South Korea places statue apologizing to Vietnam on Jeju Island

The 'Sorry Vietnam' statue was inaugurated today on Jeju Island, South Korea, where a massacre took place in 1948.

Perspective of the Vietnamese Pieta statue at the St. Francis Peace Center, Jeju (Korea).

The Korea-Vietnam Peace Foundation announced the statue inauguration ceremony.Pieta Vietnam at the St. Francis Peace Center, Jeju (South Korea) took place on the afternoon of April 26. The event coincided with Vietnam's 42nd anniversary of the end of the war and national reunification.

The Vietnamese Pieta statue depicts a woman holding her baby, meant to comfort the souls of mothers and newborn babies who died in the massacres of Korean soldiers fighting in Vietnam.

Pieta Vietnam has Vietnamese nameThe Last LullabyIn Italian, "pieta" means sadness, sorrow. The statue was co-created by sculptors Kim Seo Kyung and Kim Eun Sung, with the message of sincere apology and repentance to the Vietnamese people..

Jeju Island is the largest island in South Korea, located in the southwest, 73 km wide, 41 km long, with a population of over 600,000 people. It is also the only autonomous island province in South Korea, 120 km from the mainland, about 50 minutes flight from Seoul.

On April 3, 1948, the South Korean government sent troops to Jeju and committed a massacre considered one of the four largest massacres in the world. 130 villages were burned, 12,000 people were officially listed in the memorial. However, Jeju people said the death toll was up to 30,000 victims.

Chairman of the Korea-Vietnam Peace Foundation, Mr. Kang U Il, said the foundation built a memorial space with the hope that this place would become a place where Jeju's sadness would be shared with Pieta Vietnam, with the mother who is embracing the seeds of life and peace.

"When Vietnam says 'close the past, look to the future', that does not mean forgetting or covering up the past.We have experienced the reality that historical truth is not something that can be avoided or ignored," he said.Kang U Il said.

Next to the statuePieta Vietnam, Korea-Vietnam Peace Foundationwill erect a bronze plaque engraved with the call for peace of poet Ko Un and poet Thanh Thao, who visited Jeju Island and wrote several works about the sadness of the massacres on the island and supported the Apologize to Vietnam movement.

A memorial service for the victims of the massacres and a press conference took place during the inauguration of the Sorry Vietnam statue.

According to VNE