WaldenKorea held its first strategic international forum

Professor David McCann, Harvard University

A the event, each member of the Walden Koea Planning Committee presented on the Jeju Massacre as a joint project. The main presentations were made by Professor David McCann at Harvard University, Professor Taek-Kwang Lee at Kyunghee University, Professor Sung-Yoon Lee at the Fletcher School at Tufts University, and Chairwoman Suyeon Yang of the Jeju 4.3 Memorial and Families Association of the U.S. Jeju 1948-49 and Thereafter:' McCann read Kim Yeong- Sook's poem "Jeongbang Waterfalls in Jeju Island" in the original Korean and discussed Jeongbang Falls, a major site of the massacre of Jeju residents. He also expounded on several other poems that address the tragedy of Jeju, including the poems "Every Memorial Stone" (by Lee Jong-Hyeong) ) and Ko Un's "Jeju Island Poet:' Professor Sung-Yoon Lee interpreted the massa- Professor David McCann, an expert on Korean lit- ere in Jeju Island in the context ofSyngman Rhee's erature who for many years taught at Harvard Univer- "messianic complex:' The primary culprit is Syngman sity, explained the 4.3 incidents from the perspective Rhee, the first president of South Korea, Lee asserted. of peace and human rights through Korean resistance Dr. Lee also argued that the U.S. military government literature under the theme of"Re-Placing Memory: is complicit in the 4.3 incidents.

Suyeon Yang, Chairwoman of the Jeju 4.3 Memo­rial and Families Association of the U.S., talked about the pain of families of the massacre's victims and dis­cussed the need for the United States to take respon­sibilityfor its role. Professor Taek-Kwang Lee placed the Jeju 4.3 Incident as the starting point of the Cold War on a global scale. He discussed ways to expand the discourse on the Jeju 4.3 Massacre from a parochial Korean issue into one with international implications.

Walden Korea plans to hold an international forum related to the Jeju 4.3 Massacre each year. ■