I’d visited the Seodaemun Prison twice, first was when my mother visited us in 2005 and last year a few days after my son’s birthday. Last Saturday, March 1, was a holiday commemorating the “March 1st Movement“. People troooped to Seodaemun Prison to pay respects to their ancestors who fought the Japanese regime in the early 20th century.
There’s a small museum at Seodaemun Prison that houses pictures and documents of the movement. In the basement are small rooms with exhibits on how prisoners were treated and tortured during that time. It is forbidden to take pictures there. The prison was originally built and used by the Japanese during their occupation of Korea. However, it was also used by the Korean government until the late 1980s.
At the back of the complex, there is a small wooden building which was used for execution. Have you seen the Korean television drama “Sandglass”? It was where Tae Soo was executed. If you look at the pictures I took of the building’s interior, you might notice some “circles” floating around. They aren’t supernatural orbs. OK?
Wow, what a surreal place… From the outside it actually looks beautiful and quiet, but from the inside, that quiet becomes morbid.
Amazing stuff… Shame you don’t believe in ghosts, cause that’s totally one you took a picture of! =P j/k