Heartbreaking photos inside the bedrooms of children who died in last year's South Korean ferry disaster

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Sewol ferry

REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji

Jung Hye-suk, mother of Park Sung-ho, a high-school student who died in the Sewol ferry disaster, as she poses for a photograph in her son's room, as well as details of objects, in Ansan, April 7, 2015.

A year ago Thursday, a ferry carrying 476 people sank off the coast of Incheon, near Seoul, South Korea, during a routine trip to the island of Jeju.

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In all, 295 people aboard the Sewol perished, many of them high-school students and teachers who were on a field trip. Many of the bodies still have not been recovered.

Since the disaster, controversy has centered on the South Korean government's response. Some argue the government attempted to whitewash its accountability in the incident; others have called for a thorough investigation.

Parents of the students who died in the catastrophe are still reeling from their loss a year later. Many still keep their children's rooms intact to keep their memories alive. Reuters photographer Kim Hong-Ji visited their homes and documented the families and the rooms.