Résumés
This article enquires into questions of state violence, cultural trauma, commemoration, and memory politics with respect to the Cheju April 3rd Incident or “the 4.3” (1947-1954), which is regarded as the precursor of the Korean War. After the Special Law for Investigation of the Truth about the Cheju April 3 Incident was established in 2000 by the government, “the 4.3” was officially recognized as a case of state violence and civilian massacres. Due to long-term enforced silence and suppression of “the 4.3 memory,” however, the divergence between state memory and local individuated memory has created conflict over the identity of the victims of mass killing, the commemoration of the event, and the complex politics of postmemory. Drawing on Hirsch’s concept of “postmemory” (the type of inter-generational memory that mediates the past memory in its affective force), this paper explores the way in which this divergence is mediated in commemoration rituals of ancestor worship and reburial of dead bodies exhumed from mass graves. As material evidence of mass killing and its affective presence, the remains “animate” political action for moral judgement about responsibility for massacres. Placing the dead in a proper family tomb or public enshrinement hall shared with other mass dead in the 4.3 Peace Park becomes the most significant concerns of the bereaved families. It shows how state involvement in the management of remains and ancestral veneration custom continues to exert an influence on the surviving families of the dead as well as the victims of the 4.3. In opposition to the structural state intervention, there persisted a community action that continually repaired the loss of social relations and restored communal history through creating the children’s collective grave and family cemetery and inventing island-wide shamanic rituals in the public sphere. In this article, we witness the community of death and loss, which is newly formed through cultural trauma and restorative justice in the post-atrocity era.
Cet article aborde les questions de la violence d’État, du traumatisme culturel, de la commémoration et de la politique de mémoire relatifve aux « événements » du 3 avril à Cheju ou « 4.3 » (1947-1954), considérés comme précurseurs de la guerre de Corée. Après l’adoption par le gouvernement, en 2000, de la Loi spéciale relative à la recherche de la vérité sur les événements du 3 avril à Cheju, le « 4.3 » a été officiellement reconnu comme un cas de violence d’État et de massacres de civils. Cependant, en raison du silence imposé pendant une longue période et de la suppression de la « mémoire du 4.3 », les divergences entre la mémoire de l’État et la mémoire individuelle locale ont créé des conflits quant à l’identité des victimes du massacre, la commémoration de l’événement et la politique complexe de la post-mémoire. S’appuyant sur le concept de « post-mémoire » de Hirsch (un type de mémoire intergénérationnelle qui médiatise la mémoire passée dans sa force affective), cet article explore la manière dont cette divergence est médiatisée dans les rites commémoratifs d’offrandes aux ancêtres et dans la réinhumation des corps exhumés des fosses communes. En tant que preuves matérielles des massacres et de leur présence affective, les restes « animent » l’action politique dans le sens d’un jugement moral sur la responsabilité des massacres. Placer les morts dans un tombeau familial approprié ou dans une salle d’inhumation publique partagée avec d’autres morts de masse dans le Parc de la Paix est devenu une préoccupation majeure pour les familles endeuillées. Cela montre comment l’implication de l’État dans la gestion des dépouilles et des pratiques de vénération ancestrale continue d’exercer une influence sur les familles des défunts ainsi que sur les victimes du « 4.3 ». En opposition à l’intervention structurelle de l’État, il existe une action communautaire qui cherche à réparer la perte des relations sociales et restaurer l’histoire commune en créant des tombes collectives d’enfants et des cimetières familiaux, et en inventant des rites chamaniques dans la sphère publique de l’île. Dans cet article, nous témoignons de la communauté de mort et de perte, nouvellement formée à travers le traumatisme culturel et la justice réparatrice dans la période post-atrocité.
이 논문은 한국전쟁의 전조라고 알려진 제주4.3사건 (1947-1954)을 중심으로 국가 폭력, 문화적 트라우마, 위령제, 기억정치에 대한 문제를 제기한다. 2000년 제주43사건진상규명및희생자명예회복에관한특별법이 정부에 의해 제정 공포된 후, ‘4.3사건’은 국가폭력과 민간인 학살 사건으로 공식적으로 인정되었다. 그러나 오랫동안 ‘4.3기억’이 침묵 되고 억압당했기 때문에 ‘4.3’에 대한 국가차원의 공적 기억과 4.3 피해 당사자 개인과 유가족의 기억 사이에 생긴 간극은 대량학살 희생자의 정체성과 위령제, 그리고 복합적인 포스트메모리의 정치학에 있어서 갈등을 야기했다. 허쉬의 포스트-기억 개념 (과거의 기억이 세대를 넘어서 강력한 정서적인 힘으로 전승되는 기억 유형)을 적용하여, 이 간극이 조상숭배나 암매장터에서 발굴한 유해를 안장하는 위령의례를 통해 어떻게 매개되어 드러나는지 살펴본다. 희생자의 시신과 유골은 대량살상의 물질적 증거이며 정서적 실재로서, 학살의 책임에 대한 도덕적 판단을 요청하는 정치적 작업을 수행한다. 발굴 후 희생자 유해를 가족묘에 안장할 것인가, 4.3평화공원의 봉안관과 같은 공공 추모시설에 모실 것인가의 문제는, 4.3유족의 조상숭배와 같은 위령의례 관습에 대한 국가의 지속적인 간섭이 행사되고 있음을 시사한다. 이러한 국가의 간섭에 대응하여, 4.3유족들은 가족묘지와 애기무덤을 조성하여 4.3으로 상실한 사회적 관계를 복원하고, 공식적 차원의 무속적 해원상생굿을 창안하여 공동체 역사를 회복하는 활동을 지속하였다. 이 논문은 4.3의 폭력적 사건 이후에 문화적 트라우마와 보상적 정의를 통하여 새롭게 형성되는 죽음과 상실의 공동체를 입증하고 있다.
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Consulter cet article
Plan
Introduction: The Cheju April 3rd Incident and State Violence
The Work of Post-memory and Ritual Mediations
Placing the Dead: Mass Graves and Memorials
Mass Graves: “Deaths Without Bodies or Coffins”
Forensic Exhumation and Commemoration: Re-assemblage of the Dead
Moral Agency of the Exhumed Remains
The Pukch’on-ri Massacre and Place-making for the Dead: Restorative Justice
Children’s Graves: Provisional Burial
Conclusion: Community of Loss after Atrocity
Aperçu du texte
Introduction: The Cheju April 3rd Incident and State Violence
This article enquires into questions of state violence and practices of post-memory with respect to the Cheju April 3rd Incident (1947-1954), which is regarded as the precursor of the Korean War, one of the first outbreaks of the violent ideological conflict during the global Cold War. Historically and politically, Cheju Island, which is located on the periphery of the Asia-Pacific and the Cold War, has been considered a site of strategic importance, and, hence, has had a continued military presence over the years. At the end of the Pacific War, Cheju was set up as the frontline of the Japanese militaries in their defense against the American landing. After the World War II, Cheju was under the authority of the American occupation government (1945-1948).
The Cheju April 3rd Incident is known as the ‘4.3 Incident,’ or sasam sakkŏn, or just ‘4.3’ which is named after the date of its initial occurrence on April 3rd in 1948, wh...
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Référence papier
Seong Nae Kim, « Memory Politics of Mass Graves and Commemoration: Korea’s Cheju April 3rd Incident », Extrême-Orient Extrême-Occident, 47 | 2024, 153-186.
Référence électronique
Seong Nae Kim, « Memory Politics of Mass Graves and Commemoration: Korea’s Cheju April 3rd Incident », Extrême-Orient Extrême-Occident [En ligne], 47 | 2024, mis en ligne le 01 janvier 2027, consulté le 16 février 2025. URL : http://0-journals-openedition-org.catalogue.libraries.london.ac.uk/extremeorient/3187 ; DOI : https://0-doi-org.catalogue.libraries.london.ac.uk/10.4000/12ko3
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Auteur
Kim Seong Nae is a Professor Emeritus of Religious Studies at Sogang University in South Korea. Her first book in Korean language, Han’guk mugyo ŭi munhwa Illyuhak [Cultural Anthropology of Korean Shamanism] (Seoul, Sonamu, 2018) was awarded the 2020 Yim Sok-jae Prize in anthropology. Her recent publications include an article, “Placing the Dead in the Postmemory of the Cheju Massacre in Korea” (Journal of Religion, 2019), book chapters “Cultural Trauma and the Cheju Massacre in Transnational Perspective” (in Tina Burrett et Jeff Kingston [eds.], Routledge Handbook of Trauma in East Asia, New York, Routledge, 2023) and “Memory Politics and a Women’s Sphere Countering Historical Violence in Korea” (in Jelke Boesten et Helen Scanlon [eds.], Gender, Transitional Justice and Memorial Arts, New York, Routledge, 2021). Her book manuscript on cultural memory and commemoration of the Cheju April 3 Incident is in progress.
Kim Seong Nae est professeur émérite d’études religieuses à l’université Sogang en Corée du Sud. Son premier livre en langue coréenne, Han’guk mugyo ŭi munhwa illyuhak [Anthropologie Culturelle du chamanisme coréen] (Seoul, Sonamu, 2018), a reçu en 2020 le prix Yim Sok-jae en anthropologie. Parmi ses récentes publications figurent l’article « Placing the Dead in the Postmemory of the Cheju Massacre in Korea » (Journal of Religion, 2019), plusieurs chapitres d’ouvrages collectifs comme « Cultural Trauma and the Cheju Massacre in Transnational Perspective » (in Tina Burrett et Jeff Kingston [dir.], Routledge Handbook of Trauma in East Asia, New York, Routledge, 2023) et « Memory Politics and a Women’s Sphere Countering Historical Violence in Korea » (in Jelke Boesten et Helen Scanlon [dir.], Gender, Transitional Justice and Memorial Arts, New York, Routledge, 2021). Le manuscrit de son prochain livre sur la mémoire culturelle et la commémoration de l’incident du 3 avril à Cheju est en cours de préparation.
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