On April 3, 63 years ago, on the South Korean island of Jeju, protests swelled and degenerated into a massacre followed by 15 years of persecution. Jeju Weekly’s Darryl Coote recounts the escalation into violence. Christine Ahn yesterday relates how the South Korean and American governments plan to build a naval facility on Jeju (via The Western Confucian) in the context of arguing for the closure of all American military installations in South Korea.

I welcome allies from various political leanings, but having Dr Martens dress shoes on the ground, I’m a bit unconvinced by their talk of a “global people’s struggle” and their anti-Americanism. Most South Koreans do not want us to leave, which is all the more reason we should leave. They, the South Koreans, know a good deal when they see one; we Americans do not seem to be so smart. To sum up the arrangement, for decades we have defended South Korea, allowing it to develop its export economy, and for this privilege, we have openned up our markets to its products while allowing it to close its markets to ours.

Chalmers Johnson, in Blowback, argues that the US and USSR followed similar tactics when creating and maintaining satellite states, interweaving the accounts of the Jeju Massacre with the supression of the 1956 Hungarian revolt.

This is a dark day in American and Korean history. The wounds are not healing.

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Filed under: Academia, History, Human Rights, Korea, Military Tagged: blowback, chalmers johnson, jeju massacre, rok, South Korea