hankyoreh

May 18. (by Park Hyun

By Park Hyun, Washington correspondent

Korean-Americans staged demonstrations all across the US on May 18 to commemorate the victims of last month’s Sewol ferry sinking and criticize the response by the Park Geun-hye government.

Demonstrations were held in cities in over 30 states, including New York, Los Angeles, and Washington D.C.

More than 2,000 people are estimated to have taken part, most of them women in their thirties and forties. It was an unusual nationwide display by large numbers of Korean-Americans related to events that took place in South Korea.

In the capital city of Washington D.C., around 200 Korean-Americans gathered at around 2 pm in front of the Lincoln Memorial, a major tourist destination. Most were dressed in black, wearing yellow ribbons on their chests and holding chrysanthemums in their hands. Many were family members with strollers in tow, or parents holding their children by the hand.

A woman with a 15-year-old daughter stepped forward to say she had initially contemplated whether to attend because the demonstration conflicted with a concert her daughter was playing in.

“At first, I just felt sorry and sad to see all those family members who couldn’t do anything but sit there and wait,” the mother said. “But as time went by, I started getting angrier. I came because I wanted to send the message that money isn’t what should come first, that mothers can do something, no matter how small.”

A high school student took the microphone to proclaim, “We have the right to criticize a government that arrests demonstrators while failing to meet its own responsibility.”

“We can’t just be bystanders anymore,” she stressed.

A man in his forties, who said it was his first demonstration, called for an investigation and punishment of those responsible. “If this sort of thing happens again, then we’ll all be accomplices,” he said.

Kang Chang-gu, a self-employed 57-year-old, sang a self-composed elegy at the gathering as other demonstrators solemnly listened.

The idea for the demonstrations came when a member of MissyUSA, a lifestyle information site for Korean-American women, proposed staging protests in all fifty states.

More than 400 people attended in Los Angeles, home to many Korean-Americans, while over 100 took part in New York. Anywhere from twenty or thirty to over 100 demonstrators showed up in other major cities, including Dallas, Boston, San Diego, Seattle, Atlanta, Irvine, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, and Houston.

Signatures were also taken for a petition to demand an investigation of the tragedy, punishments for those responsible, and a special law to prevent similar accidents in the future.

Angie Kim, a MissyUSA user, explained the organizational process for the event.

“There were people who volunteered to be leaders in different states, and the volunteers shared information online,” she said.

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