Memorial messages voice citizens’ rage at Sewol disaster

Posted on : 2014-05-05 14:55 KST Modified on : 2014-05-05 14:55 KST
Expressions of mourning describe collective and personal sadness at “the unvarnished cruelty of Korean society”
 children make yellow paper boats wishing for the safe return of survivors
children make yellow paper boats wishing for the safe return of survivors

By Park Seung-heon, staff reporter

The Seoul Plaza, in front of City Hall, was a sea of yellow on May 4 with ribbons placed on a citizens’ memorial to commemorate the victims of the Sewol ferry disaster.

The “Wall of Hope and Remembrance” in front of the memorial altar at Seoul Plaza consisted of more than thirty wood panels set up around the lawn, each covered with letters and poems from members of the public. The yellow ribbons hanging from the pillars of the “Red Ribbon Garden,” which was completed on May 1, seemed to perform a sad dance as they waved in the spring wind.

According to the Seoul Metropolitan Government, a total of 137,123 people paid their respects to the victims over the eight days since Apr. 27, with 11,267 of them visiting the memorial between 7 am and 6 pm on May 4.

Nationwide, the total number of mourners visiting memorial altars to the victims passed one million the same day. A government team providing support for funerals for the Sewol victims said on May 4 that a total of 1,025,611 mourners to date had been counted the day before, eleven days after the first temporary memorial altar was put up at Olympic Memorial Hall in Ansan. Roughly 30% of them, or 321,347 people, visited the official government memorial altar in Ansan, home to most of the victims.

Many families and couples could be seen visiting the memorials over the long holiday weekend, with lines started early in the morning and reaching their peak around 4 pm. At one point, a line that started in front of Seoul Metropolitan Library stretched all the way to the edge of Seoul Plaza and doubled back in a “U” shape to the library entrance.

After paying their respects, mourners recorded treasured personal messages on the yellow ribbons and sketch paper. One wrote, “Day after day, my heart just feels stunned. I feel like this accident showed me the unvarnished cruelty of Korean society.”

Another wrote, “I can’t imagine the fear. . . . I’ll never forget this anger or grief.”

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Near universities, the “How are you nowadays?” posters that started at Korea University and became a nationwide phenomenon last December began showing signs of returning on campuses in the wake of the sinking.

“We’re not going to listen anymore when you tell us ‘be still,’” read one of the new messages from students. “We’re going to find out who’s responsible for the accident and take action so that this kind of thing doesn’t happen again,” said another.

The new wave started on Apr. 24, again at Korea University, with a poster titled “Asking you how you are again.” Since then, it has quietly spread to other universities, including Sogang University and Sungkonghoe University.

“They were identifying the bodies by the brand names of clothing, like ‘Nike’ and ‘Polo,’” said Kim Se-jeong, the 21-year-old Korea University media studies student who wrote the Apr. 24 poster. “And one of the mothers said, ‘I’m worried they won’t be able to find my child because we couldn’t afford to buy them things like that.’ So she just kept standing there in front of a list of the victims. I’ll never forget hearing that.”

“I have a sibling who’s eighteen, so it hit pretty close to home for me, but what really made me write the poster was seeing the irresponsible way the government responded,” Kim added.

“You had government officials taking commemorative photographs or going to the funeral home and whispering, ‘That’s the Minister of Education’, or a lawmaker describing the families as ‘agitators,’” he continued. “Seeing that made me realize that’s how they see the public all the time. They had the police out there with their shields more quickly than ever before when it was family members of the missing saying they were going to the Blue House.”

Kim said he visited memorials to the Sewol victims twice with other students.

After Kim’s poster, another one went up at Korea University demanding more accountability from the government.

“People feel the only thing they can do is put up a yellow ribbon for their profile picture and talk to their friends about how heartbreaking it is,” the poster read. “Grieving is not enough. None of the so-called leaders of the state want to take any responsibility for this.”

Another student who put up a poster at Sogang University called the sinking “the compounded result of countless problems with Korean society” and advised viewers to “get angry.”

“Even in student society, the student council president bows his or her head and takes responsibility when some incident occurs,” read one poster sentiment. “Meanwhile, the President talks about ‘holding people responsible for their errors’ while ducking any responsibility herself.”

“We have to change this situation where family members blame themselves for ‘killing my own child’ when it’s not even their fault,” said another poster.

Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]

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