10 years since the Sewol ferry disaster in South Korea: The meaning behind the ”yellow ribbon”

On the 16th of this month, it was 10 years since the passenger ship "Sewol" sank off the coast of Jindo in southwestern South Korea, leaving 304 students on a school trip dead or missing.
Memorial events were held all over South Korea. The bereaved families who attended the ceremonies wore yellow jumpers. After the accident, the "yellow ribbon campaign" spread in South Korea, and ribbons are still worn on the streets today.
The Sewol ferry crashed into the sea off the coast of Gwangmae Island in Jindo County on the morning of April 16, 2014.
The ship capsized and sank in the ocean. The ship was heading from Incheon Port in Incheon City near Seoul to Jeju Island in the south, and many high school students on a school trip were on board.
299 people, including high school students, died, and five are still missing. The accident was criticized for the poor response of the shipping company and the Maritime Police after the incident.
The government's initial response was also criticized, which led to the government's collapse. At the time of the accident, the captain and crew escaped without rescuing the passengers, and passengers who followed the announcements on board to wait were killed.
The shipping company's executives and the patrol boat's former captain were found guilty, but the then-director general of the Japan Coast Guard and other senior officials of the agency, who were charged with professional negligence resulting in death and injury, were found not guilty in November last year.
The 16th of this month marked the 10th anniversary of the accident. Families and citizens across South Korea offered condolences to the victims.
A memorial service was also held in Ansan, where the 4.16 Memorial Service is located. According to Yonhap News, about 3,500 people, including bereaved families and citizens, attended the ceremony. The 4.16 Foundation, which works to ensure that the accident is not forgotten,
Kim Gwang-jun, chairman of the Korea Women's Fund, said, "Ten years was a perfect time to make new changes based on the lessons learned from the Sewol ferry disaster, but unfortunately, our society has wasted those ten years.
"It seems that they sent it," he said. After the accident, calls for social safety grew in South Korea, but as Kim pointed out, building a safe society is insufficient. In October 2022,
A stampede occurred in the downtown area of Itaewon, killing more than 150 people. The inadequacy of safety measures taken by the police and local government, as well as the response to the accident, became an issue.
Following the Sewol ferry disaster, South Koreans are taking to social media in hopes of passengers returning home as the search for the missing continues.
The "yellow ribbon campaign" spread, with people changing their profile pictures to yellow ribbons or tying ribbons to their bags.
The yellow ribbon was originally used in the United States to pray for a safe return from the battlefield.
The yellow ribbon has become a symbol of the Sewol ferry disaster, and bereaved families attended the ceremony on the 16th wearing yellow jumpers.
On the 16th, the Korean newspaper Hankyoreh published an article with the headline "Children who believe in the power of memory: 'Why we wear Sewol ferry ribbons'". The article continued, "Ribbons are still worn on the streets.
"There are people who are wearing them," the paper said, citing voices from children in Ansan, Gyeonggi Province, where the high school attended by the student who was killed in the accident during a school trip is located.
A second-year high school student who has been wearing a yellow ribbon on her bag since her graduation told the paper, "If you wear a ribbon, people will never forget, and if many people remember together, it will be easier to remember what happened.
"I wear the ribbon because I think that will never happen again," the paper said in an editorial dated the 16th, "The Sewol ferry accident has revealed the true face of Korean society, which prioritizes profit over safety. However,
Unlike citizens who are facing the tragedy with remorse and self-reflection, the government seems to just want the Sewol ferry disaster to be forgotten."