Remembering the Sewol Ferry Disaster in South Korea

Realms of Memory

The April 2014 Sewol ferry disaster is an all too familiar South Korean tragedy. Corruption, deceit, greed, and failed regulations and oversight cost nearly three hundred lives—most of whom were high school students on a trip to Jeju Island, a popular resort destination. Seoul National University Professor HaeRan Shin explains how the Sewol ferry disaster has become a site of remembering and forgetting. She reveals how economic interests worked against efforts to memorialize the tragedy. Lastly, she notes how opponents tried to discredit the memorialization project by associating it with memory activists from Gwangju and the May 18th Gwangju massacre.