Over at Korea Expose there is a great article about a nondescript set of stairs near the US military’s Yongsan Garrison in Seoul that is actually a reminder of some interesting Japanese colonial history:
Haebongchan neighborhood with the 108 Stairs pictured on the right via VisitSeoul.net.
There’s a stairway on the outskirts of the hip Haebangchon area in Seoul — one that doesn’t really merit a second look. No impressive characteristics beyond its steepness, nothing spectacular in its surroundings. No chic bars, no hipster coffee shops. There’s no reason to remember, much less visit, it unless you’re a resident walking up and down the hilly area.
But the 108 Stairway, as the steps are called, is one of Haebangchon’s oldest residents. In existence since the colonial era, it saw the evolution of Yongsan, the district Haebangchon is in: Streams, woods and tigers in the early twentieth century, the tents and slums before the Korean War, the bombing and destruction, and eventually the clusters of red-bricked houses (and increasingly coffee shops) today.
Situated near the U.S military base, today’s Haebangchon boasts one of the most culturally diverse pool of residents in South Korea. But very few of them have actually used the 108 Stairs for its original purpose.
“My friends and I would rush up, panting, and skip two or three steps at a time,” says 82-year-old Seo Jang-hun. “At the top, there was this huge area, covered with gravel. And there was this temple, where adults threw coins into a box, clapped their hands three times, and prayed.” [Korea Expose via Gusts of Popular Feeling]
You can read the rest at the link, but the staircase once led to the Gyeongseong Hoguk Shrine that was built in 1943. Residents that lived in the neighborhood were forced by Japanese authorities to pray at the shrine for Japan’s war dead. After liberation in 1945 residents tore down the shrine and today the steps are all that remain. Soon even the steps may be removed to be replaced by an escalator.
This all poses the question of what Japanese colonial relics should be allowed to remain and what should be tore down?
