Gurye

Abstract

The term “Yŏsun Killings” refers to a prewar atrocity in which the US-allied South Korean forces killed numerous civilians who were accused of being either communists or communist sympathizers in the cities that had been occupied by rebels in the southwestern part of South Korea. As one of the sites of these atrocities, Gurye became the first town in South Korea to erect a public memorial in 2006 for the victims of the Yŏsun Killings. Gurye presents a case that demonstrates how democratized South Korea has continued to negotiate a strong legacy of anticommunism, even at its subversive memorial sites. In a land that has long muted the memories of an old atrocity, suppressed mourners in Gurye are still struggling to reclaim their fundamental yet long-deprived rights to mourn the loss of their loved ones.