The United States' Role in the Korea Jeju April 3rd Tragedy and its Responsibility for 'Social Healing Through Justice'

Abstract

Healing for the Jeju 4.3 survivors and families progressed significantly after the work of the 2000 National 4.3 Committee and the 2005 Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Acting on these investigatory organizations' recommendations and the expressed desires of the Jeju people, the Korean government began a healing process that included a presidential apology, a government-sponsored museum and an extensive public memorial and grave site for known victims -- albeit without individual reparations.

American and Korean scholars also point to the United States' partial responsibility for Jeju 4.3 and its lack of participation in redress efforts. Acknowledgement of the United States' historical role in Jeju 4.3 by the Korean and U.S. governments today may be one of the crucial next steps toward genuine reparatory justice for the Jeju people and for Korean society. It may also bolster U.S. legitimacy globally as a democracy actually (and not just professedly) committed to human rights.

The United States grounds its global moral authority as a democracy in its stated commitment to human rights. But a genuine commitment entails acknowledging and actively repairing the damage caused by its participation in human rights atrocities -- even decades ago. Its legitimacy as a democracy depends upon doing so -- and after two damaging wars the United States needs to bolster its moral authority internationally. If America under President Obama, with its security pivot toward Asia, is to reclaim full legitimacy as a democracy committed to human rights, if there is to be complete social healing for the Jeju 4.3 survivors and families and for the Korean government and people -- if the 'han', the deep sense of suffering from injustice, is to be lightened -- then the United States needs to mutually and actively engage in the reconciliation process. The time is now.

Keywords: social healing, reconciliation, redress, reparations, peace, Jeju 4.3 Tragedy, survivors, presidential apology, human rights, responsibility, recognition, reconstruction, 4Rs, social healing through justice, United States, international human rights, law, democratic legitimacy