May 18, Great Heritage of Democracy
- 1945 Liberation from Japanese colonial rule
- 1950-1953 Korean War
- 1961 05.16 Military Coup d'etat
- 1979 10.26 Dictator unlocking events
- 1979 12.12 New military forces Coup d'etat
- 1980 05.18 May 18 Democratization Movement
The Aspiration for Democracy
As the dictator Park Jung Hui was shot dead by his henchman on October 26, 1979, putting an end to the Yushin Dictatorship, Korean’s aspiration for democratization burned like wild fire. But Chun Doo Hwan, who had seized the military through the December 12 Military Coup, conceived a plot to reorganize the military and to come to power.
College students in the region gathered at the Fountain Plaza in front of the Chonnam Provincial Hall and held a “Rally for Democracy”. This was followed by mass daily rallies and torchlight marches of about 30,000 protesters consisting of citizens and students from over ten colleges, including Chonnam University. The rallies were carried out peacefully by students, professors, and citizens without clashing with police.
With the end of the ‘Torchlight March’ on May 16th, students decided to devote themselves to school work for the time being, while waiting for a sincere reply from the government. However, at midnight of May 17th, the Chun Doo Hwan regime expanded martial law thoroughfoot the country, closed colleges and universities nationwide, and arrested pro-democratic figures.
The Massacre Begins
On the morning of May 18 at the front gate of Chonnam University a stone-throwing battle occurred between students entering the school and soldiers blocking, resulting in many students ruthlessly attacked. Outraged, students proceeded to downtown and notified citizens of the brutalities committed by the paratroopers. The citizens gathered downtown grew in number. It was then when policemen, who had been placed throughout the city, were replaced by paratroopers. And the massacre of Gwangju citizens began under the name “Chung-jeong (Patriotic Heart) Operation” The paratroopers ruthlessly beat up the demonstrators with clubs and rifle stocks. Citizens caught by the soldiers were beaten up to a bloody pulp, were stripped of their pants, and were knelt down on the street. They then afterwards were loaded onto army trucks before being taken elsewhere.
The paratroopers trampled mercilessly over Gwangju citizens.
The paratroopers stopped taxies and dragged injured citizens out of the vehicles. Taxi drivers, who had protested this, also received ruthless beatings in return. Outraged taxi drivers gathered in front of Mudeung Stadium and held a rally. The demonstration procession of trucks and buses along with taxies headed toward the Fountain Plaza at the Chonnam Provincial Hall, the Maginot Line of the Martial Law Army, in cheering clapping from the citizens alongside the route. This courageous action of the drivers who had put their lives in danger invigorated the citizens with confidence.
The Full-scale Resistance Begins
On the morning of May 21 citizens found bodies here and there that had been beaten to death by the paratroopers during the previous night’s deadly incident. After discovering the dead bodies citizens could not simply go home.
Citizens had called the Fountain Plaza at the Provincial Hall, the very place where they demanded democracy, the “Democracy Plaza”. It was a sacred place and thus they couldn’t condone the dictator and the murderers sent by the dictator who were defiling it.
The enraged citizens, after having witnessed the paratroopers' brutal killings, poured into downtown and began marching on Geumnamno Street toward the Provincial Hall, which was already taken by paratroopers. The citizens and the paratroopers stood face to face there.
Gwangju, the Light of Liberation
Citizens voluntarily enrolled in the demonstrations. In order to fight more efficiently, citizens seized military trucks and buses from the factory of Asia Motors, the armaments manufacturer, and began vehicle rallies.
The citizens named the Provincial Hall the “Headquarters of the Citizen’s Army” and held “Citizens’ Rallies” there every day. Discussions on how to hold rallies peacefully were held there. Also discussed were securing solidarity with other regions, strengthening the Citizen's Army, reorganizing the leadership of the struggles, and fundraising for the victims' funerals. All the citizens were given the opportunity to speak. And they spoke out without reserve. It was a direct democracy held at the Plaza.
Appalled by the paratroopers' mass shooting, citizens realized that they needed to be equipped with weapons. Immediately, they obtained rifles from armories in nearby counties, like Hwasun, Naju, and Damyang. Most of the weapons were either too old to use or out-of-order, but, nonetheless, they offered the citizens a sense of confidence. The citizens called the armed protestors the “Citizen’s Army”. The Citizen’s Army stood against the paratroopers.
Gwangju, the Community of Life
Between May 22 and 26 Gwangju was completely isolated from the outside by the siege of the paratroopers. But Citizens soon brought out what they had to the streets and cooked food to feed the Citizens’Army. They made steamed rice-balls and porridge and brought out drinks. Even though the city was isolated no one went hungry during the Uprising period.
The Citizen’s Army considered rice-balls the precious blood of the Gwangju citizens. The citizens and the Citizen’s Army created a "Mealtable Community" and this enabled them to become a blood alliance to uphold Gwangju and democracy. This valuable experience of the "Mealtable Community" continued as the Gwangju Community Spirit.
The Citizen’s Army tuned up rifles and collected weapons that had been left on the street or had been entrusted by the citizens.
The Citizen’s Army was also re-organized and it dutifully carried out its responsibilities. It protected public buildings and guarded banks and jeweler’s shops. Meanwhile, citizens cleaned the blood-stained streets. No single robbery or thievery occurred throughout Gwangju during the struggle, regardless that many citizens possessed firearms. It was the time when one of the greatest displays of integrity in the history of mankind occurred.
The citizens who were killed at the hands of the paratroopers during the Uprising were served by a “Democratic Citizen Funeral” and then were kept in Sangmugwan, a government building located adjacent to the Provincial Hall. There was not enough wood board to make coffins and thus many bodies were casketed in coffins made of veneer sheets.
Large hospitals in downtown Gwangju were completely packed with wounded patients who were beaten, stabbed, and shot by the paratroopers.
The citizens formed their own funeral committee and cleaned and shrouded the deceased. People with family members who hadn’t come home rushed to Sangmugwan looking for their beloved. Sangmugwan became a sea of tears of wailing families.
Gwangju, Trampled by Tanks and Guns
On May 26, the Citizen’s Army at its Headquarters at the Provincial Hall was tense at the news that the paratroopers were planning to attack at midnight. It had been such an intense day beginning in the afternoon.
“Would it be our last day?”
In the early morning of May 27, the paratroopers began to attack. The Citizen’s Army’s barricades collapsed before the paratroopers' tanks. Around 4 A.M. the paratroopers surrounded the Citizen’s Army’s Headquarters that was in a tense silence. The paratroopers, armed with flamethrowers, broke into the building while creating a hail of bullets. The old rifles of the Citizen’s Army could not fight off the incredible firepower. Many Citizen’s Army members fell.
The Fountain Plaza of the Provincial Hall, the symbol of liberation, was again stained with blood. As the morning sun rose, the survivors’ hands and feet were bound with metal wires and were dragged off to somewhere unknown.
Gwangju, Fallen Asleep with the Light
In the morning of May 27, the Martial Law Regime mobilized soldiers and civil servants to clean the bloodstains on the streets of Gwangju. They then took the bodies, which had been laid in Sangmugwan, and hurriedly buried them at the Gwangju Municipal Cemetery.
Mothers witnessing their sons and daughters’ burial fainted, running out of tears to shed anymore.
The bodies of the honorable citizens, unaccompanied by biers, elegies, or white flowers, were buried at corners of the Cemetery.
Honoring the noble dead who had been buried in a hurry, citizens gathered at the Plaza and encouraged each other by patting each other’s backs and remembered the beautiful people who fought the ruthless paratroopers to guard democracy. They remembered the beautiful faces of those who dreamed of a community of peace and equality even while dying by gunshots.
The time for silence returned. It was such a silence of outrage. The citizens retrieved their daily lives but had to live in humiliation and students returned to their schools. White flowers were at the empty classroom seats instead of students who had been slaughtered by the paratroopers.