Letter from Seoul - 29
The bone-numbing Siberian winds that haunt the Korean peninsula in winter have subsided, and faint signs of spring are gradually emerging. Nothing to make anyone rave with delight, but instead of three layers of clothing, most people can now navigate in public without Eskimo apparel.
Until a dozen days ago, I had never heard of the March First Movement; an historic occasion in Korea when there were mass protests against Japanese rule on March 1, 1919. To this point, displaying the Korean flag was a ticket to prison. So, the Koreans took to the streets to send a fuck you very much message to the Japanese. This revolt paid some dividends, yet at the expense of 7,000 dead and 46,000 arrests.
The worst was still to come when the Japanese Empire went on its rampage in the late 1930s and forced so many young Korean women to become sex slaves for the military. Comfort Women is how they were known. What a sick euphemism.
Somehow, Sookyung’s mother and all the women on both sides of her family were spared this unimaginable horror. Her mother’s brother was hustled off by the Japanese and taken to Honshu, never to be seen or heard from again.
So, 12 days ago, an estimated half-million people gathered at Gwanghwamun Square to commemorate the March First Movement, and the power of protesting against injustice. I have never seen anything on this scale in Seoul before. In my lifetime, the only other public gathering that comes close to this was the Anti-Vietnam War March on Washington in April, 1971 – with an estimated 300,000 people in attendance ... including a one-time sociology major from St. Louis who eventually drifted into photojournalism.
And then this past Saturday, another 50,000 or so people, mostly Gray Panthers, returned to Gwanghwamun Square in support of embattled President Yoon, who was finally released from jail earlier in the day, pending a higher court ruling on his fate for declaring Martial Law on December 3, 2024.
As the Arabs say: “It is written.”
For those of you playing the American TV game show Jeopardy at home:
“Alex, I’ll take Fuck Around, and Find Out for $400."
“The Jeopardy question is: What Korean President was sentenced to prison for bribery and corruption?”
“Who is President Park Geun-hye?”
The accompanying image reflects current life in America and doesn’t require any explanation.
