Volunteers anonymously tidy up Itaewon memorial as mourning continues

A drawing of a jack-o'-lantern in a funerary frame is placed along with white flowers at a memorial site by Itaewon Station in Seoul, Thursday. Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul

By Lee Hae-rin

• Published Nov 13, 2022 4:20 PM KST
• Updated Nov 14, 2022 3:20 PM KST

In tragedy-hit Itaewon, volunteers go 'anonymous' as cleanup upsets some mourners

By Lee Hae-rin

As mourning continues over the Oct. 29 Itaewon crowd crush tragedy, over a dozen volunteers are quietly tending to a memorial site at exit 1 of Itaewon Station, which continues to expand as people are still visiting to pay their respects to the 157 who perished during the Halloween celebrations.

Volunteer work is typically something that commands praise. But those who have been helping maintain the makeshift memorial site sometimes face a situation where their good intentions are called into question, with some even accusing them of committing acts of disrespect to the deceased.

Mourners have been posting sticky notes all around the subway station exit, as well as leaving flowers and a wide range of foodstuffs, many of which are perishable including peeled fruit, pastries and flavored milk. It is a Korean funerary custom to prepare a ceremonial table for the deceased displaying offerings intended to comfort and feed the departed souls. The memorial site, which was set up around exit 1 of the station two weeks ago, has been expanding as mourners continue to add more items, and it now covers approximately 20 meters of sidewalk from the station to the entrance to the alley where the disaster took place.

With the goal of keeping the site in good shape, these volunteers have had their work cut out for them. They remove food, flowers and drinks in open containers that expire, while putting back handwritten letters that fall off so that they won't be stepped on by passersby. Their work, however, has upset some mourners as they believe all objects placed there are part of the memorial ritual and should not be touched or removed.

To avoid conflict, anonymous volunteers keep a low profile by going there either early in the morning or late at night when few people are around, so their work will not attract undue attention or be misunderstood. They quietly remove dried flowers and rotting foodstuffs, sweep up fallen leaves and wipe down the ceremonial table prepared by mourners and bereaved families.

A middle-aged man who wished to remain anonymous met with this reporter at the memorial site throughout the week and shared what he witnessed as a volunteer.

He runs a travel agency in a neighboring district but put his main job aside to tend to the memorial. Although he did not personally know any of the victims, he said he feels a responsibility akin to a parent worried about their children's whereabouts that night. After leaving a white flower of condolence at Itaewon Station two weeks ago, he has continued to visit.

“It simply started with putting fallen flowers back up as they had been placed,” he said while placing fallen sticky notes on a piece of cardboard. Tidying up around the memorial site, he saw the unusual presence of foreign media and became worried that the place could be seen as disorderly and be presented to overseas media consumers as a mess.

He is one of over a dozen such volunteers. They are not in an organized group and refuse to exchange any personal information with each other ― apart from who will show up at what time to tidy up the memorial site. They gather fallen letters and place them on cardboard posters, while buying boxes of sticky notes for visitors to leave more words of respect.

Early in the mornings, they have found pigeons eating the foodstuffs left by mourners and began luring them away by offering other foods. Upon Saturday's rain forecast, they called upon the Yongsan District Office for help and covered up the memorial site with giant plastic sheets to protect it from heavy rain. The job took almost seven hours, the man said.

On Saturday evening, the city saw a heavy downpour of over 48 millimeters. The memorial space remains dry as of Sunday morning, thanks to the plastic covers secured by packing tape and sandbags. The district officials and volunteers were careful when setting up the protective cover not to damage the site.

While the anonymous volunteers tend to the memorial, the grieving at the site continues. The memorial has seen ceaseless visits by mourners of all nationalities, ages and religions.

At a corner of the memorial site, Ven. Bul-il from the southern town of Buyeo in South Chungcheong Province has been holding “sasipgujae,” a Buddhist mourning period lasting 49 days, during which monks pray for the deceased souls to move on and console the bereaved families. The Buddhist monk held 100 days of prayer for the young victims of the 2014 Sewol ferry disaster in 2016 when the ship was brought to land at Paengmok Harbor on Jindo in South Jeolla Province.

“We pray for the poor young souls who became victims in the disaster and their bereaved families,” the monk told The Korea Times at the memorial site, Wednesday, adding that he wishes the event would not be exploited for political aims. “We also pray for the whole nation to heal from the tragedy.”

Volunteers testified that bereaved families have started visiting the site recently. “Some friends and siblings have come, too. A young student who said he is a bereaved classmate broke down and wept for over 90 minutes,” the middle-aged volunteer said.

Some mourners who support the volunteers' job to maintain the memorial space offer them drinks and words of encouragement. Others, on the other hand, question whether they “have any political intentions” or “get (financial) support from some organizations.”

“I try not to care about what people say. I even refuse to read news reports or any letters posted here, because it's so heartbreaking. I just wish for this place to remain in good shape and for the victims to be remembered,” he said.

The Gangnam public restroom murder, where a man stabbed a random 22-year-old woman to death, drew a similar crowd of condolences in May 2016 around Gangnam Station. The death of a technician from a subway accident while on duty that month also led to public grieving. The notes of mourning that had been in place for weeks around the site of the incident were archived by the Seoul Metropolitan Government and Seoul Citizens Hall in their memory.

A memorial to a Seoul Metro female employee, who was murdered in September by a former colleague who had been stalking her, has been in place at Sindang Station for two months. Seoul Metro plans to discuss with the bereaved family the future of the memorial site.

On Tuesday, Prime Minister Han Duck-soo said at the National Assembly that the future of the Itaewon memorial site has not been determined but “needs to be discussed” if bereaved families or related organizations wish. Yongsan District Office said it plans to decide on a timeline for its removal and archiving after allocating the job to one of its departments.

“I don't know how long this (mourning) will go on, but I plan to stay until its last day,” the anonymous volunteer said.