This blog post examines the grief caused by the death of a loved one and the social issues it reveals. We explore together the impact of the pain of loss on both individuals and society.
The death of someone causes others to feel sorrow. Particularly, the loss of a close relative or friend can be a significant shock, and the thought of such a thing happening to a family member leaves behind a sorrow too painful to even imagine. That sorrow is so intense that simply watching a friend at the bedside of a dying loved one can bring tears to someone’s eyes. We all grieve the death of someone close to us, perhaps because those who have departed were once integral to our sense of self. If the ‘I’ that existed with them was a round disc, their departure means a piece of that disc is gone, leaving me incomplete. And the larger the piece they occupied, the greater the void and pain within us.
While this pain is common, we sometimes grieve for the deaths of those who never occupied a piece of us. For instance, witnessing the death of a child or adolescent, like a flower that withered before it could fully bloom, evokes such feelings. Their lives held immense potential from the start, unfolding with limitless promise. These young lives would have nurtured their own dreams and hopes, designing their futures. The future they envisioned inspired even adults anew, and their purity and passion often reminded us of life’s essence. When these lives are brutally cut short, we mourn the loss of that potential and simultaneously feel that a part of the future has vanished. Their deaths strike a deeper shock to those around them than the passing of an elderly person who lived a full life and departed peacefully, evoking sorrow even in strangers. Whether the life laid out before these young souls promised comfort and peace or a continuous path of thorns, the very act of sustaining life is a blessing and the essence of being human. That is why we cannot help but ache at the sight of young students who never even got to begin.
Long ago, the Sewol Ferry disaster in Korea delivered a tremendous shock to the nation at the time of the accident. The death toll of over 300 was horrific, but the fact that a significant number of the victims were high school students on a trip doubled the shock. Naturally, the entire nation was plunged into grief, and I too felt profoundly sorry for them. Waves of memorials spread everywhere, yellow ribbons appeared in many places, and for a while, entertainment programs disappeared from broadcasts. This was entirely natural given the circumstances, yet even these collective actions couldn’t fully ease the nation’s grief.
The Sewol Ferry disaster carried significance far beyond a mere accident. As it became clear that the absence of a social safety net, the irresponsibility of the government and related agencies, and structural corruption had caused this tragedy, the incident became an opportunity to expose the raw reality of our society. Reflecting on the circumstances at the time of the accident, one is struck anew by how many people failed to fulfill their roles and how many lives were sacrificed as a result. What makes this even more heartbreaking is that these problems were not merely structural; at their core lay selfishness and irresponsibility.
Yet, inexplicable events followed. From the immediate aftermath to the present, instead of resolving the various issues surrounding the accident, new problems have continuously surfaced. The initial news reports were shocking. Immediately after the maritime accident was reported, it was fortunately announced that all passengers had been rescued. But before people could even breathe a sigh of relief, the report was corrected. Ultimately, the accident resulted in a catastrophe, and trust in the media that made the reporting error plummeted. Problems also arose during the rescue process after the accident. The captain and several crew members abandoned ship and fled, forgetting their duty to rescue passengers once the vessel capsized. The Coast Guard and Navy, who should have been deployed for rescue quickly, for some reason merely watched the ship sink for hours. Furthermore, it was revealed that Cheonghaejin Marine, the owner of the Sewol ferry, had illegally modified and operated the vessel. Suspicions of collusion between the Coast Guard and salvage company A also surfaced. The more efforts were made to resolve the accident, the more hidden scandals came to light – it was a total mess.
At the time of the accident, I was at an age where I thought I understood the ways of the world. I knew our society was far from clean, and that unforeseen events frequently occurred. Yet, witnessing the cascade of revelations triggered by this single accident left me frustrated, and beyond that, I found them pathetic. The violent clash between riot police and protesters at a recent Sewol memorial service was enough to make those already disillusioned by the incident cynical. Each time such incidents recur, we are forced to confront how vulnerable our society is, and we must also acknowledge that this vulnerability is something we ourselves have created.
The Sewol Ferry disaster was undeniably a tragedy for young students, plunging us all into grief. Yet this situation further became an opportunity to reveal the true face of Korean society. And beneath that raw face lay a sorrow as profound as the Sewol ferry disaster itself. That sorrow likely stemmed from the guilt and bitterness of adults who failed not only to protect young students but also to genuinely embrace their heartbreaking deaths. This tragedy demanded deep reflection not merely on societal issues, but on human dignity and the value of life. Through the Sewol Ferry incident, we were compelled to reconsider not just safety, but respect for life and social responsibility. We earnestly hope our society will mature beyond this pain, reaching a day when we no longer feel this shameful sorrow. And for that day to come, we must continuously reflect on ourselves and persist in our efforts to improve.
