If you stay in Korea long enough, you cannot avoid hearing
about how many Koreans hate the Japanese. I've had students say to me, “We hate Japan” so many times that I lost count after a
month teaching here. I always found this
hatred to be illogical because in my opinion, the biggest threats to South
Korea were China and North Korea. Yes, I
was aware that Japan did occupy the Korean peninsula for most of the first half
of the 20th century but in my mind, I would think, “Almost every
area in the world has been occupied by a foreign presence at one point or
another, so get over it.” I would think
that a South Korean-Japanese alliance would be necessary given the political
climate of the region, and the governments officially seem to agree with me. However, one trip
to Seoul would be enough for me to see the problem with my logic.
When looking at the section for Seoul on Lonely Planet’s
website, the first thing listed is Seodaemun prison. Given my fellow travelers’ fascination with
history, as well as my own, we decided to go check it out. As we learned, Japan did not simply colonize
Korea. Rather, the Japanese treatment of
some of the Korean people during occupation was as bad as, or worse, than the
conditions other occupied people have suffered at the hands of some famous
dictators.
It was here that many political prisoners were kept and
tortured on a daily basis. Some of the
methods used included waterboarding, forcing the prisoners to remain inside a
small box where they could neither sit/nor stand properly for hours at a time,
prying back of fingernails, and forcing the prisoners inside a small box with hundreds
of long sharp nails and then kicking and shaking the box. Many prisoners were also killed and then
their bodies were taken through a secret tunnel built into the hillside so no
one would see the victims.
After arriving home, I did a little research into the matter
and learned that the Japanese even forced Korean women into sex slavery. Nowadays, every Wednesday, the surviving “comfort women”
protest outside the Japanese embassy in Seoul.
Over 60 years later, the Japanese government has still not given any
official apology about their actions toward the Korean people.
Before my visit, I was aware of the actions of Japanese
soldiers during World War II towards captured enemy combatants, but I never
imagined they committed these offenses on civilians. Considering that there are still may people
alive that have first-hand knowledge of Japanese atrocities committed during
occupation, I can now understand the hatred many Koreans display towards
Japan.
* Unfortunately, I could not take as many pictures as I
wanted as the prison was closing and we had to rush through much of what there
was to see. I plan on going back in the
near future to get the chance to explore the museum and prison grounds more
thoroughly. I will share some of the
pictures I was able to take below.
Seodaemun Prison Main Gate
Seodaemun Prison Front Side
Seodaemun Prison Museum Entrance
This is a model of the prison grounds during Japanese occupation. The prison was later used by Korea after gaining their independence until 1987.
Panoramic shot of a room memorializing many of the victims of Seodaemun Prison.
Seodaemun Prison Grounds
Seodaemun Prison Exercise Structure Entrance - Obviously, the prison wasn't built with the comfort of the prisoners (or me) in mind.
For exercise, the prisoners would be allowed to walk up and down one of the "alleys." The walls would prevents the prisoners from seeing or talking to one another during exercise time. I took this picture from the spot where the guards would watch the prisoners.
This is what the guard would see while the prisoners were doing their exercise.
The prisoner's view during exercise time (minus the apartment buildings of course!)
Seodaemun Prison Guard Tower
This picture, and the one below, is of the secret tunnel build into the hillside to remove the bodies of the deceased without detection.
