Tale of Soksom: Landscapes of Memory in Jeju, South Korea

This thesis begins with a personal quest on investigating Jeju 4.3 Incident. Located below the Korean Peninsula, Jeju 4.3 incident indicates a chaotic period from 1947 to 1954 when approximately 30,000 civilians were killed during military sanctions from the South Korean government with the support of the US, against armed guerillas in favor of a unified Korea. Stigmatized as 'Red Island', victims were suppressed, forgotten, and unrecognized for many decades. The commemoration process has started recently with an apology from the president in 2003. Architecture as a physical mnemonic device, the thesis explores the method of commemorating the forgotten events through the landscapes of air, water, and earth in Jeju. How do we remember resistance from the past? What are the appropriate methods? How are each victim comforting themselves from their trauma? How do we treat historical sites? How do 'outsiders' who were clueless about the incident, engage the island?