JIN YU YOUNG2026年8月27日The matte black brick building has stood in the heart of Seoul for 50 years. It is also unusual for the slit-like windows that run across its fifth floor. Each looked out of small cells, some of which were painted blood red to evoke fear.这座哑光黑色砖砌建筑在首尔市中心已矗立了50年。它还有一个与众不同之处：五楼横贯整层的狭缝状窗户。每扇窗户后面都是一个狭小的牢房，其中一些牢房被漆成血红色，以营造令人恐惧的氛围。There, in 1981, South Korea’s military dictatorship tortured Yoo Dong-woo, a former factory worker, for organizing labor protests. His ribs were broken, some of his teeth were knocked out, and blood constantly pooled in his mouth.1981年，韩国军人独裁政权在这里对柳东宇（音）施以酷刑。他曾是一名工厂工人，因组织劳工抗议活动而遭到迫害。他的肋骨被打断，牙齿也被打掉了几颗，嘴里一直血流不止。“So, this is how a person dies,” he recalled thinking at the time.“原来，人就是这样死的，”他回忆当时自己这样想道。Mr. Yoo and his cause survived. South Korea is now a raucous democracy. And, as of last summer, the site where he was beaten mercilessly, as were hundreds of others, is part of the National Museum of Korean Democracy. The exhibits — one describing the torture meted out to detainees is so gruesome that it is off-limits to young children — remind visitors of a past that must not be repeated.柳东宇活了下来，他的事业也延续了下去。如今，韩国已经成为一个充满活力的民主国家。去年夏天，他和另外数百人曾经遭受残酷殴打的地方成为了韩国国家民主纪念馆的一部分。馆内的展览提醒着参观者那段绝不能重演的历史——其中一处介绍对拘押者施加酷刑的展览由于过于惨烈而不允许幼童参观。But six months before the museum opened, South Koreans got a shocking echo of that period: President Yoon Suk Yeol declared martial law. The crisis was quickly averted, and Mr. Yoon is serving a life sentence in prison for insurrection. The museum is still deciding on how to acknowledge that episode, but in recent months South Koreans have gotten alarming reminders of the country’s dark history.然而，就在该纪念馆开馆前六个月，韩国人又突然听到了那段历史的惊人回响：总统尹锡悦宣布戒严。危机很快得到化解，而尹锡悦则因发动内乱罪被判处无期徒刑。纪念馆目前仍在考虑如何记录和呈现那一事件，但近几个月来，韩国人已经一次又一次受到这个国家黑暗历史的令人不安的提醒。In May, a Starbucks promotion appeared to mock a massacre in the city of Gwangju in 1980, when the dictator Chun Doo-hwan deployed tanks and paratroopers to crush pro-democracy protesters. Shortly after, a high school baseball team from Seoul made headlines for taunting its opponents from Gwangju by chanting “Let’s go to Starbucks!” and “Tank Day!” Both episodes struck a nerve.今年5月，星巴克的一项促销活动似乎在拿1980年光州发生的大屠杀开玩笑。那一年，独裁者全斗焕出动坦克和伞兵镇压争取民主的抗议者。没过多久，首尔一支高中棒球队也登上新闻头条，他们对来自光州的对手高喊“去星巴克吧！”和“坦克日！”来挑衅对方。这两起事件都在韩国社会引发了强烈反响。拘押者关在这栋楼的五楼，那层楼的窗户都是狭窄的缝隙。 Woohae Cho for The New York Times罗智贤（音）曾在这里被关过一周多时间。不久前的一个周二，她再次来到这个地方，现在它已改建为纪念馆。“I can’t help but feel that our past is still unfolding,” said Na Ji-hyun, who was visiting the museum last month. She had been detained at the building, known as the Namyeong-dong Anti-Communist Interrogation Office (dong means neighborhood in Korean) for more than a week in 1983.“我不禁觉得我们的过去仍在延续，”上个月参观该纪念馆的罗智贤（音）说。1983年，她曾在这里被关了一周多。这栋建筑当时的名字叫“南营洞对共分室”（洞在韩语里为街区的意思）。Then 22, she got caught in the dictatorship’s dragnet because she was part of a group that gave night classes on literacy, math and social sciences to factory workers and housekeepers, and was seen by officials as a possible breeding ground of dissent. Interrogators coerced her cooperation by pointing to officers who were notorious for torture and recounting stories of past detainees who had died in their hands. She heard the screams of other prisoners who were being tortured down the hall.当时她22岁，之所以落入独裁政权的罗网，是因为她加入了一个为工厂工人和家政人员开设夜校的团体，教人识字、学习数学和社会科学。在当局看来，该团体可能成为滋生异议思想的温床。审讯人员指着那些以酷刑闻名的军官，并讲述过去拘押者死在他们手中的故事，以此逼迫她配合。她还听见走廊另一头其他囚犯遭受酷刑时发出的惨叫。“I didn’t know what was happening, and I couldn’t dare to ask,” Ms. Na said. While she was not beaten, she was questioned for hours on end and forced to write statements about her political ideology, education and social circle.“我不知道发生了什么，也根本不敢问，”罗智贤说。虽然她没有遭到殴打，但被连续审讯数小时，并被迫就自己的政治思想、受教育经历以及社会交往圈子写材料。Even today on the fifth floor, sunlight seeps in thin slivers through windows that are barely a foot wide. They were designed to prevent inmates from jumping to their deaths or escaping. A circular staircase winds up, built in a way to disorient detainees as they were blindfolded and marched up the stairs to interrogation rooms.即便在今天，阳光也只能透过五楼那些仅不到30厘米宽的窗户渗进室内。这些窗户当初就是为了防止犯人跳楼自杀或逃跑而设计的。一座环形楼梯盘旋向上，这种设计是为了让被蒙住双眼的拘押者沿着楼梯上到审讯室时失去方向感。螺旋楼梯的设计，是为了让蒙住双眼押送上楼的拘押者失去方向感。 Woohae Cho for The New York Times柳东宇曾是一名工厂工人，因组织劳工抗议活动而被拘留。他的肋骨被打断，牙齿也被打掉了几颗。他说，当时他以为自己会死在审讯中心。 Woohae Cho for The New York TimesSome of those cells have been recreated, and part of the grounds have been revamped; a tennis court where guards would enjoy their leisure time is now a courtyard.其中一些牢房已经按照当年的样子复原，部分场地也经过改造；过去警卫们休闲娱乐时使用的网球场如今已经变成了一座庭院。But one cell has been preserved as a tribute to one of its former occupants, Park Jong-cheol, a student activist who died after being waterboarded at the building in 1987. His killing, which the authorities tried to cover up, helped catalyze mass protests that forced the government to agree to a free and direct presidential election.不过，其中一间牢房被完整保留下来，以纪念曾经关押在这里的朴钟哲。他是一名学生运动人士，1987年在这栋建筑里遭受水刑后死亡。当局一度试图掩盖真相，他的死后来成为了引发大规模抗议的导火索之一，最终迫使政府同意举行自由、直接的总统选举。The Starbucks promotion, for a tumbler, included a phrase — “Thump it on the desk” — that some critics said evoked Mr. Park’s death. The authorities had initially claimed that Mr. Park gasped and died after an interrogator slammed a desk in his cell. The company apologized and fired its chief executive in South Korea. In the other episode, the high school apologized and its baseball team was barred from nationwide competition for a month. The players went to the Gwangju school to apologize and 12 of them were punished by the school, though it did not disclose how.星巴克那次保温杯促销活动中有一句宣传语——“在桌上啪的一声”——在一些批评者看来，它让人联想到朴钟哲的死亡。当局最初声称，在审讯人员猛拍他牢房里的桌子后，朴钟哲因喘不过气而死亡。星巴克随后道歉，并解雇了公司在韩国的首席执行官。至于另一事件，那所高中也公开道歉，其棒球队被禁止参加全国性比赛一个月。球员们还前往光州那所学校当面道歉，其中12人受到校方处分，但校方没有公布具体处分。“They are not matters that can simply be apologized away,” said Kim Chanho, a manager at the Korea Democracy Foundation, which operates the museum.“这些事情不是简单道个歉就能过去的，”运营该纪念馆的韩国民主基金会经理金灿浩（音）说。Many in South Korea have blamed the episodes on a lack of understanding of the country’s history. The museum can help fill this void, Mr. Kim said, but added that he believed society as a whole — civic groups, private companies and schools — had not fulfilled its collective duty in making sure that the country’s history is not forgotten.许多韩国人将这两起事件归咎于对本国历史缺乏了解。金灿浩说，这座纪念馆可以帮助填补这一空白，但他还表示，他认为整个社会——公民团体、私营企业和学校——都没有尽到共同的责任，确保这个国家的历史不被遗忘。这是学生活动人士朴钟哲遭受酷刑后去世的审讯室。 Woohae Cho for The New York Times朴钟哲的“尸检报告”。当局曾试图掩盖他的死亡。“It’s great that we have a space like this to educate people and raise awareness,” Ms. Na said. “But doesn’t it feel like only people who already care or are experts come here? Shouldn’t people who don’t care also come?”“有这样一个地方来教育人们、提高大家的意识当然很好。”罗智贤说。“但你不觉得好像只有那些本来就关心这段历史的人或者专家才会来这里吗？那些对此漠不关心的人难道不也应该来吗？”When Mr. Yoo was hauled in, guards demanded to know whether he was a communist or a socialist. He said he was neither, drawing their wrath. “They punched my face from both sides and kicked me so hard in the ribs I collapsed,” he said. “They hit me without mercy.” Accused of being a communist and anti-state agitator, he faced a trial for organizing an association of democratic workers and was released on probation after more than a month in detention at Namyeong and several more in another prison.柳东宇当年被押进来时，警卫逼问他究竟是共产主义者还是社会主义者。他说自己两者都不是，这激怒了他们。“他们从两边同时朝我的脸上打，还狠狠踢我的肋骨，把我踢倒在地，”他说。“他们打起人来毫不手软。”他被指控为共产主义者和反国家煽动者，因组织民主工人协会而受到审判。在南营洞被关押一个多月、随后又在另一所监狱关押了几个月后，他获缓刑释放。The trauma haunted him for years. He said that he suffered hallucinations and nightmares of being arrested again. Being at home induced panic, and he often wandered the streets and slept in public spaces for long stretches of time.这段创伤折磨了他很多年。他说，自己会产生幻觉，还会做噩梦，梦见自己再次被捕。待在家里会让他陷入恐慌，因此他常常在街头游荡，一连很长时间都睡在公共场所。After military rule ended in 1987, the building was still used in secret by the police for interrogations targeting labor and left-leaning organizations, according to the museum. It was officially shut down in 2004 and renamed the National Police Agency Human Rights Center in 2005. But the continued police ownership prompted backlash from civic groups and victims, who argued that the agency that had carried out state torture should not have control over its memory. In 2018, President Moon Jae-in approved its conversion into a museum and the grounds were handed over to the Democracy Foundation.据纪念馆介绍，1987年军人统治结束后，这栋建筑仍被警方秘密用于审讯劳工组织和左翼组织的成员。它于2004年正式关闭，2005年更名为警察厅南营洞人权中心。但警方继续拥有该建筑，这引发了公民团体和受害者的强烈反对，他们认为实施国家酷刑的机构不应掌控对其历史的叙述。2018年，总统文在寅批准将这里改建为纪念馆，场地移交给了民主基金会。Still, many South Koreans across the political spectrum hold conflicting views on their country’s turbulent modern history, with some far-right conservatives baselessly claiming that the Gwangju uprising was instigated by North Korean Communist agents.然而，即使在今天，韩国社会各个政治阵营的人对这个国家动荡的现代史仍然存在相互冲突的看法。一些极右翼保守派甚至毫无根据地声称，光州起义是由朝鲜共产主义特工煽动的。“In such a polarized society like Korea how do you build an edifice that’s supposed to memorialize democracy when, in fact, a lot of the stuff hasn’t even been resolved by historians?” said Theodore Jun Yoo, a professor of cultural studies and history at Yonsei University in Seoul. “The public hasn’t agreed on all these issues,” he said.“在像韩国这样两极分化的社会，当历史学家实际上连许多基本事实都尚未厘清时，你该如何建造一座本应用来纪念民主的建筑？”首尔延世大学文化研究与历史教授柳俊（音）说。“公众在这些问题上尚未达成共识，”他表示。Mr. Yoo, who is now in his late 70s, has worked as a docent at the museum, showing visitors the very places he was tortured.如今已年近八旬的柳东宇在这座纪念馆担任讲解员，带游客参观当年他遭受酷刑的地方。“At first, even catching a glimpse of this building would make me shiver with dread,” he said. “But one day a thought struck me: Why should I be the one to be scared? It’s the perpetrators who should be scared.”“起初，哪怕只是瞥见这栋建筑，我都会吓得浑身发抖，”他说。“但有一天我忽然想到：为什么该害怕的人是我？真正应该害怕的是那些施暴者。”柳东宇如今在纪念馆担任讲解员，带着访客参观他曾遭受酷刑的地方。Jin Yu Young自首尔报道韩国、亚太和全球突发新闻。翻译：纽约时报中文网点击查看本文英文版。