jeju 4.3 International Net­work for Truth and Justice was established in the Jeju City Communication and Cooperation Center at 2:00 PM KST on June 27, 2022. Peo­ple from Jeju, Seoul, Japan, the United States, Europe, and Taiwan joined forc­es to seek the truth and justice.

Seven different organizations came together to join hands, with the Jeju As­sociation for the Bereaved Families of 4.3 Victims in Jeju as the hub: Jeju 4.3 Pan-National Committee to Commem­orate the Jeju 4.3 Massacre, Memorial Committee fortheJeju 4.3 Uprising and Massacre, Association for the Bereaved Families of 4.3 Victims in Japan, Jeju 4.3 Victims and Families Association in the U.S., Taiwan Jeju 4.3 Victims Association, and the Jeju 4.3 Network Europe. In addition, participation by two other groups are in the planning: Jeju 4.3 Net­work Tokyo andJeju 4.3 Network Osaka.

At the founding ceremony, representatives of each organization participated through video conference, and Jeju Provincial Governor Oh Young-hoon and National Assemblyman Kim Han-kyu of the Demo­cratic Party delivered congratulatory speeches. Koh Hee-beam, chairman ofthe Jeju 4.3 Peace Foundation, visited the site of the founding ceremony and delivered congratulatory remarks.

In its founding declaration, the 4.3 Internation­al Network for Truth and Justice announced that it would become a catalyst for connecting the next gen­eration by fostering the spirit of 4.3 and resistance against injustice to reaffirm peace and human rights.

The spokesperson for the 4.3 International Net­work for Truth and Justice said, "The Jeju 4.3 Massa­cre, which claimed the lives of IO percent of the pop­ulation of Jeju at the time, occurred 74 years ago, but it is not a problem unique to Jeju. After World War II, the Korean Peninsula was another battleground between the great powers. It is a righteous history in which the people of Jeju tried to forge the future of the Korean Peninsula after liberation rather than be dictated by the great powers:'

"The 4.3 journey towards truth and justice did not come about by sitting still. The dedicated research and movement of the Jeju 4.3 organizations and civil society, in tandem with the efforts of the bereaved families, led to the enactment of the 4.3 Special Act, the adoption of a fact-finding report at the government level, and an apology from the President of South Korea. The amendment of the Special Act, backed by the efforts of all, made historical progress in enabling compensation and retrial at the govern-ment level;' the spokesperson added.

"In the 1970s and 1980s, when it was hardly possible to talk about the Jeju 4.3 Massacre out in the open, the voices calling for the investigation of the truth first emerged in Japan. And we've come a long way. Recently, the Jeju 4.3 Victims and Families Association of the U.S. was formed. And a meaningful step began in Taiwan with the launch of the J eju 4.3 Network Taiwan. In other nations, such as the UK and the Netherlands, various activities are underway to es­tablish the truth of the Jeju 4.3 Massacre:'

"Even if it takes a long time, we will establish the truth and the responsibility of the U.S. military gov­ernment at the time. The spring of the natural seasons each year comes by itself, but the spring of historical truth must be forged by men and women as well as the next generation. Our collective footprints towards solidarity will become the warp and weft that light up a brighter tomorrow:'

'We [ 4.3 International Network] will bloom in the Jeju 4.3 spirit of protesting against injustice and flow­er into peace and human rights:'

The representatives of each organization who par­ticipated in the founding ceremony of the Jeju 4.3 In­ternational Network for Truth and Justice aim to raise awareness through collaboration among civic societ­ies and investigate the role of the U.S. Army Military Government in Korea.

In September 2020, the Memorial Committee for the Jeju 4.3 Uprising and Massacre, with the view toward establishing the 4.3 International Network, reached out to each J eju 4.3-related association across the world.

In January, 2021, discussions on the establishment of the international network began in earnest and, six months later, it was established. Each representative of the participating organization took on the role of co-representative, and a joint secretariat consisting of co-representatives and directors of various fields with­in each organization was formed.

The Jeju 4.3 International Network is planning to hold various events such as international forums and seminars for resolving the Jeju 4.3 issue, internation­al solidarity projects, international representation of the Jeju 4.3 history, and international cooperation for forging peace and justice. ■