The bereaved families of Cheju massacres(1947-1954) and civil society have constantly demanded that the state establish incomplete transitional justice in Jeju, South Korea. Significant progress has been made in establishing transitional justice in South Korea to heal the victims of the Cheju Massacres, but there has been no progress in engagement or discussion between the US government and society in this regard. A book, “Healing the Persisting Wounds of Historical Investment : United States, South Korea and the Jeju 4·3 Tragedy” that compiles the full discussion of theoretical and practical framework, social healing through justice proposed by Eric K. Yamamoto for the recovery of the damage caused by the massacres of civilians has been published and is attracting attention.

In South Korea, social healing through justice of Cheju2 massacres(1947-1954) has progressed considerably since 2000. However, after the March 1, 1947, the US military and US federal governments are still silent about the Cheju massacres and are ignoring the fact-finding demands raised in South Korea. I think that the US Army Military Government in Korea, which occupied and ruled South Korea at the time, branded Cheju Islanders as communists and played a great role in the indiscriminate slaughtering without legitimate legal procedures without distinguishing civilians from guerrillas. The United States committed Commie-cide on Cheju-Do.

In January 2019, the Jeju District Court handed down a ruling to reject the indictment from all 18 survivors who were sentenced to prison terms in 1948 and 1949 at military court meetings in Jeju. For the past 71 years, Jeju Islanders have campaigned for transitional justice in that time to find the truth about the Jeju massacres(1947-1954). The most important and urgent task in solving the Jeju massacres issue is to set the right for truth and transitional justice before seeking reconciliation and co-prosperity each other. The ruling, which was made by the Jeju District Court in fact not guilty of surviving inmates of the military court in 1948 and 1949, carries the historical significance of returning to the pivot to human rights.

The seed of the grand tragedy, the Cheju Massacres (1947-1954) were crawling about to pop. Is it the path of unification and peace? Is it the road to division or war? Koreans were wandering in front of a forked road. The date of April 5, 1948, after the very day of Cheju April 3rd, 1948 Popular Uprising, the Commander of the United States Army Command in Korea, General Hodge issued a decree on human rights.” However, the U.S. military did not abide by any decree on human rights in the three years of US occupation in South Korea. The U.S. Army military officers who had been sent to Cheju from the main land, South Korea in the date of March 1st, 1947, to order, command, control and communicate the uncompromising hard-line anticommunist operation continued until the Cheju people were considered enemies and were destroyed in accordance with the Field Manual of US Army. So they did not distinguish civilians from guerrillas, and did not distinguish the armed forces of the guerillas from the unarmed refugees, innocent ordinary people. It was only a plan and implementation of a super hard-line suppression operation. It is the biggest reason that the U.S. military should be responsible for the Cheju massacres.