History/Culture Tour & Lecture: Seodaemun Prison
Tue 28 Feb
|Seodaemun Prison History Hall
The American Women's Club has opened this guided tour of the Seodaemun Prison to BASS members. Guided by History Professor Leighanne Yuh, you will learn about the colonial period and why this period in time continues to negatively influence Korea-Japan foreign relations.
Time & Location
28 Feb 2023, 10:00 – 11:00
Seodaemun Prison History Hall, 251 Tongil-ro, Seodaemun-gu, Seoul, South Korea
About the event
Korea was a colony of Japan from 1910 to 1945 and Seodaemun Prison acted as the main incarceration facility imprisoning many Korean independence activists, male and female. The prison expanded during the colonial era to eventually accommodate about 3000 prisoners. Even after liberation from colonial rule in 1945, the facility continued to be used as a prison until 1987 and pro-democracy activists involved in the 1960 April Revolution and who later opposed military dictatorships were also imprisoned here. This tour will provide a balanced historical explanation of the colonial period, how the colonial experience has become politicized, and why this continues to negatively influence Korea-Japan foreign relations. The tour is extremely timely given that it will take place one day before the March First national holiday, commemorating the first nation-wide Korean independence demonstration that took place in 1919.
Tour fee: 10,000 KRW + 3000 KRW admission fee
Duration: approximately 1 hour