Halloween in South Korea has taken a tragic turn, transforming a day of spooky festivities and cherished memories into a night marred by a catastrophic incident.
During the Halloween weekend of October 2022, over 100,000 people descended on the vibrant streets of Itaewon, a famous nightlife district in Seoul. At the intersection of three steep alleys, hundreds of people began to fill up, blocking all three sides of the entryway. The pressing crowd pushed towards the center as the narrow alley became so tightly packed no one could move or breathe. No one had a way out, as the ticking seconds bore witness to the numerous individuals falling unconscious and dying.
In the end, the Itaewon tragedy ended with a total of 159 people killed and 196 injured in a devastating crowd crush at the heart of Seoul.
The following government investigation has left the Itaewon tragedy an unresolved case of finger-pointing at the wrong people. As the senior officials of the government refused to take responsibility for the loss and pain, the disaster quickly escalated into a political debate of who–what political party–should be to blame. Many online users still claim the young party-goers, both survivors and victims, are to blame as a consequence of their so-called irresponsible actions, while survivors recall the incident as revictimization. Yet there remain questions of what had happened during the hours of unanswered calls between the police and government, ill-prepared for the massive influx of people.
For the past year, the crowd crush has left thousands of people mourning for their loved ones. In December of 2022, merely two months after the Itaewon crowd crush, Lee Jae-Hyeon, a survivor who lost two of his best friends, took his own life, unable to fight against the guilt and the shame of online detractors.
Park Jin-Sung, another survivor who lost his sister to the tragedy, recalls the day he heard from the morgue of her death. “That was when the world collapsed on me,” he told BBC News. “Initially, I wasn’t able to leave the house. I was very scared at night. A tiny sound would paralyze me.”
For Seo Byong-Woo, the day he visited the wedding dress shop with his fiancée turned out to be a nightmare, as he was unable to save her to-be-wife from dying in front of his very eyes. “I came out alive, but I could not save her, although she was standing right next to me,” he told The New York Times.
For the survivors and victims, life has never been the same again.
Students and faculty at Chadwick share different perspectives on the tragedy.
Ms. Yu: Considering that tens of thousands of crowds amassed every Halloween and it was the first celebration after the heat of COVID-19, Itaewon should have been staffed with more public officials who could safeguard people from any accidents or issues that might have been. I think it wasn’t a matter of anyone’s fault but it was of the rising insensivities on public safety in Korea.
Harry Oh (11): I can still remember the night I saw news on TV with the death toll rising by the minute. People were lying on the streets and nobody knew what was happening. It was a tragic incident, and I hope it’ll never happen again.
David Kwon (11): I think it’s not a matter of pointing fingers at the people who attended the celebration and calling it their ‘fault.’ The public officials had to be prepared; even after, they could’ve done a better job resolving the issue and put out the fire immediately. I think that could have led to a better outcome for the victims and their families. I just hope it never happens again.
Zoe Kim (10): The Itaewon crowd crush is a tragedy we should remember and never repeat again. So many innocent young people and their families’ lives were deeply scarred.
Today, Itaewon streets are scattered with shops boarded up and bars that never reopened. With the Halloween festivities slowly returning, the student body of Chadwick International commemorates the tragedy with a moment of silence, remembering those who passed away during the tragedy.
