History of Buan-gun, Jeollabuk-do from prehistoric times to the modern period
Prehistory and Ancient History
Buan has been inhabited by human beings since prehistoric times due to its geographical features, mountains, seas, and wide open fields, providing a favorable natural environment for human habitation. A fragment of a Paleolithic stone tool discovered at the historic earthen wall of Pangok-ri, Dongjin-myeon shows, for example, that the area around Dongjingang River had already formed traces of Paleolithic human culture. Also in the county are a number of Bronze Age sites, including the shell mounds in Mapo-ri of Byeonsan-myeon, Sinbok-ri of Boan-myeon, and Gyehwa-myeon as well as the Gyeokha Shell Mound and dolmens, 29 of the Southern Type, and 51 of the Capstone-only Type. The Bronze Age sites in Buan also include the Songgungni-type dwelling sites in Haipseok-ri of Boan-myeon, Sin-ri of Julpo-myeon, and Yeok-ri of Haengan-myeon. The archaeological sites in Buan include the remains of the dwellings dating back to the small political entities formed in the 2nd and 3rd centuries discovered in Bugok-ri of Boan-myeon, Jangdong-ri and Sin-ri of Julpo-myeon, and Baeksanseong fortification site in Yonggye-ri of Baeksan-myeon and ditch-enclosed tomb sites in Bugok-ri and Haipseok-ri of Boan-myeon, Jangdong-ri, Daedong-ri and Sin-ri of Julpo-myeon, all dating back to the 3rd century when the area was under the control of Mahan. The archaeological sites together with historical records show that Buan had—since the 3rd century BCE—been part of Jibanguk, one of many small tribal states that formed Mahan, but eventually succumbed to Baekje (18 BCE – 660) as the kingdom advanced to the south in the 4th century. The Buan Jungmakdong Site (Historic Site No. 541) in Gyeokpo-ri of Byeonsan-myeon shows that the area of Buan had become Baekje’s main gateway for cultural exchange with China. Buan, then called Juryuseong, had also been the hub of the Baekje Restoration Movement and the capital of the Restored Baekje.
Goryeo Dynasty
Buan in the Goryeo Period (918-1392) consisted of two prefectures: Buryeong-hyeon and Boan-hyeon. The former occupied the northern part of present-day Buan, including Buan-eup, Dongjin-myeon, Gyehwa-myeon, Haengan-myeon, Haseo-myeon, northeast of Sangseo-myeon and Jusan-myeon, and the latter, the southern part of present-day Buan, Boan-myeon, Julpo-myeon, Jinseo-myeon, Byeonsan-myeon, and southwest of Sangseo-myeon. The natural beauty around Buan was praised by many men of letters in the Goryeo period. Yi Gyu-bo (1168-1241), for example, wrote that Buan was comparable to Samsinsan, or Mountain of Three Deities, in the middle of the East Sea as recorded in The Book of Han (Hanshu, 111 CE). He also wrote a poem wherein Buan was described as a storage of fine-quality timbers: “Byeonsan had been called Heavenly Treasury since the ancient times, / I will find here fine timbers to use as beams of my house. ” In the poem, the word Heavenly Treasury (cheonbu) refers to a God-blessed fertile land that yields all kinds of agricultural products. What made Buan more special than other prefectures in Goryeo was that it was one of the dynasty’s two centers of celadon ware production, the other being present-day Gangjin, Jeollanam-do. The Goryeo celadon ware produced in Buan was favored by Goryeo royals, aristocrats, wealthy officials, and Buddhist temples. Archaeologists found at some of the kiln sites of Goryeo shards of celadon ware, including those of large plum vases (maebyeong) decorated with dragon motif, which symbolized the king, suggesting that the kilns were used to bake high-quality celadon ware used by the royal household of Goryeo. The discovery of artifacts directly connected with the daily life of Goryeo rulers and aristocrats shows that Buan had been in the most significant position in the history of Goryeo celadon ware.
Joseon Dynasty
The two prefectures of Goryeo, Buryeong-hyeon and Boan-hyeon were incorporated with each other in the 12th month of 1414, after the foundation of Joseon (1392-1910), to become Buan-hyeon. According to Collected Chronicles and Maps (Yeojidoseo, 1757), the prefecture (hyeon) consisted of 17 subprefectures (myeon), Dongdo-myeon, Sangdong-myeon, Yeomso-myeon, Seodo-myeon, Haseo-myeon, Usannae-myeon, Sangseo-myeon, Namsang-myeon, Namha-myeon, Hadong-myeon, Sosan-myeon, Ipsang-myeon, Ipha-myeon, Geonseon-myeon, Jwasannae-myeon, Ido-myeon, and Ildo-myeon while the number later increased to 18, with Yongyeon-myeon newly added, according to Total Number of Households (Hoguchongsu, 1789). A record of the postal relay network of Joseon shows that Buan at the time was under the jurisdiction of Aenggok-do (present-day Eungyo-ri, Iseo-myeon, Wanju-gun). According to the Newly Enlarged Geographical Survey of the Eastern State (Sinjeung Donggukyeoji Seungnam, 1530), in Buan during the early Joseon period were three guesthouses run by the government: Dongjinwon, Susewon, and Geumseorwon. The area also had, as recorded in Geographical Appendix to the Veritable Records of King Sejong (Sejong Sillok Jiriji, 1454), four beacon stations in Wolgori, Jeombangsan, Gyehwado, and Wido. Records in the Jiriji also show that the population of Buan in the early Joseon period was 1,662 in 323 households, or 5.1 per household. In Yeojidoseo, the figures were 33,876 in 6,625 households, and women far outnumbered men (19,277 women and 14,599 men). In Hoguchongsu, Buan was home to a population of 38, 448 people in 7,923 households (19,090 men and 19,358 women) with each household consisting of 4.85 people on average. The latter figures show a more balanced gender ratio. As for the special local products of Buan in the early Joseon period, records in Donggukyeoji list croaker, cuttlefish, herring, pine mushroom, ramie, pottery, and deer. The list in Yeojidoseo, which represented those of late Joseon, is almost the same except for the fact that insam (or ginseng), pine mushroom, and pottery were dropped from the list. According to the record in Jiriji, Buan in the early Joseon period had about 7,140 gyeol (i.e., hectares) of arable land, more than half of which was occupied by paddy fields. Dry field farming was also productive with the main products including, in addition to the "five grains” (rice, barley, millet, bean, and broomcorn millet), hemp, ramie, and mulberry. The ratio of rice cultivation soared during the late Joseon period as shown by the figures in Yeojidoseo according to which the dry field was about 1,533 hectares (1,533 gyeol, 1 bu, and 4 sok) in area, whereas the paddy field was about 3,014 hectares (3,014 gyeol, 84 bu and 1 sok), making the ratio between the two types of farming lands almost 1 to 2. For Buan in the Joseon period, fishery was the second most important sector of economy after agriculture thanks to the vast fertile tidelands and seas under its control. The main fishery products in Buan during the Joseon period included shark, corvina, herring, sweetfish, skate, white herring, anchovy, carp, gray mullet, beltfish, shrimp, crab, clam, oyster, laver, and brown seaweed. In the seas off Wido Island were two fishing weirs used for catching herring. According to a government record made in the fourth month of 1511, herring was so abundant in the seas around Wido that the landless farmers in the island built stone weirs in tidal waters in as many as 15 points to catch herring for their livelihood, each yielding a haul twice that of other fish traps. Farmers of Joseon in the 17th and 18th centuries suffered severe natural disasters that affected their life and work, often leading to famines that were often the most serious social problems. As Buan was one of the most blessed areas in Joseon in terms of natural resources, Byeonsan in Buan had been turned into the last safe haven as many people suffering from hunger and famine wandered around searching for food, and they were often described as “bandits." Byeonsan attracted wandering beggars and outlaws running from the police force from all across Korea during the late Joseon with its wide open fields and gentle hills providing farming fields, rivers, and shallow seas rich with fishing grounds as well as rugged mountainous terrain that had ample hiding places that could effectively deter the chase of the police force. Buan later came to be connected with the historic Donghak movement as detailed in the Diary of Hongjae (Honjae Ilgi), according to which a 10,000-strong Donghak peasant army led by Kim Nak-cheol entered the walled town of Buan on the 4th day of the 4th month in 1894. The diary contains a detailed record of the process of the peasant revolution, flight of the prefectural governor of Buan from his office, and eventual occupation of the town by the peasant revolution army. The author, Gi Haeng-hyeon, wrote that he did not know how to describe the moment when the fortified town of Buan was captured and added, “Fires covered the sky, and shooting sounds shook heaven and earth.”
Japanese Occupation Era
The reform of the administrative divisions of Korea by the Japanese colonial government in April 1914 reduced the number of sub-prefectures (myeon) constituting Buan from 19 to 10, which were then further divided into 91 smaller units (li). According to Basic Information of Buan-gun (Buangun Gunse Ilban) published at the time, the county (gun) had a population of about 86,000 in about 17,000 households. It had Japanese residential quarters in Buryeong-myeon, Julpo-myeon and Baeksan-myeon where the newly settled Japanese inhabitants were largely government officials and merchants. The ports in Julpo-myeon and Baeksan-myeon were used for shipping rice produced in Buan to Japan according to the Japanese colonial policy to exploit Korean resources. A great majority of the inhabitants of Buan in the 1930s were engaged in arable farming and livestock farming (76%), while there were also people engaged in commerce and transportation (4%). As for the figures regarding land ownership, landlords in Buan constituted 1% and landed farmers accounted for 2%; 14% of the farming community farmed their own land but also rented the land owned by another to make ends meet, and 83% were pure tenant farmers. As for the industrial sector, the county had 20 rice mills, 14 breweries, and 1 malt factory, resulting in production worth KRW 2,292,053, KRW 88,560, and KRW 10,900 respectively. Julpo-myeon of Buan-gun at the time functioned as a hub of the Japanese colonial exploitation of the Korean Peninsula through which the products of the Honam area were shipped to Japan and, accordingly, had a police station, a rice mill, the branch office of Chosen Industrial Bank, the Agricultural Products Inspection Center, and the Fishermen’s Cooperative Association; its port was busy with several hundred commercial and fishing vessels frequenting it. The Buan Guesthouse run by the Joseon dynasty was demolished in 1926, and its site occupied by the building of the Buan-gun Office; the site of the Buan-gun administrator's residence was occupied by a Japanese Shinto shrine. In front of the police station, there had been Gwanya Clinic (later Bongnae Clinic); on the public library site beside the police station were a high-end Japanese restaurant named Mirumoya and a saloon named Mori. Around the site was a rickshaw station together with a post office. In the streets of Bonjeongtong (or Honmachi-dori in Japanese) in downtown Buan were a number of Japanese shops including Yoshioka Store and Sohwa (or Showa in Japanese) Cinema at the end of the Nammun ("South Gate") Street. No one knows exactly how many men and women of Buan were drafted against their will by the Japanese colonial authority to serve as Japanese soldiers or labor force during the Japanese occupation period. According to the investigation conducted by the Buan-gun Office in 2012 to publicize The List of the Pacific War Victims in Buan, the list contained a total of 1,335, including military and civilian personnel, factory workers, and women's volunteer corps. Among them, those drafted as factory mine workers were the largest in number followed by civilian personnel and soldiers.
Before and After the Independence from the Japan Occupation
As the Pacific War intensified, the Japanese colonial authority ruling Korea stationed one regiment of the Gwandong (or Kwantung) Army along the coast of Buan in 1943 in preparation for defending the area against a possible US landing. The Gwandong Army built their camp at Buan Elementary School, used the cemetery of the Sin Family in Buan as grazing land for their horses, and stationed one of its battalions around Gomso. They also dug trenches around Byeonsan, which they regarded as strategic points that might be targets of the US landing, and conducted defensive exercises. On August 15, 1945, the Japanese soldiers stationed in Buan were gathered at the long corridor of Buan Elementary School with grim, spiritless faces. They lined up in four rows with a radio at the center, listened carefully to the announcement broadcast from the radio, and dropped their heads. The following day, the Japanese flag was lowered from the flagpole standing at the school ground and village elders congratulated themselves, saying “War's gone.” Despite the fall of Japan and the Korean liberation, the Japanese imperial police in Buan was still active with armed policemen patrolling the downtown streets under the pretext of the safety of Japanese citizens remaining in town. The native Korean inhabitants had no choice but to look at the Japanese policemen still swaggering around the streets of their hometown because they had no deterrent power to disarm them. That is probably why there had been little or no damage to the Japanese community in Buan even after the Korean liberation. With the liberation, children in Buan began to be educated on Korean language and history. Because they had been taught that their national language was Japanese, some felt awkward about learning Korean as their national language. It was after the completion of withdrawal of the Japanese imperial army from the area that Buan Elementary School was able to operate a new curriculum for the children.
Modern Times
On November 21, 1962, Buan-gun incorporated Wido-myeon, which had been under the jurisdiction of Yeonggwang-gun, Jeollanam-do. It was followed by the rise of Gomso and Gyeokpo Ports as the main seaports of the country, replacing Julpo Port that enjoyed prosperity in the earlier period. The latter continued to weaken in its function as a port due to the continued inflow and sedimentation of earth and sands before finally closing altogether between 1966 and 1967. In the 1970s, the Korean government started the development project for mountainous and coastal wastelands across the country to create farmlands. It was during this period that Buan, too, turned an expanse of hilly areas and tidelands into arable lands. Large-scale reclamation projects followed, continuing to make significant changes to the form of the Korean land. In Buan, a major reclamation project occurred around Gyehwado Island, resulting in the creation of a vast area of arable land. A large area amounting to a third of the total area of Buan-gun was designated as part of a national park in the 1980s. The completion of Dongjin Bridge in 1978 and Seohaean Expressway in 2001, which took ten years to complete, came to make a great contribution to relieving traffic congestion around Buan. The Buan Multipurpose Dam began to be built in February 1990, and it was completed in December 1996. A tragic incident occurred on the waters off Wido Island in Buan in the morning, about 10:10 on October 10, 1993, a Sunday. The Sinking of MV Seohae, as it is now known, took the lives of 292 people, shaking the entire Korean society. The cause of the incident was, among all others, lack of safety awareness among the Korean public. History repeats itself. Therefore, we should not forget the lessons from the past and prepare ourselves for the repetition of the tragedies of the past so that we can avoid it now and in the future. Finally, one of the most significant events taking place in the modern history of Buan was the internal strife among the inhabitants of Buan over the issue of having a radioactive waste disposal facility around their homes. The event started with the announcement made by the county mayor of Buan at that time at 09:30 on July 12, 2003 that he decided to accept the incentive given by the central government in return for accepting a radioactive waste disposal facility in Buan. The mayor's decision caused serious conflict between those who supported and those opposed with fierce rallies ensuing until the mayor withdrew his decision on September 16 of the following year. There were over 300 rallies taking place during this period, which ended with 45 imprisoned, 126 indicted without detention, 95 remitted to summary trials, and 126 arrested though not charged. A total of 241 rally participants and 214 policemen got injured in the process; in fact, over 50% of the local inhabitants had to suffer directly or indirectly in the period of the conflict. As an effort to remove the scars left by the conflict and assure the local community of Buan that they were bound together by a common destiny, a steering committee was established on December 4, 2018 with a plan to create a statue symbolizing peace of Buan. The committee started a fund-raising campaign to support the plan, finally raising KRW 80,212,130 from 82 groups and 1,381 individuals. The ceremony of erecting the statue, Peace of Buan, took place on April 13, 2019 at the small park in front of the Buan-gun Office.
