What is the value, impact and meaning of Jeju 4·3 survivors giving their oral histories and witness testimonies in public venues? These community forums and international conferences are opportunities for Jeju 4·3 survivors to bear witness to previously untold lived experiences and memories during the seven-year bloodbath, known as the Jeju 4·3 Events. Many narratives and stories are revelations of closeted memories, hidden traumas, and unreconciled historical pasts. The audience-listeners who can empathize and identify with speakers’ depictions in bearing witness to the inhuman can become co-witness bearers and coowners of the trauma experiences. Audience-listeners can join the witness-speaker as a fellow traveler in the difficult journey into witnessing, and as a comrade in the struggle to transcend persistent traumas, and society’s ongoing domination and dehumanization.

Abstract
Introduction
What Is Bearing Witness?
Objective Eye-Witness versus SubjectiveBearing Witness
Audience-Listeners as Co-Witness Bearers
Witnessing and Identity Transformation
Conclusions
References

• Tamashiro Roy(Webster University)