Gyeonggi-do will hold the 11th Seongam Academy Memorial Cultural Festival in Ansan on the 3rd of next month.

Gyeonggi Province announced on the 28th that it will hold the '11th Seongam Academy Memorial Cultural Festival' at the Ansan Gyeonggi Creative Campus on the 3rd of next month.

The memorial cultural festival will be attended by about 300 people, including the Seongam Academy victims, their bereaved families, and residents, and will be held in the following order: a historical and cultural tour of the old road of Seongam Academy, a memorial service for the victims of the Seongam Academy incident, and an ensemble and pungmul performance by the victims of the incident.

The memorial service held at the Gyeonggi Creative Campus Arts Park honors the souls of the victims through Confucian-style rituals and requiem dance performances.

Gyeonggi Province has been holding a cultural festival every year since 2016 to commemorate the victims of the Seongam Academy incident and to publicize the history of human rights violations that occurred at Seongam Academy.

Seongam Academy was established in 1942 during the Japanese colonial period at 101-19 Seongam-ro, Danwon-gu, Ansan-si, and was operated until 1982. At that time, children and adolescents aged 8 to 18 were forcibly imprisoned and their human rights were trampled through labor, assault, abuse, and torture.

Jurisdiction was transferred to Gyeonggi Province in 1946 and human rights violations continued until it was closed in 1982. During this process, many of the natives died from beatings and malnutrition, and many of the 834 people who attempted to escape from the island lost their lives by falling into the sea.

On the 90,000㎡ former Seongam Academy site near the Gyeonggi Creative Campus, 11 buildings that were used as children's lodgings, official residences, cattle sheds, and salt farm warehouses remain.