The Island of Sea Women

Shortly after the war ends, the people of Jeju are hopeful about the future. Sadly, their hopes are dashed by the conflicting military and political interests jockeying for power in the area. They are caught between the local police, rebels from the mountains, a corrupt dictatorial government, and the American military. The Americans have allowed many former Japanese collaborators to remain in place to help with the transition. Sang-mun makes himself useful and becomes an American collaborator. In the midst of this turmoil, the island is hit with three disasters: a cholera epidemic, a poor harvest, and limited food rations because of the influx of refugees.

The people fear that the next election will be orchestrated by outside interests, so they stage a demonstration on March 1, 1947, asking for free elections. A riot breaks out when a child is accidentally trampled by a mounted policeman. When the crowd rushes the police station, many protesters are shot. Many more are taken into custody, tortured, and later killed. Island businesses go on strike in protest. This only aggravates the situation, and Jeju is labeled as a communist stronghold. Calling Jeju the Island of Nightmares, the anti-communist Northwest Young Men’s Association arrives to maintain order. They are told to live off the land, which means they are likely to pillage the crops of every village they find. The local people begin calling them “the shadow of a nightmare.” Over the coming months, more atrocities are committed as innocent people die. Young-sook thinks:

In the last few months, I’d witnessed several people get shot in front of me. I’d seen people on both sides beaten. Those who’d been killed or injured were all Korean—whether from the mainland or Jeju—and the perpetrators had all been our countrymen (198). 

Things don’t improve in the year following the demonstration. Young-sook rarely sees Mi-ja now and worries because she knows that Sang-mun beats his wife. However, Young-sook has family concerns of her own after giving birth to a second son named Kyung-soo. She now has three children, a husband, and a disabled sister-in-law to care for.

The new Korean governor is extremely right-wing and sees communist conspiracies everywhere. On the morning of April 3, unification rebels take over the police station in Bukchon. They blow up bridges and roads and target police strongholds in other villages as well. The government and the US military attempt to quell the disturbance and make house-to-house searches to find communist sympathizers. When national elections are held later in the month, dirty politics ensures that a puppet president gets elected.

In May, Mi-ja comes to visit, looking gaunt. She’s lost a baby girl, and her husband continues to abuse her physically. Young-sook tells her friend to leave Sang-mun, but Mi-ja likes the secure lifestyle she enjoys as the wife of a collaborator. When they part, Young-sook says, “I walked her to the gate. Even as we said our goodbyes, I suspected I didn’t know just how bad things were for her” (209).

In August, North Korea and South Korea are established as separate countries. By November, Jeju Island is placed under martial law as the government attempts to weed out revolutionaries and communists alike. Anyone beyond five kilometers from the coast will be shot. Young-sook says, “It was to be called the ring of fire. Anything and anyone found violating the order would suffer a scorched-earth policy” (210). People hiding in the mountains are forced to flee to the coastal villages for safety. The authorities then scour each village for rebels and execute them. 

By January 1949, the inhabitants of Bukchon are suffering from hunger and cold as fighting rages in the surrounding areas. One morning, Mi-ja shows up for a visit at Young-sook’s house. They go to gather water at the village well, where some local men are debating what to do about the dead bodies of two Korean soldiers. They resolve to take them to the military headquarters as a sign that they had nothing to do with the crime.

The women fetch their water and return home before going to the beach to dive for some food. On their way back to Young-sook’s house, they see roofs being set afire. The military has arrived in force and is rounding up all the inhabitants. As the villagers are herded into the local school, Young-sook frantically tries to locate her family until she spies them in the crowd.

A commander tells anyone who is affiliated with the military to step forward because they won’t be harmed. The commander then announces that he is looking for the insurgents who killed two of his men the night before. When no one speaks up, the soldiers take a few young men outside and torture them to no avail. Everyone in the school grows fearful. Failing to get any information, the commander then turns his wrath on the women and singles out Yu-ri. Jun-bu protests that his sister is simple-minded and can’t speak.

At that moment, Sang-mun arrives looking for Mi-ja. He tells the commander she is in the protected category. Young-sook implores her friend to save her three children. Mi-ja says she will only take one, and only if her husband agrees. “‘I have to protect my son, too, you know’ was the last thing she said to me before rising” (230). Mi-ja scampers to safety and leaves her friend behind to face a grisly fate.

In the altercation that follows, Jun-bu tries to prevent Yu-ri from being raped and is shot in the head. Yu-ri has her breasts sliced off and dies. Young-sook’s son, Sung-soo, is bludgeoned to death. Young-sook says, “Within a matter of seconds, I lost my husband, my son, and my sister-in-law, for whom I’d felt responsibility since my first dive as a haenyeo. And Mi-ja, my closest and oldest friend, had done nothing to help” (232). 

In years to come, the atrocities of January 1949 would be called the Bukchon Massacre. Young-sook says, “I will tell you this. More people died in Bukchon than in any other village during all the years of the 4.3 Incident” (233). The town is now referred to as the Village of Widows because so many men died during the three-day rampage. The survivors are tasked with digging a pit to bury the hundreds who were murdered.

The village attempts to reconstruct itself, and Young-sook returns to diving for a living, but she decides her family’s best chance of survival is to return to her home village of Hado. Taking her two remaining children, she goes to the house of her mother-in-law, Do-saeng, who is relieved to see her alive. The woman mourns the death of her own son and grandson but is comforted to know that Young-sook became pregnant shortly before her husband’s death, so another baby is on the way.

Young-sook settles into the household routine and awaits the arrival of her next child, grateful for the company of her father, brother, and mother-in-law. One day, she goes down to the beach to wash clothes and finds Mi-ja there, who has now developed a limp. The latter informs Young-sook that she and her family have moved to Hado as well. Young-sook is furious at Mi-ja’s willingness to gloss over the past and leaves abruptly. Still upset, Young-sook goes into labor and delivers a girl she names Joon-lee. Mi-ja calls several times and brings gifts but is given excuses and sent away.

In the months that follow, Do-saeng starts training Young-sook to be her successor as the diving chief of their collective. Mi-ja joins a different collective. Eventually, everyone takes sides in the feud between Young-sook and Mi-ja. Young-sook says, “The women’s fishing grounds, which had always been assigned, were now ferociously guarded by the women of the two factions. The sea became a place of territorial battles, old resentments, and continued bitterness” (246).

On the anniversary of the Bukchon Massacre, ceremonies are held for the ancestors. Young-sook is surprised to see Mi-ja watching the ritual and goes to confront her afterward. Mi-ja is offended by her friend’s repeated rebuffs and takes no responsibility for failing to help Young-sook in her time of need. Mi-ja then points out how Young-sook was partly to blame for Yu-ri’s accident by not preventing her dive and also startling the abalone that caused her own mother’s death.

Young-sook says, “I staggered back. This woman, whom I’d loved, and who had—through her own actions and inactions—destroyed my family, was using a secret I’d confided to her against me” (248). Young-sook later becomes convinced that Mi-ja has always acted in her own self-interest, even when she seemed to be sacrificing herself for others. 

In June 1950, the north invades the south, and a new killing spree begins. The authorities on Jeju are as eager as ever to destroy communists and revolutionaries in their midst. Young-sook says, “Guilty and innocent died every day across our country. This had been happening for years now. Imagine that for a moment […] Seeing and smelling death, while mothers still tried to feed, clothe, and comfort their children” (252). The scale of slaughter is so immense that bodies are now being dumped into the ocean.

During this time, Do-saeng turns fifty-five, which is the age of retirement for a diving chief. When it comes time to nominate a successor, Young-sook is surprised that the team votes for a friend named Gu-ja instead of her. Do-saeng later consoles Young-sook by offering her a gift. She receives a glass diving mask that the Japanese call big eyes, which is much better than the diving goggles that the haenyeo use. Young-sook thinks that the mask will help her trap any stray emotion related to Mi-ja.