For my cultural presentation I decided to research on the infamous demonstrations that took place in 1987 in South Korea. During my research I learned about the Gwangju Uprising, also known as the May 18 Gwangju Democratization Movement. This movement occurred in Gwangju, South Korea, from May 18th to the 27th, 1980. An estimation of 606 people died during these protests. During this period, the citizens of Gwangju rebelled against the government by robbing local armories and police stations in response to the government troops' brutality towards a demonstration led by local Chonnam University students. These young students were shot at, killed, raped and beaten by government troops.
The students had gathered together and were demonstrating against the successful coup d'etat of the South Korean government by Chun Doo Hwan, who would soon become president. He forcefully overtook the government and took control of Korea like a dictator. Although Chun Doo Hwan was not officially the president during the time of the demonstration, he had become the de factor leader of South Korea since coming into power on December 12, 1979.
I was getting angered and frustrated when I was reading about Korea's political history. I think I would have joined the demonstrations myself if I was under a corrupt political leader who forcefully made himself the president and prevented the citizens of having a real democracy. My dad told me he was in college during Chun's reign as president and actually participated in the multitude of demonstrations that would soon occur in 1987. I now understand why my parents do not trust the Korean government. The political system is always found to be corrupt and no matter the change, something always goes wrong. Hopefully, the new president in this term will be different.
Comments
I learned this in class with Jimin! It's where the very first 3 Korean presidents turned Korea into dictatorship and controlled the entire country. There is a great movie explaining about this historical event! The name of the movie is 택시운전사 if you would like to watch it.