“Crossroads.” Youtube.com, Asian Boss, 15 Apr. 2019, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mplzyDTpLA&t=902s.
The Sewol Ferry Disaster was the sinking of a South Korea ferry traveling from Incheon to Jeju on April 16, 2014. 476 people were aboard the ferry and 304 people died from the disaster, mostly students from Danwon High School. Most of the survivors were saved by local fishermen using their own boats to help get people out of the boat as they arrived at the scene 40 minutes before the coast guard arrived. Four crew members were charged for homicide while the other members of the crew were only charged for abandoning the ship. This video published by Asian Boss on Youtube is a short documentary produced by Neil P. George that talks about the disaster. The documentary shows what happened before, during, and after the sinking of the Sewol ferry, while also showing interviews from survivors and family members of those who died.
The sinking of the Sewol Ferry was one of the worst maritime disasters in history. This disaster is now embedded in the South Korean psyche, especially of the hundreds of people affected by it. A big part of Han is that this is a shared emotion. It isn’t just the emotion of one or two people, it is an emotion shared amongst the majority of the Korean people. Han focuses on the shared sorrow and hatred that Korean people have towards events that affect them, and the Sewol Ferry fits into this. A lot of the Korean people share the sorrow of losing so many children on the ferry, and they share a hatred toward the crew members and the Korean government. The ferry’s crew members abandoned the ship, leaving the people on board for dead. Also, they suspect the Korean government delayed help to the ferry, leaving the rescuing to locals with boats. No matter if this is true or not, there is a shared hatred amongst the people involved toward those who they blame for their children’s deaths, while also feeling immense amounts of sorrow for losing their children to what was going to be a wonderful field trip.