Haunting the Korean Diaspora Quotes

“highest incidence of massacres in what is now called South Korea took place in Gyeongsang province. In this part of the country in particular, there is a reported phenomenon called honbul, or “ghost flames,” in which flickering lights rise up from the ground, usually at the site of a massacre. The folkloric explanation, generated since the Korean War, lies somewhere between science and the supernatural. In places where buried bodies are heavily concentrated, the remains have changed the chemical makeup of the earth, causing the soil to ignite. Through ghost flames, the spirits of the dead release their grief and rage, their han, into the world.”
― Grace M. Cho, Haunting the Korean Diaspora: Shame, Secrecy, and the Forgotten War