"Vehicle for Mowing the Graves of Independence Activists"... Photo Thought to Show a Descendant's Pride Turns Out to Be

[Financial News] The banner vehicle that attracted attention after being described as belonging to a descendant of an independence activist on the way to tend to an ancestral grave has been confirmed to be a vehicle used by a civic group to mow graves on behalf of others.
According to the automotive community Bobaedream on the 7th, a photo was posted on the 5th of a vehicle with a large banner on its rear window reading, "Vehicle for mowing the graves of independence activists Baek Eung-seon and Kim Si-suk." The name of the organization "Jeju Heungsadan" was written at the bottom of the banner.
User A posted the photo under the title "Vehicle heading to the countryside to mow graves," writing, "They must have been so proud to hang a banner and go to their hometown to mow the graves. Let's put banners on the cars of the descendants of collaborators and national traitors, too."
The two people whose names appear on the banner were independence activists who worked on Jeju Island. Independence activist Baek Eung-seon was one of the 14 leaders of the March 1 Independence Movement centered in Jocheon-ri, Jeju, in March 1919. He was later arrested by the Japanese authorities and imprisoned. After his release, he suffered from the aftereffects and died six months later at the age of 25.
Independence activist Kim Si-suk is known as a leading figure in Jeju's women's independence movement. She opened night schools and led the women's movement. She later moved to Osaka, Japan, where she organized the Association for the Protection of Female Workers in Japan and continued her labor activism before dying at the age of 54.
The post spread across various online communities. Most users responded with comments such as, "They must be so proud. I wish I could mow the graves for them," "It's certainly something to be proud of. If it were me, I would have made the sign even bigger," and "Let's at least exempt them from highway tolls." They understood the car owner to be a descendant of an independence activist publicizing the ancestor's history.
However, the banner was not put up by a descendant. It was confirmed that it had been put up by Jeju Heungsadan, a civic group that visits the graves of independence activists from Jeju and continues to mow them on behalf of bereaved families who have difficulty managing them themselves.
Some users speculated that "the organization is doing it because there are no descendants." Comments such as "They have no descendants? They must have suffered so much" followed, but this too turned out to be untrue.
Baek Eung-seon's granddaughter lives on the mainland, making it difficult for her to manage his grave in Jeju herself. A distant relative had been managing Kim Si-suk's grave, but when that became difficult, Jeju Heungsadan took over in 2021.
Jeju Heungsadan has been managing the graves of independence activists whose descendants have difficulty caring for them since 2009, for 18 years.


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