Laying Claim to the Memory of May: A Look Back at the 1980 Kwangju Uprising

5.18 Begins: Violence and Confusion on the City’s Streets

3 5.18 Begins Violence and Confusion on the City’s Streets May 18 The 1980 Kwangju Uprising began on Sunday, May 18, when a relatively small group of about two hundred college students, in de¤ance of a military ban on political activities, marched to the Provincial Of¤ce Building in the heart of downtown Kwangju and held a peaceful demonstration . Chanting “End martial law!,” “Free Kim Dae Jung!,” and “Down with Chun Doo Hwan” (head of the ruling military junta) (Hwang Söh Yöng 1985:37), the by now ¤ve hundred demonstrators were at ¤rst met by riot police with tear gas who attempted to disperse the crowds. But in the early afternoon military troops began arriving in the city. By 3 p.m. the regular police had been replaced on the main thoroughfares by armed soldiers, particularly the Special Warfare Command (SWC) airborne troops of the Seventh Brigade (Thirty-third and Thirty-¤fth Battalions), and the demonstrations quickly turned bloody. The “black beret” Special Forces were specially trained for handto -hand combat behind the lines in North Korea and were never intended for deployment against their own friendly civilian demonstrators .1 To the shock and horror of onlookers, the paratroopers aggressively attacked protestors and bystanders alike, chasing, grabbing, beating, and arresting anyone in sight. In response, angry citizens joined in, throwing rocks, demolishing police substations, and¤ghting the soldiers at several locations around the central city. The 4 Kwangju, 1980 few thousand protestors were eventually overwhelmed and forced to scatter, however, as the provincial Martial Law Command imposed a 9 p.m. curfew in Kwangju. I had gone to Seoul the week before, on May 15, to give a lecture and had watched the massive protests there. Tens of thousands of students demanding the repeal of martial law and the resignation of Chun Doo Hwan had been holding increasingly violent demonstrations in the capital and in major cities throughout the nation (including Kwangju).2 The largest yet were planned for Friday, May 16, but student leaders, suspecting further violent protests would provide the excuse the military was looking for to take control, called them off, and Seoul was suddenly quiet. Then on Saturday night (May 17) the government announced a crackdown: martial law was extended, political activity banned, and opposition social and political leaders were detained .3 One of the politicians arrested that day in Seoul was Kim Dae Jung, a native of Mokp’o (near Kwangju) and the Chölla provinces’ “favorite son.” Kim Dae Jung later would stand trial and be sentenced to death for his alleged part in “masterminding” the Kwangju Uprising.4 I heard the news about the government’s repressive actions on the morning of Sunday, May 18, as I was on my way to the Seoul Express Bus Terminal. The expansion of military control seemed certain to provoke an explosive reaction from students, most likely another round of violent street ¤ghting. Boarding a bus for the ¤ve-hour ride back to Kwangju, I felt some regret at leaving the center of political activity . I did not expect that the only demonstrations that day would be in Kwangju, nor could I have anticipated that in the ten days that followed Seoul and other cities would remain quiet as the events in Kwangju failed to trigger a nationwide response. The successful isolation of Kwangju and the surrounding Honam region in its rebellion was at the time a source of dismay, disbelief , and bewilderment to those who lived there, and it remains a point of some speculation into the present.5 In early May 1980 the entire country seemed poised on the brink of insurrection—why did Kwangju’s citizens stand alone? Certainly the military government’s blackout of information on what was happening in Kwangju provides , retrospectively, a partial explanation. Phone lines were cut and the Chölla provinces sealed off, and national news media made no mention for days of the violence that was unfolding in the southwest. 5.18 Begins 5 Regional prejudice suggests a more complex picture. Kwangju natives remain convinced that the government would have been more cautious in using deadly force against the people of other cities and that their fellow Koreans would have been less willing to tolerate the massacre of innocent citizens elsewhere in the country. “Finding the truth” (chinsang kyumyöng) about 5.18 and making sure that others know what went...