Gwangju uprising

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Sculpture in Gwangju National Cemetery on May 18

The Gwangju uprising in the South Korean city ​​of Gwangju in May 1980, known as the 18th May Gwangju democracy movement ( 5 · 18 광주 민주화 운동 ) in South Korea , arose from an escalating student demonstration against the ruling military dictatorship and the imposed martial law and at the same time was intended to emphasize the demand for the release of Kim Dae-jung , an opposition politician , recognized leader of the democracy movement and later President of the Republic of South Korea . The initially peaceful demonstration, carried out on May 18, was ended by the military with the use of brutal force. The subsequent uprising of students, workers and commoners against the military, which mobilized up to 200,000 people on different days, was answered with a massacre of the population on May 20 and 21 and on May 27 with a massacre of those who remained Dejected protesters. Since then, the Gwangju uprising has been a symbol of the repression of the democracy movement in South Korea in the 1980s.

prehistory

Sculpture in Gwangju National Cemetery on May 18

After the assassination attempt on October 26, 1979 on the dictator Park Chung-hee , who had ruled since 1961 , Prime Minister Choi Kyu-ha took over the office of President of South Korea. In fact , the country was still ruled by the army leadership, in which Major General Chun Doo-hwan had put himself to the top on December 12, 1979 and in April 1980 took power in the Korean Central Intelligence Agency (KCIA; 중앙 정보부 ). The resistance that formed against him reached its first peak on May 15 in Seoul , when between 70,000 and 100,000 students took to the streets, calling for Chun and Choi's resignation, and making the withdrawal of martial law and the abolition of the Yushin constitution a condition. Supported by the demonstrators on the street, the opposition filed a motion to end martial law in parliament. The vote on it, which was supposed to take place on May 20th, did not take place.

General Chun reacted to the demonstrations with harshness and, with Decree No. 10 on May 17th, tightened the state of emergency and martial law and extended it to the entire country. Universities were closed, the National Assembly dissolved, all political activities banned and 26 opposition politicians arrested, including Kim Dae-jung and Kim Jong-pil . Some sources speak of up to 70 opposition politicians who have been arrested.

Demonstrations

Sculpture depicting the peaceful demonstration

May 18

In response to the tightening of martial law and the arrest of Kim Dae-jung, who had his political home in Jeollanam-do ( 전라남도 ) province, around 600 Chonnam National students called in downtown Gwangju on Sunday, May 18, 1980 University lifted the state of emergency and released Kim Dae-jung. The demonstrations began around 10:00 in the morning on the main street Geumnamno ( 금남로 ) and grew rapidly, supported by citizens of the city and with sit-ins ( sit-ins ) as a form of protest. When paramilitary units with military vehicles and soldiers with attached bayonets pinned the demonstrators from two sides and tried to break up the gathering by force, individuals from the crowd threw stones and Molotov cocktails at the military. The situation escalated. The soldiers acted with indescribable brutality against anyone who was on the street, regardless of age, gender, or status based on clothing, such as the reporter Kim Chung-keun of the South Korean daily Dong-a Ilbo as an eyewitness reported. During the day there were clashes between demonstrators and soldiers in a total of 15 locations in the city.

May 19th

One day later, on May 19, the first large demonstration was formed, consisting of students, workers and citizens of the city. In solidarity with each other, bus and taxi drivers formed a long convoy that was supposed to demoralize the military units with a loud hoot of horns through the city. There were clashes again with the paramilitary forces who used tear gas, batons and their bayonets. Parts of the demonstrators threw stones and Molotov cocktails.

Sculpture, soldiers fire in the fleeing demonstrators

revolt

May 20th

The morning of May 20 began with actions by around 5,000 demonstrators against the police barricades. In the evening over 100,000 residents of the city gathered and besieged the government building of the provincial capital Gwangju. With 9 buses and over 200 taxis, their drivers led a demonstration on the main street Geumnamno . During the night, they set vehicles on fire and moved them towards the military. The army combat units opened fire and deliberately killed demonstrators, which escalated the uprising. During the uprising in Gwangju, numerous ministers from the already weak Choi Kyu-ha's government in Seoul resigned in protest.

May 21

Angry at the military and what had happened the previous day, protesters ransacked police armories and armory and armed themselves. They occupied the city's radio station, other government buildings and armed vehicles from the Asia Motors factory . So that day around 200,000 citizens of the city faced the army, several thousand of them armed and ready to defend themselves and fight for freedom. Buses were sent to the cities of the province to get weapons and organize the resistance in the province.

Sculpture, armed citizens fight back

By 14:00 am local time in Gwangju, the demonstrators were celebrating Buddha's birthday , some sitting on the street and aligned to the occupied government buildings, the crowd after singing the rose Aegukga ( 애국가 ), the Korean national anthem . As if this had been the signal to attack, the soldiers opened fire on the crowd of demonstrators one more time. Dozens were shot dead and over 500 protesters injured. But the citizens resisted and had their city under their control again by evening.

May 22

Demonstrations and riots spread to 22 cities in the province, with other focal points in Mokpo , Naju , Hwasun and Haenam .

23. May

The US-American General John A. Wickham , as commander of the " ROK / US Combined Forces Command ", promised to mobilize his troops to put down the uprising.

May 24th

On May 24th, the citizens of Gwangju proclaimed the " Liberated Gwangju ".

25. May

The troops that had withdrawn from the city center built a blockade around the city center.

May 26

On May 26th, the citizens' committee negotiated with the officers.

May 27th

In the morning hours of the ninth day after the outbreak of the protests, the city center of Gwangju was already surrounded and cordoned off, the army with 20,000 soldiers, paratroopers and tanks stormed into the city and ended the uprising with another bloodbath.

Gwangju massacre

Sculpture, soldiers eliminate the dead

The name Gwangju massacre , or also often called Gwangju massacre , results from the brutal actions of the soldiers against demonstrators and citizens of the city of Gwangju between May 18 and 27, 1980. General Chun and his military at the time were concerned with the demonstrations and later put down the insurrection regardless of human life. Above all, the slaughter of the civilian population on the days of May 20th, 21st and 27th must be viewed as a massacre.

The number of victims of the Gwangju uprising varies depending on the source. According to official information from investigations carried out in 2006, 154 demonstrators are said to have been killed and 4,141 injured in the massacre. The number of people who are still missing was given as 74. More than 3,000 people are said to have been arrested in the days following the crackdown.

The military, however, spoke of a total of 170 fatalities, including 144 civilians and 730 arrests. But pastors and teachers drew up lists of around 850 families who were missing at least one family member, and information from medical eyewitnesses spoke of 440 deaths in the Chan Nang provincial hospital alone, while the Catholic Church considered 600 to 1000 deaths likely .

Other sources such as B. an information brochure from terre des hommes , assumed over 2,000 fatalities. The number could be realistic because, as Asia Watch noted in its January 1986 report number 1, Gwangju city's death rate in May 1980 was around 2,300 above the monthly average, according to city statistics.

It can be assumed that many relatives buried their dead in silence out of fear of persecution and reprisals and that not all of the injured were brought to hospitals for medical treatment.

May 18 National Cemetery

The victims of the massacre were originally buried in the Mangwol-dong Cemetery in Gwangju. The cemetery received worldwide attention as a result of the events as "Holy Ground for Democracy", so that the military had plans to destroy the cemetery and clear the graves.

In 1994 the plan arose to create a national cemetery for the victims of the Gwangju uprising . In 1997 this was completed and the dead were reburied in the new cemetery. On July 27, 2002, the cemetery was granted national status as a memorial. By 2013, a total of 482 burials had been carried out in this cemetery.

Evaluation and consequences of the uprising

What happened can only be understood from the particular political situation in South Korea. The South Korean students were and are for the most part very nationally conscious and therefore inevitably very critical of America, as well as tireless supporters of Korean reunification . Since they also showed sympathy for North Korea and made this public during demonstrations, they were constantly in the focus of security agencies such as the police and the secret service.

In addition, Gwangju is the stronghold of the South Korean Catholics, who form a minority in the country, both among Christians and among other religions. Its political leader was Kim Dae-jung , who was persecuted as an enemy of the state by the military regimes. In addition, there was the fact that the rulers almost all came from the Gyeongsang provinces, Gyeongsangbuk-do and Gyeongsangnam-do and that the Jeolla provinces, Jeollabuk-do and Jeollanam-do around Gwangju hardly participated in the state-controlled investment programs, which the provinces barely participated in made into a stronghold of the opposition.

Defense Security Command ( 국군 보안 사령부 ), General Chun Doo-hwan , took over the presidency in February 1981 after his predecessor Choi Kyu-ha resigned in August 1980. He held the post until 1988, after which a gradual reappraisal of the events and the democratization of South Korea began.

The role of Japan and the USA

During the coup in December 1979 by the military under Major General Chun Doo-hwan, who continued to lead the government under Choi Kyu-ha as a puppet government, the US government remained neutral, even though it had the authority to command the Korean army to operate.

The US was originally interested in eliminating the dictator Park Chung-hee , but had no interest in introducing or supporting a democratic system in South Korea. The second coup in which General Chun took full power in the country was supported by the United States, because without support General Chun would not have been able to command his troops to take power. The Japanese government also supported General Chun by helping to unsettle the population with information about alleged invasion plans by North Korea . Japan was also the only country that actively supported the Yushin regime in South Korea.

Japan and the US also supported the military during the Gwangju massacre, and US President Jimmy Carter called the Gwangju uprising a communist conspiracy in a CNN interview. After Chun had consolidated his power base in South Korea, he flew to the United States on January 28, 1981 to get support from the newly elected President Ronald Reagan . Shortly afterwards, Chun was elected President of South Korea on February 11, 1981.

Final note

The demonstrations described in the article, the days of the uprising and the massacres perpetrated by the army were researched and reproduced in the best possible way using the available sources. It was noticeable that the descriptions of the events, the information on numbers and dates as well as on which days which events took place differ greatly depending on the sources. Unfortunately, the truthfulness, the interests or the quality of the sources could not always or only very poorly be assessed during the research. The 15 evaluated sources could hopefully come very close to the real events of May 1980.

See also

  • Jürgen Hinzpeter was the only journalist to film the events and report on them on ARD . His recordings reached Germany via detours and were broadcast worldwide.

In the movie

The Gwangju Uprising is featured in several feature films:

  • 1996: A Petal ( 꽃잎 Kkochip ) by Jang Sun-woo
  • 2007: May 18 ( 화려한 휴가 Hwaryeonhan Hyuga ) by Kim Ji-hoon
  • 2012: 26 Years ( 26 년 26-nyeon ) by Cho Geun-hyun
  • 2017: Fork Lane ( 포크레인 ) by Lee Ju-hyoung
  • 2017: A Taxi Driver ( 택시 운전사 ) by Jang Hun

literature

Non-fiction

  • Opposition and resistance . In: Korea . 2nd Edition. terre des hommes , Osnabrück 1988, p. 22-25 .
  • Charter J. Eckert u. a .: Korea Old and New, A History . Ilchokak Publishers , Seoul 1990, ISBN 0-9627713-0-9 (English, published by Harvard University Press ).
  • Gottfried-Karl Kindermann: The rise of Korea in world politics . Olzog Verlag, Munich 1994, ISBN 3-7892-8220-0 .
  • John Kie-chiang Oh : Korean Politics . Cornell University Press , New York 1999, ISBN 0-8014-8458-8 (English).
  • Henry Scott-Strokes, Lee Jai Eui : The Kwangju Uprising - Eyewitness Press accounts of Korea's Tiananmen . ME Sharp , New York 2000, ISBN 0-7656-0636-4 (English).
  • Hiyoul Kim: Korean History: An introduction to Korean history from prehistory to modern times . Asgard Verlag, St. Augustin 2004, ISBN 3-537-82040-2 .
  • 류재택 (Ed.): 한국 위 역사 . 국제 교육 진흥원 , 2007, ISBN 89-8472-715-6 (Korean).
  • Eun-ja Lee, Young Lie: The Sixty Years of Korean History . Ed .: KoreaDemocracy Foundation . Seoul 2007, Chapter 5: From the Gwangju Uprising to the June 1987 Democratization Movement, p. 262–275 (title of the original edition: 한국 현대사 60 년 (Hangukhyeondaesa 60nyeon)).
  • 신형식 (Shin Hyoung-Sik): Korean History . Ed .: Association for Overseas Korean Education Development . Seoul 2009, ISBN 978-89-962593-0-5 (Korean-German).

Fiction

Web links

File category Files: May 18, Gwangju National Cemetery  - local collection of images and media files
Commons : May 18th National Cemetery of Gwangju  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Charter J. Eckert : Korea Old and New, A History . 1990, p.  371-374 .
  2. ^ Rainer Werning: stabbed with bayonets. Friday, accessed June 6, 2010 .
  3. ↑ Kindermann: The Rise of Korea in World Politics . 1994, p. 128 .
  4. ↑ a b c d e f The May 18 Democratic Uprising - Chronology . The May 18th Memorial Foundation , accessed May 22, 2013 .
  5. ↑ a b Kim Chung Keun : Days and Nights on the Street . In: The Kwangju Uprising - Eyewitness Press accounts of Korea's Tiananmen . 2000, p.  7.8 .
  6. ^ Scott-Strokes, Lee : The Kwangju Uprising - Eyewitness Press accounts of Korea's Tiananmen . 2000, p.  1 .
  7. ^ Scott-Strokes, Lee : The Kwangju Uprising - Eyewitness Press accounts of Korea's Tiananmen . 2000, p.  xxii .
  8. ↑ John Kie-chiang Oh : Korean Politics . 1999, p.  82 .
  9. ↑ a b c d George Katsiaficas : 1980: The Kwangju uprising . libcom.org , accessed May 22, 2013 .
  10. ↑ Terry Anderson : Remembering Kwangju . In: The Kwangju Uprising - Eyewitness Press accounts of Korea's Tiananmen . 2000, p.  47 .
  11. Jump up ↑ Bradley Martin : Yun Sang Won: The Knowledge in those Eyes . In: The Kwangju Uprising - Eyewitness Press accounts of Korea's Tiananmen . 2000, p.  99 .
  12. ↑ Kim Chung Keun : Days and Nights on the Street . In: The Kwangju Uprising - Eyewitness Press accounts of Korea's Tiananmen . 2000, p.  17 .
  13. ^ Scott-Strokes, Lee : The Kwangju Uprising - Eyewitness Press accounts of Korea's Tiananmen . 2000, p.  xxvi .
  14. ^ The May 18 Democratic Uprising - History . The May 18th Memorial Foundation , accessed May 22, 2013 .
  15. ↑ a b Andreas Kohlschütter: Cemetery silence in Kwangju - The soldiers sang the song of the victors . In: The time . Issue 24. Zeitverlag Gerd Bucerius, Hamburg June 6, 1980 ( online [accessed on May 22, 2013]).
  16. ^ Opposition and Resistance . In: Korea . terre des hommes , 1988, p.  24 .
  17. ^ Charter J. Eckert : Korea Old and New, A History . 1990, p.  375 .
  18. ↑ James Palais : Human Rights in Korea . Asia Watch , New York January 1986, p.  36-43 (English, Report No. 1).
  19. ^ Historical Information - Why it began . Ministry of Veterans Affairs , archived from original January 25, 2016 ; accessed on April 13, 2016 (English, original website no longer available).
  20. ^ Funeral Information - At a Glance of Cemetery . Ministry of Veterans Affairs , archived from the original on March 7, 2016 ; accessed on April 13, 2018 (English, original website no longer available).
  21. ↑ Lee, Lie: The Sixty Years of Korean History . 2007, p. 254 .
  22. ↑ a b Lee, Lie: The Sixty Years of Korean History . 2007, p. 262 .
  23. ^ Fabian Kretschmer: South Korea's leaden time . In: taz.die daily newspaper . taz Verlagsgenossenschaft eG, Berlin May 18, 2015, section: Focus, p. 4 .
  24. ↑ Lee, Lie: The Sixty Years of Korean History . 2007, p. 279-280 .