Special Exhibition

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Commemoratingthe 70th Anniversary of Jeju 4·3

Jeju 4·3 is Now Our History

Special Exhibition Hall (3rd Fl.),
National Museum of Korean Contemporary History

March 3 (Fri), 2018 – July 3 (Tue), 2018

  • Price : Free
  • Hours :10:00 – 18:00
    Opening hours will be extended to nine o’clock in the evening on Wednesdays and Saturdays.
    (Last admission is one hour before the closing time.)
  • For additional inquiries call : +82-02-3703-9200

(Opening Special Exhibition)


Jeju 4·3, a series of historic events that occurred around April 3rd, 1948, resulted in the second largest number of casualties in modern Korean history. However, it took over half a century to discover the truth of these sorrowful events. The truth-finding efforts that were first made by private citizens and universities in the 1980s led to the 2000 enactment and promulgation of the Special Act on Discovering the Truth of the Jeju 4·3 Incident and the Restoration of Honor of Victims. The act prompted efforts at the national government level to restore the honor of the victims and their bereaved families. During the process, the Report on the Truth-Finding Investigations of the Jeju 4·3 Incident was published in 2003, and, in 2014, April 3rd was designated as a national memorial day.

Nevertheless, it is true that the general Korean public still lacks understanding of Jeju 4·3, and, unfortunately, by the 70th anniversary of Jeju 4·3 in 2018, most of the victims’ family members who had direct knowledge of the events had passed away. So much time had gone by before Jeju 4·3 was recognized on the national level, and before those efforts had gained momentum, that the stories of those witnesses were not documented.

The special exhibition marking the 70th anniversary of Jeju 4·3 is designed to illustrate the historic events by displaying historic artifacts, personal effects of the deceased, and related works of art, which were collected based on information contained in the Report on the Truth-Finding Investigations of the Jeju 4·3 Incident. We prepared this exhibit with high hopes for Jeju 4·3 to be recognized not just as part of the history of Jeju, but of the Republic of Korea as a whole. Hopefully, you will take your experience at this special exhibition as an opportunity to rediscover the precious values of human rights and help lay a cornerstone of the grounds for peace and mutually-beneficial coexistence.
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Epilogue



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