[This article is written by a JDC Junior Journalist. The JDC Junior Journalist program is an educational project sponsored by Jeju Free International City Development Corporation (JDC). JDC Junior Journalist articles are only briefly edited by mentors before publishing.]

Recently, the ‘4.3 Massacre’ became known to the public through the movie ‘Jiseul 지슬’. It shows the scars and sorrow of Jeju to a younger generation who don’t know much about the massacre. During the 4.3 Massacre many residents of Jeju were sacrificed by a clash of arms and suppression of a rebellion started on the March 1st. shooting.

Roughly speaking, the March 1st. shooting case started during a march of cavalry soldiers. During the marching, one cavalryman hit a young child but ignored the incident. So, the crowd felt angry enough to throw stones and persue the cavalryman to the police station, but the police officers mistook the protest for an attack. To calm the riot, they started to fire blanks into the crowd. During the incident 6 people were injured, and 6 people were killed. Since then, this incident has been called the March 1st shooting.

Not many people know enough about the 4.3 Massacre, how it occured and why it occured, in spite of the fact that it was a huge massacre. Also, most of the text books that the students study don’t have a lot of content explaining the 4.3 Massacre. Many only have 2 to 5 sentences. Last month, one publisher even distorted the description. So, the assembly of Jeju requested officially to modify the content or to annul the approve of certification.
The definition of the 4.3 Massacre should be redefined first, as said by Governor, Lee, “Nothing can compensate for the damage because it is still accepted as just an incident” The contrversial issue remains deep, painful hurt to the heart of the survivors and their families.
The wind of peace is still blowing near the 43 Peace Square.