We started our vacation by traveling to Seoul. We took the noon train to Cheongnyangni Station and got there around 2ish. We immediately took the subway to Dongnimmun station. This was super convenient because it was only about 100 meters to our first stop, the Seodaemun Prison History Hall.
Seodaemun Prison built in the early 1900s by the Japanese during their rule of Korea (from the early 1900s to the end of WWII). We were led through the facilities by the cutest 11-year-old tour guide named Lee-Jin/Annie. I normally destest guided tours but we were strongly advised/forced by the administrators to take a guided tour with their English-speaking volunteers. Lee-Jin was very well versed in English (better than most of our students) and she did a good job of explaining many of the sites of the museum/prison.
There were dozens of rooms depicting Japanese guards punishing/torturing Korean prisoners.
Michael got to try out one of their coffin-sized punishment rooms.
We were led through the isolation chambers, interrogation rooms, and standard cells that held up to 30 prisoners at once. Lee-Jin was able to explain many of the interesting points of these rooms, but she did rush us through it. We were not able to see much in the main buildings.
She took us outside to view the labor building, the leper/contamination building, the execution rooom and the corpse exit tunnel. The end of the tour was a glance at the women's building. The rooms were tiny and the ceiling was only about 5 feet high! Lee-Jin explained that the famous patriot Yu Gwan-sun was nearly 6 feet tall so this imprisonment was torture for her.
That was the end of our tour. We didn't walk around the park that surrounds the prison because we were hungry, but the area was beautiful. I only wish I had taken more pictures!
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