Gwangju is famous as the site of the democratic uprisings, May 18, 1980. At the time, Korea had a military government that had taken over after the death of the President (or perhaps they murdered him, it depends who’s telling the story). The government that it was time to quell the discontent that was starting to arise across the country, and that university students were the ones getting out of line. There were some demonstrations that were met with tanks and guns. The story gets increasingly murky as are two official versions of what happened. Either way, a lot of people ended up getting killed, so many, in fact, that they had to create a new cemetery for them. There are still debates with the government about how many were killed – the number that the army admitted killing is about 25% of the number that families reported missing.
The park we went to was the site of the police station in 1980, which had been used as a detention centre and court. Even though all of the people who were arrested were civilians, they were all tried in military court with senior army officers as judges. Several were sentenced to death. As is almost predictable in this setting, there was torture and beatings, to force people to confess. There are lifesized statues throughout the park of people being beaten and tortured in various ways. It was a sad and depressing display.
Youngik is an excellent tour guide. When we were in the barracks he talked about how similar it was to the barracks he lived in when he was doing his army time. The torture was learned from the Japanese when they ruled Korea…holding people upside down in a container of water, or hanging them upside down and putting red pepper up their noses. The creative ways in which people manage to damage other people seem to be endless.
The American army got involved as well, as they feared that if the government of South Korea fell (even though it was an illegal military government) it would create an opportunity for the North Koreans to make trouble. On May 18 last year, the General who led the army into the uprising came to Gwangju to explain that he wasn’t really guilty of anything. He was just following orders. The one positive thing that came out this, is that is was one of the world events that led to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Back to The Alleyway for dinner and another evening with friends.
Interesting history of the uprising and suppression that we know nothing about, in contrast to TiananmenSquare in Beijing which is endlessly on the news even today.
Just read in a British newspaper ( the Guardian) quoting Wikileaks that the American Embassy in Beijing reported that (contrary to the western news reports) there was no massacre of students who were already leaving the Square. There was indeed bloodshed but in the streets leading to Tiananmen of common people blocking the army and the troops had to open fire and fight to get into Tiananmen. This was news to me too, as we only have the western news to rely on. Some day, I will have to do more research on this topic now that Wikileaks has provided more information.
I had a student in Beijing who had never heard of the problems at Tiananmen Square…she knew where it was but nothing of the massacre. Apparently at the time there was a complete news blackout inside China. Once these things are over, I wonder where the truth actually arises.