Unhealed Scar

Unhealed Scar 70 years ago in April 1948, the Cheju islanders rose up against the US military rule and the “May 10 separate election” fabricated by the pro-US Syngman Rhee clique. The US issued a diabolical order, clamoring for “what the US need is the Cheju Island not the islanders”, “it is good to pour gasoline over the island to kill them” and “kill them as soon as possible”. Under the baton of the US army, the Syngman Rhee group under the pretext of “cleanup of communists” shot the uprisers to death, stabbed them to death and buried them alive.     The barbarous manslaughter took the lives of seventy thousands of the islanders, the equivalent of a fourth of the islanders and all villages had been reduced to ashes. The Cheju Island, called an “island of mystery” and “island of fantasy” turned into an “island of blood” and “lifeless island”. 70 years have passed since the April 3 Popular Uprising on Cheju Island and hot-blooded outcry of the south Korean people are being heard. Investigation into the April 3 Popular Uprising, punishment of those responsible for it, official apologies of the US government and reparation for it have remained unsettled. On March 31 in Cheju Island, a rally was held under the sponsorship of the Cheju headquarters of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions with the participation of 5 000 unionists of the KCTU and members of civic organizations.   The truth of April 3 Popular Uprising has not been proved and it has no official name yet, Kim Myung-hwan chairman of the KCTU said and added that the workers would demand an apology from the US which clamped down the uprising with bayonet and take its real name. Prior to the rally, the KCTU held a joint press conference at which it noted that the uprising was a great action of the people who rejected national division and built an independent reunified country. It said that it would demand an apology from the US which committed monstrous massacre and disturbed peace on the Korean Peninsula and push ahead inter-Korean exchange and cooperation for the establishment of a peace mechanism on the peninsula.   A signature campaign in demand of the US responsibility for the uprising and apology was held near the Cheju municipal office. The April 3 Popular Uprising was a righteous people’s resistance against the US and fascism to oppose the US colonial enslavement policy over south Korea and national partition and achieve reunification of the country.