The Jeju uprising (in South Korea, the Jeju April 3 incident, ) was an uprising on Jeju Island, South Korea, from April 1948 to May 1949.
Tensions on Jeju Island escalated with protests following a police assault incident during the 1947 March 1st Independence Movement Day celebration, and the suppression of those protests which resulted in 6 deaths. A general strike was later organized by the Workers' Party of South Korea (WPSK) from February to March 1948, protesting against the general election scheduled in the United States-occupied half of the peninsula. Kim Dal-sam, the head of the WPSK in Jeju, formed a guerrilla organization to take up arms, and launched an insurgency in April 1948, attacking South Korean police facilities and officers, and right-wing civilians.
Following independence in August 1948, the First Republic of Korea (ROK) under President Syngman Rhee escalated the suppression of the uprising on Jeju Island by declaring martial law in November and beginning an "eradication campaign" against insurgents in the rural areas of Jeju in March 1949, defeating them within two months. The ROK executed many insurgents and their supporters causing some to refer to this campaign as the Jeju massacre. Upon the outbreak of the Korean War in June 1950, many imprisoned insurgents and supporters were extrajudicially executed, and the existence of the uprising was officially censored and repressed in South Korea for several decades.
The Jeju uprising and its repression were notable for its extreme violence; between 14,000 and 30,000 people (10 percent of Jeju's population) were killed, and 40,000 fled to Japan. Other estimates reach as high as 80,000 dead. Atrocities and war crimes were committed by both sides, but historians have noted that the methods used by the South Korean government to suppress protesters and rebels were especially cruel, with violence against civilians by pro-government forces giving rise to the Yeosu–Suncheon rebellion in South Jeolla Province during the conflict. According to Bruce Cumings, right-wing paramilitary groups, including the North-West Youth Association, were especially brutal towards civilians, exercising more authority than the police. Some historians and scholars, including military historian Allan R. Millett, regard the Jeju uprising as the true beginning of the Korean War.
In October 2003, the National Committee for Investigation of the Truth about the Jeju April 3 Incident chaired by South Korean prime minister Goh Kun released a comprehensive report detailing the violence that occurred during the uprising, and South Korean president Roh Moo-hyun issued an official apology on behalf of the South Korean government. In 2019, the South Korean police and the defense ministry apologized for their involvement in the massacres during the Jeju uprising.
Background Political situation in Korea After Imperial Japan surrendered to Allied forces on August 15, 1945, the 35-year Japanese occupation of Korea ended. Korea was subsequently divided along the 38th parallel, with the Soviet Union overseeing the north and the United States the south. In September 1945, Lt. General John R. Hodge established a military government to administer the southern region, including Jeju Island. In December 1945, representatives from the US, Soviet Union, and United Kingdom met to discuss a joint trusteeship. However, a lack of consensus led the US to bring the "Korean question" to the United Nations. On November 14, 1947, the United Nations General Assembly passed Resolution 112, calling for a general election in Korea on May 10, 1948, under the supervision of the United Nations Temporary Commission on Korea (UNTCOK).
Fearing a loss of influence over northern Korea, the Soviet Union rejected the UN resolution and barred UNTCOK from entering the region. The UNTCOK nevertheless proceeded with the elections, albeit only in the southern half of the peninsula. In response, the Soviet Union organized its own elections in the north on August 25, 1948.
Political situation on Jeju Island Residents of Jeju island were some of the most active participants in the Korean independence movement against colonial Japanese occupation. Due to the island's relative isolation from the mainland peninsula, Jeju experienced relative peace after the Japanese surrender, contrasting with the period of heavy unrest in the southern region of mainland Korea. As with the mainland, the period immediately following the Japanese surrender was characterized by the formation of People's Committees, local autonomous councils tasked with coordinating the transition towards Korean independence. When the American military government arrived on Jeju in late 1945, the Jeju People's Council was the only existing government on the island. As a testament to this relative stability, the US military governor under the United States Army Military Government in Korea (USAMGIK) John R. Hodge stated in October 1947 that Jeju was "a truly communal area that is peacefully controlled by the People's Committee without much Comintern influence."
The Jeju People's Committee had come under the directive of the Workers' Party of South Korea (WPSK) by late 1946. The WPSK encouraged the People's Council to establish military and political committees, as well as mass organizations. The 1946 USAMGIK dissolution of the provisional People's Republic of Korea and their associated People's Committees on the mainland sparked the Autumn Uprising of 1946, which did not spread to Jeju (as its PC still operated virtually undisturbed by the American military government) but did contribute to rising tensions on the island. However, since the 2000s, many South Korean liberal scholars and bereaved families of the victims of the massacre have maintained that the Jeju People's Committee has nothing to do with directive of the WPSK.
Incidents leading up to the uprising Sam-il demonstrations Residents of Jeju began protesting against the elections a year before they took place. Particularly concerned about permanently dividing the peninsula, the WPSK planned gatherings on March 1, 1947, to denounce the elections and simultaneously celebrate the anniversary of the March First Movement (also known as the Sam-il Movement). An attempt by the security forces to disperse the crowds only brought more citizens of Jeju out in support of the demonstrations. The police fired indiscriminately into the crowd, killing six civilians, including a six-year-old child.
Chong-myon jail incident On March 8, 1947, a crowd of about a thousand demonstrators gathered at the Chong-myon jail, demanding the release of WPSK members the military government had arrested during the Sam-il demonstrations. When the demonstrators started throwing rocks and subsequently rushed the jail, the police inside shot at them, killing five. In response, WPSK members and others called on the military government to take action against the police officers who fired on the crowd. Instead, 400 more police officers were flown in from the mainland, along with members of an extreme right-wing paramilitary group known as the Northwest Youth League. Although both the police and paramilitary groups employed violent and harsh tactics in their suppression of the locals, the Northwest Youth League was especially ruthless, described as borderline terroristic.
February 1948 general strike As the May 10, 1948 elections approached, WPSK leaders hardened in their opposition to the involvement of UNTCOK in Korean affairs, as they believed the elections would formalize the 38th parallel partition as a border, rendering a unified, independent Korea much less likely. In January 1948, Pak Hon-yong, the leader of the WPSK, called on WPSK members south of the 38th parallel to oppose the elections by whatever means necessary, and called for a general strike to begin on February 7. At this point, there were at least 60,000 members of the WPSK on Jeju, and at least 80,000 active supporters. These members and supporters not only went on strike but in some cases attacked government installations and engaged with police forces in open conflict. These engagements between WPSK guerrillas against rightist groups and police continued through March 1948.
Rebellion April 3, 1948 Although skirmishes had been taking place on Jeju Island since early 1947, April 3, 1948, is considered as the day the Jeju uprising officially began. Some sources claim it came about when military police "fired on a demonstration commemorating the Korean struggle against Japanese rule," igniting mass insurrection. Other sources, however, make no mention of this demonstration incident, and claim that WPSK plans to attack on April 3 had been in the works for some time. Whatever the case, at approximately 02:00, around 500 WPSK guerrillas alongside up to 3,000 sympathizers attacked Northwest Youth League positions as well as 11 of the 24 police stations on the island, killing 30 police officers, specifically targeting those who were known to have previously collaborated with the Japanese.
Lieutenant General Kim Ik-ryeol, commander of police forces on the island, attempted to end the insurrection peacefully by negotiating with the rebels. He met several times with rebel leader Kim Dal-sam of the WPSK but neither side could agree on conditions. The government wanted a complete surrender and the rebels demanded disarmament of the local police, dismissal of all governing officials on the island, prohibition of paramilitary groups, and the re-unification and liberation of the Korean peninsula.
In the wake of these failed peace negotiations, the fighting continued. The US military government responded to guerrilla activity by transferring another regiment to Jeju from Busan and deploying police companies, each 1,700 strong, from the southern provinces of the mainland. The guerrillas retreated to their bases in the forests and caves around Hallasan, Jeju's central volcano and the highest mountain in South Korea. On April 29, the Korean, non-military, governor of Jeju province abandoned his post, defected, and joined the guerrillas. This caused many police officers, disillusioned by the atrocities they were ordered to commit against their own, to do the same. In response, US military provincial governor William F. Dean ordered a purge of WPSK sympathizers from the ranks of the Korean constabulary, and three sergeants were summarily executed.
Fighting continued through the May 10 elections. A total of 214 people had been killed by then. During election week, the guerrillas "cut telephone lines, destroyed bridges, and blocked roads with piles of stones to disrupt communications." The WPSK Women's League campaigned for residents to hide in the mountainous region controlled by guerillas the night before the election so they could not be brought out to vote at gunpoint, and thousands did. Many election officials even declined to show up. These campaigns, along with sporadic arson, violent demonstrations and attacks on three government installations on election day rendered the election useless. The turnout in Jeju was the lowest in all of South Korea, so low that the two seats reserved for Jeju province in the new national assembly were left vacant.
Fearing an upsurge in guerrilla activities after they succeeded in getting what they wanted out of the election, General Dean requested a US Navy blockade of the island on May 11, so that sympathizers from the mainland could not reach Jeju. The Navy sent the to enforce the blockade.
August 1948 underground elections and Yeosu rebellion