Tag: cemeteries

To stop the spread of coronavirus many South Korean cemeteries have created virtual means for families to honor deceased relatives:

Over the five-day holiday, South Korea announced, all public cemeteries would close or operate in a strictly limited capacity with reservations. Such unease seemed as if from another time. So much so that the provincial office of North Gyeongsang province noted on its social media account that historical texts dating to the 16th century showed rites had been canceled at the time because of disease outbreaks including smallpox.

For Yi Jun-jae, 46, this Chuseok would have marked the first year holding rites for his father, who passed away in January.

He is the eldest son of the eldest son, which in South Korea’s patriarchal society gives him the responsibility to uphold traditions. Growing up, he was instilled with the importance of his roots, and the fact that he exists only because of previous generations.

Even so, when he saw that Goesan National Cemetery, where his father, Yi Kang-bup, is interred, would be closed to visits during the holiday, he thought his father would understand.

“The living shouldn’t spread the virus to remember the dead,” he said. “Ancestors are important, but given the circumstances, what’s in the heart is what matters.”

He signed up for a virtual remembrance, in which the national cemetery, where his father is buried because he fought in the Korean War, would lay a flower and pay their respects in his stead and email him photos. Yi was one of hundreds to log on to the cemetery’s website to experience a new, socially distanced ritual.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link

General Paik Sun-yup is arguably South Korea’s greatest Korean War hero and if he was to pass away in the near term he may not be allowed to be buried or even have his body removed from the Seoul National Cemetery:

It became known on May 26, 2020 that the Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs recently visited the hero of the Korean War, General Paik Sun-yup (백선엽) and said, “If the National Cemetery Act (국립묘지법) is revised, [we’re] worried that General Paik could be interred at the National Cemetery in Seoul, only to be pulled out.”  General Paik is 100 years old this year and his ability to move has been known to have degraded.  The Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs said, “I heard that General Baek’s health is not good, so we wanted to ask about his general health status,” but General Paik’s family said “Our family is considering even the most evil scenario.”

East Asia Research Center

You can read the rest at the link, but what is going on is that the newly elected National Assembly dominated by the Korean left, is trying to change the National Cemetery Act to remove the graves of “pro-Japan, anti-minjok [Korean] figures interred in the National Cemetery and install tombstones describing their pro-Japan activities.” This would effectively prevent him from being buried in the Seoul National Cemetery if passed. If General Paik was to pass away before this Act was changed he would face having his body removed from the cemetery.

If the Korean left hates General Paik so much for helping stop a North Korean invasion, establishing the Republic of Korea, and speaking out against communism over the years, then an offer should be made for him to be interred in the United Nations Memorial Cemetery in Busan. There I believe he would be properly recognized for his contributions during the Korean War and to the nation of South Korea.

I had the chance to talk to General Paik many years ago and got him to sign a copy of his book, From Pusan to Panmunjon.  He was fascinating to talk to because his great memory of events that occurred and people he met during the Korean War.  If you haven’t read his book I highly recommend reading it because of the ROK perspective it provides in regards to events during the Korean War.

President Moon Jae-in (R), alongside his wife Kim Jung-sook, visits his ancestors’ tombs at a Catholic graveyard in the southeastern city of Yangsan on Sept. 28, 2018, as he took the day off after returning from a trip to New York the previous day, in this photo released by the presidential office Cheong Wa Dae. In New York, he held talks with U.S. President Donald Trump and attended the U.N. General Assembly. (Yonhap)

Flowers are laid at the tombs of Chinese soldiers, killed in the 1950-53 Korean War, in the city of Paju, north of Seoul, on Sept. 12, 2017. China fought on the North Korean side in the war against South Korea aided by the United States-led Allied Forces. (Yonhap)

Considering that last year the North Korean government spent a lot of money renovating a Korean War cemetery honoring North Korean veterans of the Korean War; I would not be surprised if the Chinese leadership were unhappy that their cemetery did not receive the same treatment:

North Korea has begun renovation work on a cemetery in the North’s capital for Chinese soldiers who were killed during the 1950-53 Korean War, China’s state media reported Tuesday.

China’s ambassador to North Korea, Liu Hongcai, attended a ceremony in Pyongyang to celebrate the start of renovation work, the Chinese Communist Party mouthpiece, the People’s Daily, reported on its website. [Yonhap]

The Joong Ang Ilbo has now reported on the controversy surrounding the Yanghwajin Foreigner Cemetery in Seoul.  The article is a good read and provides a decent overview of the fight going on over the future of the cemetery:

Those visiting the cemetery’s 14,000 square meters likely appreciate the sacrifice of those early missionaries, but they may be unaware that a present day conflict is underway between two Protestant churches one foreign and one Korean over the right to manage the cemetery and affiliated properties.

The foreign congregation, Seoul Union Church, with 100 members, claims that its Korean neighbors in the 2,000-strong 100th Anniversary Memorial Church are trying to push it out of a chapel on the cemetery grounds, which the union church has occupied since 1986 and has shared with the memorial church since 2005.

Seoul Union, founded in 1885, was the first Protestant church in Korea and its congregation has included some of the most venerable foreign families in the country. Many of its former members are buried in the cemetery. It worries that a demand by the memorial church that it change its service time from 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. is a disguised attempt to displace it from the cemetery and the chapel. The deadline for the schedule change is Sunday, Aug. 5.

The situation has become so bitter that it seems headed for court. Both sides accuse the other of mismanaging the cemetery, while Seoul Union leaders say a long-standing agreement to leave the property under the effective control of the foreign church is being violated.
Union church member John Linton, a prominent Seoul doctor whose missionary family has been in Korea for more than a century, says the prospects for resolution are bleak. “We think this is a kind of war,” he said.

Yes war has been declared and it appears August 5th is when battle is going to commence:

Rev. Prince C. Oteng-Boateng, the current pastor of the union church, recently sent a letter to Korean church leaders asking for help. The pastor requested supporters to attend the morning service at union church on Aug. 5 and block any physical coercion by the Korean church.

“We believe that any attempt by the memorial church to disrupt or forcibly remove Seoul Union Church from its rightful home, and to obstruct our right of usage, will result in a public demonstration [against] its actions,” the pastor said in the letter.
“We are appealing to you and the entire Korean Christian community to pray with Seoul Union Church and to seek your direct intervention in defeating this persecution,” the pastor wrote.

The controversy over the Yanghwajin Foreigner Cemetery in Seoul has been covered in great detail before by guest blogger Robert Neff over at the Marmot’s Hole.  He was the first person to get the story out about why the Korean Memorial Church wanted to get rid of the foreigner composed Union Church; because they planned to disinter the bodies of foreigners in the cemetery:

In an interview with The Korea Herald, Kim Yong-nam, who identified himself as administrator to the Church and Yangwhajin, supported the claim that those who were unsuitable for the cemetery such as Koreans, a foreigner he described as an “Itaewon pool player,” and members of the U.S. military – who chose to be buried at the cemetery along with their families – would be removed at some time in the future.

Many of the graves that may be disinterred include members of the US military.  Robert Neff in a later posting at the Marmot’s Hole provided names of all the US military servicemen and their family members buried at Yanghwajin.  The list was forwarded to the US Embassy and USFK, but there has yet to be any feedback on what course of action if any US officials plan to do.  The list of servicemembers and their families buried at Yanghwajin is quite long, and it is sad to think these people, even death, are not free from discrimination of foreigners in Korea.

This is why the Union Church is fighting so hard to protect the cemetery from the Memorial Church and it appears this is headed for a final showdown on August 5th.

Family members of Korea’s most famous Christian missionary family, the Underwood family, are buried at Yanghwajin.  The members of the Memorial Church never caused any issues until Dr. Horace Grant Underwood III died in 2004.  It cannot be understated the amount of respect and influence a man like Horace Underwood III had in Korea.  It seems more than just a tad bit coincidental that this dispute over the fate of Yanghwajin began shortly after his death.

It would be interesting to hear what the Underwood family has to say about this matter, but the remaining members of the Underwood family left Korea for unspecified reasons shortly after the passing of Horace Underwood III.  The way things are looking now foreigners buried in the Yanghwajin Foreigner Cemetery maybe leaving for “unspecified reasons” as well.