Seodaemun Prison Analysis

In addition to Hong Kong being a place of torture, we will examine the Seodaemun Prison in Seoul, Korea that takes punishment and panoptics to another level. During the time of Japanese occupation in Korea, the prison was built to hold Korean patriots/resistance fighters. The main type of punishment that was dealt out to the anti-Japanese fighters was torture in a way that would make you cringe if you were in their position. Regarding panopticism, they completely copied and used the panopticon in a closed courtyard to watch over the prisoners and used televisions for surveillance and even torture. We will start with the narrative on the prisoners held here

The only disturbing difference between Seodaemun Prison and Kilmainham, is that Seodaemun Prison Museum has a room full of inmate photographs covering the entire room. The importance for this room is that when you look at a picture, you know that these prisoners either disappeared or were tortured. Now looking at the architecture of the prison, we once again have a panopticon that was used by guards to optimize surveillance over the prisoners. “The radial plan borrowed heavily from Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832) and his panopticon, an architectural design aimed at maximizing surveillance. It’s architecture combines geometry (circular design) with economics (few guards watching many prisoners) while also embracing a sense of morality by imitating Christian ideas of omniscience so as to promote personal reform” (Welch 2015 pg. 103). The panopticon described by Bentham was adopted by the Japanese Imperials to control the Korean opposition and to use tactics such as the panopticon for surveillance. One other feature of the panopticon is that there is concrete on each side so the prisoners can only see themselves (people in their cell) and the guards on the tower in the center of the

For example, “Inside many prison museums (Alcatraz,, Argentina, and Hong Kong), staff uniforms from different historical periods are displayed giving tourists a “walk through time” from which they are able to recognize themes of progress and professionalism” (Welch 2015 pg. 38-39). The professionalism in prisons helps the theme of panopticism because while the guards are dressed uniformly, it creates an authoritative figure similar to that of an omniscient deity. The omniscient deity described here is to represent the burden of eternity of the prisoner. When you’re in these prison museums, you can feel, see, and interact with how prisoners lived in these horrid environments. Most of them represent a hell on Earth by creating eerie spaces, harsh conditions, and a controlled life. The repetition of prisons creates an effect similar to eternity because everything is the same. Prisoners feel this way about prisons and want to escape, yet most can’t, which is a huge