Nearly seven decades ago, 408 local boys were taken to a prison in (인천) Incheon. They and investigators say they were sentenced to years in prison for being communists, but that they weren’t given proper trials. Kim Minhoe tells us more.




Report

88-year-old Mr. (양일화) Yang Il-hwa cannot forget the year 1948, 69 years ago.

When the April 3rd Incident broke out, he told a soldier that he was born in (금악) Geumak-ri, (한림) Hallim-eup, which is in the mid-mountain area, he was wrongly accused of being a communist and taken to prison in (인천) Incheon.

It left him with a lot of ill feelings.

4-136. That was his ID number in jail.

Without a proper military trial, the teenage boy, Yang was sentenced to 5 years in prison.

Recording
Yang Il-haw / Prisoner during April 3rd Incident
They called it a “military trial,” but it wasn’t really a trial. We didn’t know anything. We, young boys, sat kneeling in the jail. They issued judgments like this: “3 years for A and 1 year for B” and ordered us into cells.
<싱크 : 양일화 / 4.3 인천형무소 수형인>
"재판이라고 한게 그냥 불러다가 말하고. 군사재판이라고 말 만했지 재판도 아니고, 우리는 그때 몰랐습니다. (형무소에) 쭉 꿇어 앉아서 누구 몇년, 3년, 1년 이런식으로 말하고. 방에 들어가라고."

87-year-old Mr. (양근방) Yang Geun-bang shares the same story.

He lost his family to the massacre and was taken to prison for the reason that he had lived in the mid-mountain area of Hallasan Mountain, in which communists usually hid out.

Recording
Yang Geun-bang / Prisoner during April 3rd Incident
My 28-year-old elder brother went outside and was shot in the chest right in front of my eyes. Blood poured out. I was young and they took me to prison saying, “He is also from a communist family.”
<싱크 : 양근방 / 4·3 당시 인천형무소 수형인>
"큰 형님이 28살 때 밖으로 나가니까 바로 내 앞에서 세 발자국도 안 갔는데 총에 가슴을 맞아서 피가 솟아나고. 나는 어리니까 군인이 '쟤도 빨갱이 족속이다'라고 해서 끌려가고."

A fact finding team held a session about the victims of wrongful imprisonment during the April 3rd Incident.

The team announced that, in total, 408 boys were taken to the jail in Incheon.

[slug]
‘408 boys falsely imprisoned in Incheon’

Most of them didn’t go through proper trials and were falsely charged.

And most of the boys who did receive trials were unilaterally sentenced to imprisonment. The sentencing took place at detention camps or in police custody, not in a court.

The victims urgently need to legally clear their name and the unjust imprisonment should be thoroughly investigated.

INTERVIEW
Gang Gyeong-mi / April 3rd Fact-finding Team
They were wrongfully charged and the trials were illegal. These matters should be investigated thoroughly. We believe that the victims should legally recover their honor and receive compensation from the government.
<인터뷰 : 강경미 / 4.3진상조사단 조사연구원>
"억울하게 잡혀가신 부분들이 있고, 정식재판도 아니었기 때문에 이 부분에 대한 정확한 진상규명이 돼야 하고. 이에 따른 법적인 명예회복과 이후에 배상과 보상문제까지 같이 돼야 할 것이라고 생각하고 있습니다."

It has been 69 years since the April Third Incident broke out on the island.

[Reporter] Kim Minhoe
[Camera] Kim Seung-cheol

The historic task of dispute settlement over this dark chapter of the island’s history is left before us.

Kim Minhoe, KCTV