The Nation Wept
Where the authorities should have been, there were hidden heroes. They sacrificed themselves, reminding us about hope and courage, even amidst our tears
“Aren’t you going to put on a life jacket?”
“The crew is the last to go. I’ll get out after all of you are safe.”
22 year old crew member Park Ji-young was responsible for the ferry announcements. She remained until the very end on the ferry, saving others first. While the captain and officers had abandoned ship, she was the one who stayed with the passengers and shared their fate. She reportedly went to get life jackets on the 4th floor and handed them to the students on the 3rd, and tried to save as many lives as possible, even making announcements as the water rapidly rose.
The Sewol’s purser, Yang Dae-hong (45), went missing after receiving a call from his wife and telling her, “I must go save the kids. Can’t talk long. I’m hanging up.” He talked to his wife as the ship was sinking and told her to use the money he had saved for their children’s tuition. He lost his life while saving the lives of others.
Crew member Jeong Hyun-seon and Kim Ki-woong, who had been in charge of the fireworks event, were planning to get married. Both 28 years old, they went back to the tilting ship to save others and lost their lives together.
Danwon High School teachers Choi Hye-jeong (24) and Nam Yoon-cheol (35) also lost their lives while saving students as the ship was rapidly sinking. It’s not as if there is an instruction manual for teachers in case of emergency. It was the instinct of a true teacher to think of the safety of the students first in the moment of danger. Nam, who could have easily escaped first, handed out life jackets to students while instructing them to quickly jump into the sea. The surviving students recall that the last time they saw him was when he headed back towards the cabins.
Another teacher, Lee Hae-bong (32), who used to tell the students an amusing interpretation of his name meaning “the ultimate king of the sea”, saved about ten students before disappearing into the sea with the ferry. His students wept, asking why the king of the sea would not appear before them.
and Yellow Ribbons
In Ansan, numerous memos and yellow ribbons adorn the city.
One of the notable memorial places is the small supermarket “Samil Mart” in Weolpi-dong. On that first day, the store front was firmly shut, with a notice attached to the steel door. “Please look after our Seung-muk of Danwon High School.” The media picked up the story, and the memos increased day by day as people expressed their concern and prayers for the safe return of Seung-muk’s and the Danwon High School students.
One of his friend’s memo laments the lack of change in the text conversations they had. “You get scared easily, you’re afraid of the dark. We just had naengmyeon a few days ago. This truly doesn’t feel real. Please, you told me not to cry and it’s not cool if you make me cry.”
The students from the elementary school across the street from Samil Mart are taking great care so that the memos remain intact and don’t go missing. The whole nation waited with hope for Seung-muk’s safe return. However, he did not come back alive.
The memos and yellow ribbons have spread across the nation. Endless clusters of memos and yellow ribbons for the lost and missing can be found in busy districts and around the many memorial altars. The messages in the memos and yellow ribbons are to mourn those whom we’ve lost, but also to give consolation and solace to those who are suffering from shock and pain.
In Ansan, on April 17th, 2014, fresh-faced students in school uniforms showed up one by one at Danwon High School surrounded in the dark. Some were from Danwon, others were not.
They came together at 8:30 pm in the dark school yard, and held a gathering to pray for the safe return of the Danwon High School students. Their heartfelt messages for their friends rang clear on the sheets of paper they held up: “You’re hungry, aren’t you?”, “Don’t lose hope”, “I miss you”, “Come back this week”, “Please come back safely, all of you”. They lit up their phones instead of candles.
A teacher from the school approached them. “Kids, you’re having a rough time, aren’t you?” The tears started flowing at the teacher’s words. People had been holding back and soon the sound of weeping could be heard throughout. Survivor’s guilt is yet another tragedy, and the teacher struggled to say, “True courage is never giving up. Let’s not give up. We’ll wait for our loved ones until the very end.”
The Thought in the Candlelights
At the beginning of this disaster, the candlelights meant “return safely”. But when the words accompanying the candles turned from “We will wait” into “Sorry for not protecting you”, the candlelights turned into a silent protest against the irresponsible and incompetent government.
We saw the young students lose their lives following the instructions to stay put while the ship was sinking; we saw the captain and crew abandon ship, leaving the passengers behind and saving their own selves in the coast guard boats; we saw the government flail about cluelessly without any sort of organization, not even entering the sunken ferry, wasting precious life-saving time and making do with a haphazard rescue mission; we, the citizens, saw all this and now we are angry. We cannot take this any longer and we are taking to the streets, with candlelights in hand.
The sinking has shocked the nation, and an extimated 1.1 million South Koreans had paid respects at approximately 131 memorial altars by May 11.
