From a prison to the palace gates

Mom, Pop and Gram, I apologize for not being in any pictures for this post. I am still alive and here's a picture of me enjoying spring on campus.

Pop, I assume this long hair with flowers look is what you looked like at Cal in the 60s.

I was in an adventuring mood this past Sunday and I needed to catch up on one too many weekends spent sleeping late and being a lazy bum. So I decided to fix this by being a marginally more productive bum and waking up at noon for a full afternoon of adventuring. This was a big step for me, alright?

Being a total history freak, I decided to go to Seodaemun Prison. Seodaemun was a prison constructed by the Japanese to house and torture political prisoners. Your textbook prisoners were kept there, students advocating resistance, rebels, conspirators. It was an oppressive colonial prison. After WWII, the dictatorship continued to use the prison to detain democratization movement leaders. Technically, it was in use from 1908-1987. Yikes.

I checked on the Seoul tourism website and saw that there was an English tour at 2PM, so I hurried to the subway to get there on time. The commute was super easy, one transfer and the prison was half a block away from the subway station. I got there, happily paid my $1.50 admission and walked to the main building.   It was 1:58PM. Perfect.

Map of the prison. It will help you follow where I am.

 As I walked inside I was given a map and the lady behind the desk said "Hello" with a bright smile. I said "English tour at 2?" She replied with a horrifically confused look and big old nope. Sigh. Solo run it was. The main floor gave an overview of the prison as a whole, primarily the architecture and origins of the original prison. It had some signed documents from collaborators, blueprints, some original wood from the guard tower, and a to scale model.

Doc had time to paint this one AND build it to scale

It turns out quite a bit of the prison was torn down and no longer stands. Also, a some of the buildings were dismantled and reconstructed. Considering the two wars fought on the peninsula in the 40s and 50s, not to mention the cover-up that is involved with any political prison after a regime change, much of the prison was damaged or destroyed. However, the museum as it stands is pretty true to what things looked like back when the prison was still operating.

I then went upstairs in the main building. There they had an exhibit on all the people who were imprisoned there. They had newspaper clippings from newspapers regarding raids and resistance attacks, even one from the LA times when a US government official was injured during the assassination attempt on the Japanese person who was with him. It was funny seeing "LA Times" written in Hangul too.

I didn't take pictures of too many exhibits because it was poorly lit or behind glass, making for a lot of nice pictures of my reflection. However, I intentionally did not take picture of one room in the museum: the memorial room. It had a picture, mostly mugshots, of each and every inmate who died in the prison. No pictures here, it seemed disrespectful to the dead. Something about the faces of the dead, so many young people. Not appropriate. I also felt this room had a greater impact for Koreans as it personalized the sacrifice of their countrymen.

Then I went to the basement, which was labelled "Torture Exhibit." My interest was piqued. The first thing depicted was waterboarding. There was a guy suspended upside-down while the interrogator poured water over his face to simulate drowning. I guess it's called torture in Korea, but "Enhanced interrogation" in America. Then they had interrogation rooms, with adjacent holding cells so you could hear the beatings and screaming before you went in. Next was the room with the bamboo splinters, pliers, and hand restraints on a bloody table. I'll let you do the math on that one. Then there were cages, forced discomfort boxes ( too short to stand in, too narrow to sit in, too thin to shallow to lie down in) and some hoods. There was also an extremely graphic video where survivors talked about torture like genital mutilation, rape, and beatings so severe the english subtitles just stopped because the translation couldn't capture what he was saying. The guys hands were so mangled from beatings that his fingers were totally flat and folded over at disturbing angles. One said it would have been better to die than endure the pain. She than said that those who are not willing to endure such pain have no business leading an independence movement. Convictions are more important than life itself. That's dedication and patriotism right there.

I then walked to the main prison building where they went over what prisoners were given in terms of food, clothing, and bathroom facilities. It wasn't much. Forstbite was responsible for many lost fingers and toes, and clothing was produced by the prisoners in a labor building. Bathrooms were holes in the floor. Food was rice, beans and millet. Then I went to the cell block. It was two stories tall and the walls were lined with well, cells.

Cell Door

The cells were not for 1 person, they were usually for several. The solitary cells had no windows and not enough room to lie down. No beds, just the floor. The system for food was a mail slot located not on the door to prevent escape. Jail sucks.

Aside: There was a hipster couple wearing the same outfit and taking pictures in the grass between the buildings. They had the same sneakers, shirt, and body type. Pretty weird.

Then I went into the factory building. This prison was primarily used for making textiles. They made prison uniforms for all political prisons in Korea. Others made bricks (another one in Korea made the bricks for this prison), metal crafts, and war materiel. Slave labor is pretty cheap, and with an empire engaged in a major drawn out war, the Japanese Empire was in no position to leave any hands idle. The test to ensure that there was no smuggling was stripping naked and hopping over a wooden bar to prove that you were not hiding anything anywhere. Preserving dignity was not a priority for the Japanese.

After that I walked up to the house where prisoners with leprosy were housed. It was a small shack on a hill near a guard tower. It made for a pretty good photo spot and I got some shots of the prison buildings, prison yard and exercise facility.

The leper house

The two cell blocks

Factory (left) and two cell blocks (center and right) Hipster couple (Bottom Right) 

Exercise facility

At the bottom of the hill was the sculpture dedicated to those who died in the prison. The silver bowl had the names of all the people who died cut out of the pieces of metal. Simple and respectful.

Then the execution building. Photography was not permitted, but it was a wooden shack surrounded by high brick walls. Inside the shack were gallows and a hanging noose. Behind the shack was a tunnel for removing the corpses that was hidden for years under rubble and undergrowth. Again, this was where men and women died, so only this picture of the outer wall. This also made me wonder if the prison was haunted. People getting murdered, bodies clandestinely disposed of, it all sounds like a haunting scenario to me. Let's hope the dead found peace after their fight was won in '45.

The exercise building was next. It was about a quarter-circle, with individual lanes for each prisoner. The walls were there so they couldn't look at or talk to each other. Totally solitary. I guess this was incentive to get people to cooperate, as any time outside of that shithole must have been paradise.

Assorted pictures from the prison.

I have no idea who this is, but it was a cool mural

Rice pot for prison food

Hanging your flag on the enemy's prison, the ultimate "Fuck You!" 

I was done with the prison fairly quickly and left at about 3:15. I had no real desire to return to campus because homework is boring and I wanted to see more of the city. I remembered seeing pictures of some big gold Korean guy sitting on a throne and decided to call my Korean friend to ask where it was located. I called him up and asked, "Where's giant gold Korean Abe Lincoln?" He laughed, and told me what subway station it was. It was pretty close, so I hopped on the train and headed there. I got to the station and unluckily it was one of the REALLY big ones. I was looking at exit names and most had buildings as their closest destinations. I didn't care about city hall, didn't have time to do a whole other history museum, and didn't need to go to any embassies. Then the one labelled "The Joeson" caught my eye. I figured that was the guy's name, so I exited there. I was correct.

I walked up some stairs, and then a large ramp. There was some kind of market set up, and Gangnam Style was blaring. As I walked further up I noticed a large crowd and heard the distinct sound of rifle butts hitting the ground. Yet another drill team. Drilling to Gangnam Style. It was amazing. Unfortunately, the video will not load. But here are some pictures of the performance.

The brass band was also there playing their hearts out

I still have no idea what this rally was for, but I'm glad I even saw part of it.

Then I walked behind the band and took more photos of King Sejong.

See, giant gold Korean Abe Lincoln

 There was some neat stuff behind the king as well, like this artist

This guy was also sketching behind the statue

And the US Embassy

And to 60 more years!

I then noticed that there were doors that led beneath the statue of the king. The door said free admission, so I happily walked in. There was a set of stairs that took me to The Story of King Sejong, an exhibit about his life and achievements.

Sejong Story

The King

The Royal Lay-Z-Boy

Let me tell you, there's a reason this guy is immortalized in a big gold statue. He was responsible for overseeing a lot of scientific and cultural advances that made Korea what it is today. First, he helped develop and implement the Hangul alphabet. This let all Koreans, not just the aristocrats, become literate. He also helped make star maps centered around Korea instead of China, and reigned during the time that these cool instruments were invented. There was a virtual display where we could play the instruments, but there was a long line of kids and I didn't want to be that guy so to speak.

Its spine was played like a washboard

Bells

Ancient Korean Facemelter

Stone Chimes

He was a pretty well respected king because of what he did for the people in terms of being a wise and just ruler. My favorite part of the exhibit was when he helped poor dudes get married by making villages give the guy extra grain if he couldn't pay a bridal dowry with his own grain stocks. Even the king, with the most bitchin' palace in all the land, wanted to make sure all his subjects were happy, even the poorest farmers. Now that's loyalty. It's also kinda messed up to think that marriage was a business transaction back then. Then again, courting is still a lot like presenting worth. Peacocks have big vibrant tails, Decapodians have a head frill and a one legged mating call, and humans have expensive cars and fancy watches. Not having a drivers' license in high school is starting to explain a lot...

The Sejong exhibit led to the next exhibit, the story of Admiral Ackbar. I wish. No, this was...

It's a trap!

This guy was a famous Korean military leader, arguably the best (suck one, Kim Il-Sung), and he beat the shit out of the Japanese navy. He flunked out of officer training and was unjustly stripped of his rank, but his men loved him so much that the false conviction was overturned and he was back in the game to kick some ass on the high seas.

Who needs camo when you've got a beard like that?

He led the small Korean fleet of unique turtle ships against a much larger Japanese fleet and was responsible for one of the greatest naval upsets in history. He also used his command prowess to win many other naval battles. One of my favorite strategies was when he lured the Japanese out into a treacherous strait in order to fight them on his terms. He had cannon and archer support from nearby hills, and the Japanese ships were so confused they collided with each other. Clever guy.

Rowers (Above) and gunners (Below) on a Turtle Ship

Colorful naval flag

Regular, flaming, and explosive arrows. 

If you have to ask what these are, you need glasses

The Admiral's exhibit was really cool, he was a brilliant leader and well respected by his men. My love of military history was very satisfied by this exhibit, and I especially liked the kids section. There were oars so you could practice rowing, a raise the sails game, and a "take a picture inside a naval helmet" computer. Unfortunately, I'm considered an adult by many people, so I didn't do anything. I just watched as this one kid went nuts on the rowing machine, a kid dropped the sail to the floor, and a mom tried to hold a toddler up to the camera because she was too short. I can't wait to do fun stuff like this with my kids after they're done with the whole "I can't speak, but I'm really good at shitting my pants!" phase of life. Speech is learned, and pants shitting is a skill you never really lose. You just learn to use it responsibly.

After the Admiral's exhibit, it was back to the surface to investigate further. I really don't know how I missed this giant gate. I guess it was busy hiding behind this giant lantern.

I will do the palace soon, I have a lot of assignments and tests kinda kicking me in the dick right now.