What’s the point of feeling angry about what happened? You just have to make sure we never see that kind of world again-that this [Jeju 4.3 tragedy and the hardships that befell three generations of family members] never happens again. “For my grandchildren, [please help ensure] that there is no record stating that their grandmother has a criminal history and spent time in prison.” “The path we have traveled to this point has been a tremendously perilous and difficult [one]. What the 18 of us want is to be acquitted [and to receive an official apology].”

The Joint South Korea and United States Jeju 4.3 Task Force on Social Healing Through Justice, proposed here, focuses on potential next steps in view of the strong sense of many that 4.3 reconciliation is "unfinished business." It proposes a creative yet practical way for the United States, South Korea and Jeju people to engage in collaborative 4.3 social healing. Together as Part of the proposed Joint Task Force, they might more fully implement past recommendations and chart and oversee next steps toward comprehensive and enduring social healing “by doing justice." ’This proposal is based on the National Committee’s now-translated Report and the insights of scholars and the work of many of you here, along with others deeply interested in social justice. Those of us not from Jeju, or South Korea, who appreciate your invitation to participate, humbly and respectfully offer this proposal for your consideration with justice in mind.

Healing for the Jeju 4.3 survivors and families progressed significantly after the work of the 2000 National 4.3 Committee and the 2005 Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Acting on these investigatory organizations’ recommendations and the expressed desires of the Jeju people, the Korean government began a healing process that included a presidential apology, a government-sponsored museum and an extensive public memorial and gravesite for known victims—albeit without individual reparations. American and Korean scholars also point to the United States’ partial responsibility for Jeju 4.3 and its lack of participation in redress efforts. Acknowledgment of the United States’ historical role in Jeju 4.3 by the Korean and U.S. governments today may be one of the crucial next steps toward genuine reparatory justice for the Jeju people and for Korean society. It may also bolster U.S. legitimacy globally as a democracy actually (and not just professedly) committed to humanrights.The United States grounds its global moral authority as a democracy in its stated commitment to human rights. But a genuine commitment entails acknowledging and actively repairing the damage caused by its participation in human rights atrocities—even decades ago. Its legitimacy as a democracy depends upon doing so—and after two damaging wars the United States needs to bolster its moral authority internationally. If America under President Obama, with its security pivot toward Asia, is to reclaim full legitimacy as a democracy committed to human rights, if there is to be complete social healing for the Jeju 4.3 survivors and families and for the Korean government and people—if the “han,” the deep sense of suffering from injustice, is to be lightened—then the United States needs to mutually and actively engage in the reconciliation process. The time is now.