Jeju 4·3 Peace Park

In the uplands of Bonggae-dong, Jeju City, low stone walls and memorial stones stretch across a broad hillside. Jeju 4·3 Peace Park is a memorial park and museum for the people killed during the Jeju 4·3 events, which lasted from 1947 to 1954. It shows a side of modern Jeju hidden behind the island's beautiful scenery, and it is worth setting aside time for during a trip.

What was Jeju 4·3?

Jeju 4·3 refers to the armed conflict and its suppression on Jeju from 1 March 1947 to 21 September 1954, in which huge numbers of islanders were killed. Estimates range from about 14,000 to 30,000 dead, around 10 percent of Jeju's population at the time. Both the armed insurgents and government forces committed violence against civilians, but historians judge the government's suppression to have been especially brutal and systematic.

For decades the events were taboo. A special law in 2000 opened an official investigation, and after the government's 2003 report, the president apologised on behalf of the state.

Timeline

• 1 March 1947: after the March First commemoration, police fire killed six civilians. From 9 March most of Jeju's workers joined a general strike in protest.
• 3 April 1948: an armed uprising broke out against the separate election in the south.
• November 1948: martial law was declared and a harsh campaign of burning upland villages began.
• March 1949: an operation against the armed groups in the mountains crushed the uprising within about two months, at the cost of many civilian lives.
• From 1950: when the Korean War broke out, people suspected of links were rounded up in "preventive detention" and many more were killed. About 40,000 people are thought to have fled to Japan.
• 21 September 1954: taken as the date the events ended.

How the park came about

Calls for a memorial grew with the truth-seeking movement that began in the late 1980s, and Jeju Province announced plans for a memorial park in 1995. After the special law, land was bought, ground was broken on 3 April 2003, and the Peace Memorial Hall opened on 28 March 2008. The park covers about 395,000 m².

What to see

• Memorial altar and tablet hall: the annual memorial ceremony on 3 April is held here. The hall holds memorial tablets for 15,126 victims, arranged by their home villages.
• Name walls: stones engraved with each victim's name, sex, age, and the date and place of death, grouped by village.
• Stones for the missing: individual markers for 4,138 victims whose bodies were never found, many of them taken to prisons on the mainland and never seen again (as of March 2026).
• Ossuary: holds 398 sets of remains recovered in excavations carried out since 2006.
• Biseol (Flying Snow): a sculpture based on a mother from Bonggae-dong who was shot in January 1949 while fleeing with her two-year-old daughter on her back. The walls of the approach are engraved with a Jeju lullaby.
• Jeju 4·3 Peace Memorial Hall: one basement and four upper floors. Based on the government's investigation report, the exhibition follows events from the outbreak to the truth-seeking movement.
• Berlin Wall: a section of the wall donated by the city of Berlin in 2007, a reminder of division and the Cold War.

Learning more about 4·3

• 4·3 Children's Experience Centre: opened in 2018, it introduces 4·3, peace and human rights to children aged 6 to 11 in a way they can understand.
• 4·3 Trails: the Jeju 4·3 Peace Foundation promotes walking routes through villages such as Donggwang, Uigwi, Bukchon, Geumak, Gasi and Sogil that follow traces of 4·3. Walking a real village after visiting the park brings the history much closer.
• The camellia: after the painter Kang Yo-bae's 1992 series Camellias Fall, the red camellia became the flower of 4·3. Its blossoms, which drop whole to the ground in February and March, recall the victims.

Tripto tips

• Hours and fees: the outdoor park is always open. The Memorial Hall is open 09:00–18:00 (last entry 17:00) and closed on the first and third Monday of each month (or the next weekday if that Monday is a public holiday). Entry and parking are free.
• Time needed: the permanent exhibition alone takes an hour or more. Allow 2–3 hours to include the park.
• Etiquette: this is a place of mourning, so keep your voice down at the altar and tablet hall. Food and drink are not allowed in the Memorial Hall.
• Getting there: take bus 43-1 or 43-2 from Jeju Airport to the "Jeju 4·3 Peace Park" stop, about 60 minutes. By taxi or car it is about 40 minutes.
• Combine with: Jeju Stone Park, about 4 km east, and Jeolmul Natural Recreation Forest nearby make a good day out. The camellia badge you may see people wearing is the symbol of 4·3 remembrance.