Hello. Is that Changdong Elementary School?
Right. I’m a volunteer worker and I work as a visitor guide on Saturdays. Thank you for visiting the Seodaemun Prison History Hall. The hall was built in 1907.

With just five days before Korea’s Independence Day, this place is crowded with tourists. From the late period of the Korean Empire to the 1980s, the Seodaemun Prison History Hall served as a prison for many independence and anti-Japanese activists. It has many vestiges of Korea’s painful modern history.

This place is where more than 400 independence fighters died for their nation and some 40,000 patriots served their sentences. Let’s go visit it in time for Korea’s Independence Day, which is marked in August.

To reach the hall, take the subway line number 3, get off at Doknimmun Station, and take exit 5. You’ll see a green park. That’s Doknimmun Park, or Independence Gate Park. A stroll in the park to the boisterous sounds of cicadas and the happy voices of children playing here will take you to an old red stone fence that looks somewhat awkward against the modern surrounding.

If you walk 50 meters more, you’ll see the Seodaemun Prison History Hall. Currently, it looks quite hectic because it’s under renovation. Here’s the hall’s director, Mr. Park Kyung-mok.

We are replacing all exhibits in the hall and restoring the dining section and convenience facilities. Next year we will restore a gym where prisoners exercised and will open it to the public. We will also restore the basement section where independence fighter Yoo Kwan-soon died. The section will be renovated into an exhibition hall dedicated to female independence fighters. Part of the fence has disappeared. We will extend the fence to restore the circular shape of the prison.

The hall was built in October 1908, two years before Japan annexed Korea, and was originally named Gyeongseong Prison. The purpose of the prison was to incarcerate Korean patriots. Measuring 1,584 square meters, the prison was big enough for 500 inmates. It was much larger than the nation’s other eight prisons, whose combined capacity was just 300 inmates. Since 1912, the prison had been renamed many times, with its former names including the Seodaemun Penitentiary, the Seodaemun Prison, the Seoul Prison and the Seoul Detention Center. After the Seoul Detention Center was relocated to Gyeonggi Province in 1987, this place was named the Seodaemun Prison History Hall. Currently, the hall is under renovation to mark the centennial anniversary of Korea’s annexation to Japan.

The Seodaemun Prison History Hall is where national patriots who resisted Japanese rule were imprisoned. During Japanese colonization, many Korea’s independence fighters were jailed and died here. After Korea’s liberation, many pro-democracy fighters were imprisoned in this place. But even after more than a century, it remains a symbol of national independence and democracy. It has numerous vestiges of Korea’s painful modern history.

The red fence on both sides of the main gate used to be 4.5 meters high and more than 1,160 meters long. But now only 79 meters at the front and 208 meters at the back are left. Only two out of the prison’s six watchtowers have been preserved in their original state. The front-gate watchtower was built in 1923, while the one at the back was constructed in 1930. The first level of the front-gate watchtower now serves as a ticket office. The second level has eight surveillance windows. A visit to the Seodaemun Prison History Hall begins with its front gate.

Do you see this picture here? What is that?　It’s a kitchen. Look here. That’s the front view of the Gyeongseong Prison.

Next to the exhibition hall, which is currently under restoration, there are photos showing the painful history of the Seodaemun Penitentiary. A tour to this place begins with Jail No. 12. When the Seoul Detention Center was relocated to Gyeonggi Province in 1987, there were 15 jails here, but only seven of them have been preserved because of their historic significance. Of those, three jails and an execution ground were designated as historic relics.

Jail No. 12 is dark and gloomy even during the day because the sunlight is blocked. The T-shaped jail is divided into three sections. Prison rooms are lined up on both sides of the hall. In the hall you can see imprisonment records, dishes and handcuffs that were used in the prison. Of those, a wood container catches the eye first. Here’s Mr. Park Kyung-mok again.

Back then, verdicts for independence fighters depended on the degree of their independence activities. Inmates who were jailed for high-degree independence activities received less food. Meal portions were classified into nine grades. Inmates who were regarded to be hostile received meals of grade one. It was 1.5 kilograms less than grade 10. Food was scooped into cans with wooden plates marked with numbers from 1 to 10. Their thickness differed according to the grade. The thickest plates were used for grade 1, so that less food could be scooped. The thinnest plates were used to distribute meals of grade 10.

That probably explains why many prisoners died of malnutrition back then. Through the wire mesh on the ceiling of the hall you can see the upper floor.

It’s very narrow. Please stand in a line and follow me.

On the left side of the hall you’ll see tiny individual rooms clustered together.

There is no sunlight in individual rooms. Inmates used cans as their toilets. This is where prisoners sentenced to life and those sentenced to death were kept. They were even banned from working. That’s why religion was essential for them. They were banned from seeing the sky and light. It was the harshest punishment.

All windows here are blocked with wood so that inmates couldn’t see light whatsoever. Each room measures about three square meters in size.

Step in. I’ll close the door. This is where your meals will be placed. There are three locks. It’s very tiny and stifling.

Jail No. 11 showcases torturing scenes portrayed with wax figures.

In the torturing room, inmates were tortured with electricity and leather whips. Do you know what that scene shows? The person torturing the hands of handcuffed women is pinning their nails. He’s pinning them with a bamboo stick.

The torturing scenes look so vivid that it’s heartbreaking to look at them. And they’re everywhere. Three wooden caskets standing in the hall were also used in tortures.

Do you know what this is? It looks like a coffin where dead people are buried, but back then they were used to torture inmates. Prisoners were locked in these coffins and had to do everything standing – sleep, eat and urinate. After two or three days, the entire body was paralyzed and those tortured developed serious illnesses.

It’s too narrow. I was in there for just one minute but my whole body is already drenched in sweat. It’s very stifling. I’d go crazy if I had to spend just one day in there. It’s astonishing that prisoners were kept there for days.

Scores of Korean patriots and pro-democracy fighters were imprisoned and died here, including Sohn Byung-hee, Han Yong-woon, Kwon Dong-jin, Kim Koo and Ahn Chang-ho. Their names are inscribed on a memorial stone behind Jail No. 11.

People whose names are written on this memorial stone either died or served long sentences in this prison. Let’s pay homage to them.

An execution ground located 60 meters from the memorial stone is a wooden structure that was built by the Japanese in 1923. This is where patriots from all over Korea were executed. A tall tree is growing at the entrance of the execution ground.

That’s the famous “weeping tree.” It’s more than 80 years old. It’s called a “weeping tree” because death-row inmates embraced the tree and cried before their execution.

The execution ground is surrounded by a five-meter-high red fence. Inside, there’s a chair where prisoners were seated before their execution and a thick rope hanging from the ceiling. A long bench where attendants sat during executions has been preserved to this day. Behind the execution ground, there’s a secret passage way that was used to transport the bodies of executed inmates to a cemetery. Here’s curator Park Hee-ja.

Through this passage way inmates’ bodies were taken out. Back then, it was completely open. There was a cemetery and a mountain behind it. The Japanese closed the passage to conceal their atrocities, but 40 meters of the passage were opened again in 1992 when the Independence Gate Park was built during President Roh Tae-woo’s rule. Inmates’ bodies were transported from the prison secretly.

Under a double-roofed pavilion next to the front gate, there is an underground prison called “Yoo Kwan-soon’s Cave.”

Patriot Yoo Kwan-soon was relocated to Gongju in April 1919 and was sentenced to seven years in prison for treason. There are four prisons now. But nobody knows in which one of them she died. This place was buried after her death. The room in which she was incarcerated was just 148 centimeters long, whereas her height was nearly 170 centimeters, which means that she was never able to stretch her body and died from torture and malnourishment.

The Japanese built the underground prison in 1916 in order to torture female inmates. In 1934, it was buried during renovation but was found again in 1993 during the construction of the park. The underground prison measures 190 square meters and consists of four individual rooms, each measuring less than a meter on each side. Patriot Yoo Kwan-soon was brutally tortured every time she shouted independence slogans. She died in this prison in October 1920.

The Seodaemun Prison History Hall is where numerous anti-Japanese activists were imprisoned during Japanese colonization and where pro-democracy and national reunification fighters were incarcerated after Korea’s liberation. Even after so many years, it continues to remind us of their immeasurable sacrifice for the happiness of their nation.

Woman: After touring this place, I feel solemn. I am proud of our patriots. We must think of them more deep in our hearts.
Man: It was very vivid. The torturing room and individual rooms have been preserved well. It was heartbreaking to see them. I realized the importance of teaching our children about history and patriotism.