Today is the 43rd anniversary of the May 18, Gwangju Uprising, one of the most powerful and also bloody resistance movements in Korean history.
Over 10 days in 1980, years of protesting authoritarian rule, demanding a democratic process, freedom of the press, labor rights, and freedom came to a crescendo with over 200K Koreans rising up in Gwangju.
Chun Du Hwan, who had just installed himself as a military dictator dispatched 20K soldiers from ROK special military claiming the protesters were “communist sympathizers,” and sent in tanks and 40 helicopters firing machine guns into the crowd. There were also combat planes with bombs on standby. Thousands of Gwangju citizens were massacred.
U.S. president Jimmy Carter sided with the martial law junta and also condoned the scorched earth massacre actions taken by Chun.
Chun and many corrupt administrations since, have suppressed the true history of the Uprising by punishing, torturing, and incarcerating those who spoke about the Uprising.
Chun died in 2021 and to his end never apologized nor even admitted responsibility for the Gwangju Massacre.
The ROK military has still not fully acknowledged its role in the massacre, and neither has the U.S.
It has only been in the last few years that a formal process was established to research, uncover, and preserve the true history of Korean people’s resistance.
Organizing and People’s movements against oppression are so powerful that oppressors will do anything to suppress them.
They will try to erase history, control your body, distract you with diluted ideologies, stifle dissent, create divisions, and escalate militarism.
This is happening globally, right now.
At the heart of the movements that built up to the Gwangju Uprising were Korean people who were fighting for freedom and reunification.
We continue this resistance and fight for a (re)unified Korea today.
May we always honor and bring to light our people’s real history.
And always may we lift each other up. People power forever.
만세, 만세, 대한 독립 만세.
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