National Cemetery No Better Than Holiday Resort

On the Memorial Day, June 6, about 20 to 30 visitors, laying mats on the ground, shared soju, a kind of Korean traditional spirit, on the lawn garden of the Peace House of the National Cemetery, eating prepared foods as side dish.

Such preposterous scenes were easily visible around the garden; some visitors even brought parasols along with them, creating an atmosphere as if they had gone on a picnic. At the lawn garden between each graveyard, empty bottles of Soju were scattered about, which seemed to have been thrown away on previous days.

In addition, various sorts of street vendors such as photographers, balloon sellers, and hunger appeaser sellers overtly touted the cemetery visitors, even entering into the graveyards. They were the merchantmen who had parked their cars in the parking lot of the cemetery several days before because the cemetery regulated the entry of vehicle on the Memorial Day.

Among the visitors, there were many people wearing sunglasses and red clothes that did not fit in with the devout atmosphere of the cemetery.

It has been a long time since the National Cemetery, which was established to commemorate the spirits of fallen patriots, lost its meaning as a sacred ground because of the imprudent behaviors of some visitors and soliciting merchants.

Another nuisance is garbage poured out by the visitors.

This year, a total of 140,000 people visited the National Cemetery on both June 5 and 6; twenty trucks in 2.5 tons class were mobilized to deal with fifty tons of garbage.

“I have no idea why so many empty bottles of liquor are included in each garbage bag,” said a 63-years-old street cleaner, Cho.

Based on these reasons, most of the visitors and war veterans urged the government, attributing all the faults to the authorities concerned, to carry out proper management of the National Cemetery that is well matched with its official name.

“Compared with the Hero Graveyard of North Korea and the Yasukuni Shrine of Japan, the National Cemetery is just a nominal sacred ground, insulting the innumerable fallen patriots and old veterans,” said 70-year-old Kim Young-soo, who participated in the Korean War, protesting to the cemetery’s control office.

“I used to visit here to pay respects to my fallen colleagues, but have been confused whether people visit to worship or enjoy their weekend,” said 61-year-old Lee Kwang-pyoung, who participated in the Vietnam War.

“The control office should publicize the proper means of worshipping in earnest and strongly regulate the entry of merchants and visitors who carry liquor along with them or wear unsuitable clothes,” said 58-year-old citizen, Kim Jung-sik, adding “It is the time for the visitors to enhance their conscience as citizens.”

At the internet homepage of the National Cemetery, articles asserting that “Please maintain the dignity of the National Cemetery that represents the nation as sacred ground,” have been posted.

As for this, the control office disclosed that “it is hard to regulate merchants because 34,000 people poured into the cemetery between 8 to 10 a.m. on the Memorial Day, and control over liquor entry is also difficult to carry out because it is regarded as a custom associated with visiting a place of worship.” It also appealed that “a 4.5 million pyoung large cemetery cannot be sufficiently covered with manpower of a mere 70 people.” On the other hand, the office has given notice that as of 3 p.m. on June 6, 87,000 people have visited the cemetery. This number is a decrease from last year’s 96,000 and 2002’s 108,000.