Jeju

• Korean: 済州島 (Jejudo)

Jeju Island is a Korean island located to the south of the Korean peninsula, west of Kyushu. The largest island within Korean territory, it was in ancient times intimately intertwined with the larger maritime world of southern Korea, the Tsushima and Iki Islands, western Kyushu, and the Ryukyu Islands. Today, Jeju is primarily known as a vacation destination for Koreans.

Modern History

Within modern history, Jeju is perhaps most famous for a series of incidents and uprisings in the late 1940s, in which people on the island protested against the north-south division of Korea and were at times met with deadly violence by security forces in return. One such clash took place on 1 March 1947, when security forces fired upon such a group of protestors and killed six. This then led to a larger armed uprising against the security forces, on 3 April 1948. Believing that the South Korean Community Party was playing a part in this uprising, the South Korean authorities launched a Great Purge; according to some sources as many as 60,000 people, roughly 70% of the population of Jeju, were slaughtered.