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Location225, Guyeong 1-gil Buan-eup, Buan-gun, Jeollabuk-do
- CategoryCultural Heritage / Tangible Cultural Heritage
- Korean「평화의 소녀상」
- Chinese平和-少女像
- Nickname「부안 평화의 소녀상」|「부안 소녀상」
- FieldHistory / Modern
- Contents TypeArts / Arts and Crafts
- Current Location225, Guyeong 1-gil Buan-eup, Buan-gun, Jeollabuk-do
- Definition
- A bronze statue of a girl erected in Dongjung-ri of Buan-eup, Buan-gun, Jeollabuk-do Province in memory of the suffering of the Korean people during the Japanese colonial occupation of Korea.
- Summary
- This Statue of Peace was erected in front of the Buan-gun Office on April 13, 2019 to mark the 100th anniversary of the establishment of the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea. The project was organized and carried out by the Statue of Peace Steering Committee of Buan and funded by donations (80 million) from about 1,000 individuals and 83 groups over a period of 131 days. It was the first time in the history of Buan that the inhabitants of the county pooled their resources of their own accord to build a monument by which to remember the dark period of Japanese colonial rule. The Statue of Peace is expected to remain a valuable source of history education for future generations, particularly with regard to the suffering of the Korean people under the brutal Japanese colonial rule in the early twentieth century.
- Forms
- The Statue of Peace consists of a bronze statue of a girl placed on a rectangular granite pedestal, with sculpted from a block of granite rising behind her. The statue measures 60㎝ in width, 80㎝ in length, and 161㎝ in height, and weighs 200㎏, while the pedestal measures 200㎝ x 150㎝ x 20㎝, and weighs 2,300㎏, and the background structure measures 180㎝ in width, 16㎝ in length, 120㎝ in height, and weighs 300㎏.
- Content
- On October 24, 2018, leading members of a local civic organization, Buan Iyagi (or Buan Story), had a meeting with representatives of the local newspaper, Buan Dongnip Sinmun, and agreed to set up the Statue of Peace. The agreement was welcomed by the local communities of Buan-gun, resulting in the establishment and first general meeting of the Statue of Peace Steering Committee of Buan at the Buan Farmers Center on December 4 of the same year. The committee elected their co-chairpersons and other board members, presented a report about the background to and progress of the Statue of Peace project, and established the rules of the association. The project was officially announced on December 21, initiating the fund-raising activities. The committee appointed the artist Sin Seok-min to create the statue.
- Upright Statue of Peace
- The movement to raise money for the Statue of Peace project was publicized by running an advertising campaign in the Buan Dongnip Sinmun. The movement attracted much attention and participation from the ordinary citizens of Buan, raising \80 million from 1,387 individuals and 83 groups. There were also numerous recommendations regarding the location of the statue, including Water Street (Muruigeori), Maechang Park, Buan-gun Office, Kookmin Bank, Hi Mart Sageori, and Sigyetap Samgeori. The recommendations were carefully reviewed by a panel of experts who finally selected a public space located in front of the Buan-gun Office, near the historic road that served as a departure point from which local youths were gathered and sent to distant warfronts, mines and factories by the Japanese colonialists in the early twentieth century. It was on April 13, 2019, some 131 days after the launch of the project steering committee, that the Statue of Peace was finally set up at the designated spot amid a celebration by the county residents.
- Heritage of the Statue of Peace Project
- The Statue of Peace project was Buan-gun’s first case monumental sculpture to be built under a civilian initiative and donated to the country administration. While the Statue of Peace shows a girl, she does not represent the hardships of Korean women but those of all Korean people who were forced by Imperial Japan to do hard labor or sacrifice their lives on distant battlefields. The statue is expected to become a symbol for the determination of the Korean people to overcome the evil legacy left by Japanese colonial rule and to fight hard to protect their country against foreign enemies, thus writing a new chapter in the county’s history. It was decided that the statue and its location would be taken care of by the Buan-gun Council of Women’s Organizations and Eoraromi, a student club of Buan Girls’ High School which recently launched the “Memories and Determination – Butterfly Project”. The Statue of Peace Project Steering Committee published a white book on the project under the title, You Will Remain with Us for Good, on November 1, 2019, and decided to disband on May 20, 2020.
- Characteristics
- This particular Statue of Peace shows a girl with long hair, unlike most other Statues of Peace which feature a girl with short hair. The long hair represents the girl in a state of innocence before her hair was cut by the enemy. She is also barefooted, symbolizing her hopeless situation in a country that has lost its sovereignty and where no one can protect her. Despite this situation, her image appears to be more independent and future–oriented. The mountain peaks standing behind her represent Byeonsan Mountain.
- Historical Significance
- The Statue of Peace in Buan was built with money raised through voluntary donations from the citizens of Buan who wanted to show their determination to overcome the legacy of Japanese colonial rule . The spirit that led the residents of Buan to get together and set up the statue represents the determination of the citizens of Buan to overcome the legacy left from the Japanese colonial rule. What they regard is important regarding the statue is not the act of building the statue but that of learning from the spirit and transmitting what we learn from it to future generations. The statue is named peace, because peace is a universal value shared by the entire human community. That is why the fact that women’s organizations and high school students in Buan decided to take care of the statue adds more value to the significance of the statue.
- See Also