[The Editors' Verdict] Healing the Sorrow of the Sewol Ferry Disaster

"(Three days before the school trip) I received a text message. It said, ‘Mom, I absolutely will not go.’"

Dayoon expressed her intention not to participate just before the school trip departure. A high school trip happens only once in a lifetime. The mother wanted to give her daughter memories of her school days. This was the reason she tried to persuade her to join the trip.

In fact, there was another reason why Dayoon said that. Considering their difficult family circumstances, the 330,000 won cost for the school trip was a burden. Dayoon, who was still thought to be just a young girl, had grown enough to understand her family’s situation. Perhaps because of that warm heart, Dayoon’s school trip fee was paid by her aunt.

They thought the memory trip would be realized, but Dayoon ultimately could not set foot on the school trip destination. The Sewol ferry sank in the sea off Jindo on April 16, 2014. Dayoon, along with 325 students from Ansan Danwon High School, was on that ship.

The children, along with other adults, were left in a scene of chaos. In the boundary between life and death, they shared their final moments. The children left messages on their mothers’ cell phones. Even in fear and pain, they tried to convey their love. The records of their fading lives remain in the form of videos and messages left behind.

Eunmi Park, mother of Hadayun Heo, a student at Ansan Danwon High School.
[Photo by Asia Economy]

As the shock and chaos of the Sewol disaster swept across the nation, families headed to Paengmok Harbor. Clinging to a faint hope that their loved ones were still alive, they gathered there. Some were rescued with the help of rescue teams, but more returned as bodies. Paengmok Harbor echoed with cries of grief.

The mother waited for Dayoon with a heart torn apart. Days and nights passed, and even after the seasons changed, her daughter did not return to her arms. Before long, the government’s official search ended, and until the people at Paengmok Harbor disappeared, the mother waited there for her daughter. The world had already returned to normal life.

The mother endured the time of loneliness. After one year passed, then two more years, in May 2017, a partially recovered body (some teeth) was found on the third floor of the Sewol ferry. After identification, the owner was confirmed to be Dayoon, whom the mother had waited for so long. The mother was finally able to hold a proper funeral for her daughter three years after the Sewol tragedy. Dayoon’s story is one chapter in the sad history of the Sewol ferry.

That day, so many people parted from their families. There are still unrecovered victims who have not returned to their families. Those who barely survived suffer from trauma from that day. Some, unable to bear the weight of despair, chose to end their lives.

The sorrow continues. Tomorrow marks the 10th anniversary of the Sewol ferry disaster. When the Sewol ferry is mentioned, some say, "I’m tired of it, stop talking about it now." The stopping of grief is not something forced by others.

How about listening to what the Sewol families have tried to tell society over the past 10 years? It is the cry of Dayoon, who left for heaven first, and the Danwon High School children, asking for a world they truly wish for.

If the belief that the Sewol tragedy will never be repeated spreads throughout this land, wouldn’t the weight of sorrow that the bereaved families have borne alone gradually lessen? The grief related to social disasters does not disappear. It seeps into society based on the process of healing.