Korea: 518, Gwangju Massacre

It was 518. A number Koreans don’t forget. Blogs were filled with ‘518’ for several days in order to commemorate the Gwangju Massacre (Gwangju Democratizaion Movement) on the 18th of May, 1980. A blogger, thirdtype, posted a five minute video clip and the stories of the deceased.

Bloggers, like qts, show an impressive movie poster, ‘I wished it to be a dream,’ with her (or his) brief expression about 518.

학교다닐때는 입밖에도 내지 못하던 사건… 이젠 한국 민주화의 아이콘으로 자리잡은 518. 그 5월이 또 왔다. 언제짬내서 또 광주한번 다녀와야지.

The incident about which I couldn’t breathe a syllable when I was at school… But 518 has been the icon of democratization of Korea. May… it came back again. I should make time to drop by Gwangju.

A blogger, Level-B, talks about how he got to know about Gwangju Massacre.

그러니깐, 내가 처음 광주사태를 첨 알게 된 게 아마 대학교 1학년 때였을 거다. 학교 식당 앞에 빨래줄에 매달아놓은 그 희생자 사진들과 관련 사진들을 보고 아 씨바 이거 진짜야? 했던 나는 동아리방에 굴러다니던 책들을 통해 딱 11년 전 그 도시에서 있었던 일들을 알게 됐고 나를 비롯한 [우리]가 그 자장 속에 있을 수밖에 없다는 걸 깨달았다. 그리고 그때로부터 딱 16년 후인 오늘,
이제 광주는 일종의 성지 대접을 받고있고 별 그지 깽깽이까지도 다 망월동에 참배랍시고 가서는 껄떡대는 시대가 됐다.
권력에 환장했던 그 새끼들도 아직 멀쩡히 잘 살아있고 그때 도청에서 군인의 총에 맞아 죽은 사람들을 기리는 노래인 < 임을 위한 행진곡>은 이제 그 빛을 많이 잃어버렸다.

그래서?

뭐 잊지 말자는 말밖에는 할 게 없네.

It was about my freshman year that I got to know about the Gwangju Massacre first. In seeing photos of the victims hung by clothes spins in the school canteen, I couldn’t believe it really happened. Through books in my club, I learned what happened to the city eleven years before. Today 16 years after my freshman year, Gwangju has been turned into a sacred place and any kind of immoral bastards go to Mangwoldong to pretend to worship. The bastards who were crazy about power at that time are still alive and , which was used to commemorate the victims who were shot by soldiers, lost its own glory.
So?
Nothing else to say except “Don’t forget that date.”

A blogger, Ulariul, posted a documentary and explained how it changed his perspective.

난 관심 없다구..
광주 5.18 관심 없다구 라고 생각하고 있었다.
물론 그들의 만행에 대해선 어릴적부터 대학생들에게 들었던바 있다.
지금도 볼수 있을지 모르겠지만 그때 당시의 처참한 사진들을 난 봐왔었다.
그래도 난 나와 상관없다라고 생각했는데…

I’m not interested..
I always thought I’m not really interested in Gwangju 5.18.
Of course I have heard about the brutality since college.
At that time, I also saw cruel photos.
But I thought it’s not my business.

위의 다큐를 보면서 다시한번 피가 거꾸로 쏟구쳐 오는것을 느낀다.
전두환이 살아 있다는게… 너무나도 슬플 뿐이다.

On watching this documentary, my blood raises quickly up and down.
I’m just so sad… Chun Doo-hwan is still alive.

The young generation, like Canimg, commemorates it in their ways.

내가 태어난지 두달이 되었을때 이웃동네에서 일어난 사건이다.
고등학교때 친구하나는 1980년 5월 17일 광주에서 태어났다고 했다.
수많은 사람들이 죽어나갔던 그때 그 시점에도 새로운 생명은 태어난 것이다.
나서 죽는게 사람이겠지만, 억울하게 죽은 영혼이 더 아프지 않게,
그때 새로 태어난 우리가 위로해 주고 같이 아파해 주고…
다시 그런 세상이 되풀이 되지 않도록 제대로 만들어 가야 할텐데…

It was the incident that happened to my neighborhood two months after I was born. One of my high school friends said that she was born one day before it happened in the very place. The moment when numerous people were killed, new lives were still being born. That’s life… people are born and die, but let’s not the dead spirits be in pain anymore. We who were born at that time should console and understand their sorrow. I hope that kind of incident doesn’t happen anymore.

A young and really popular internet cartoonist made a series of cartoons on the internet showing how young generations who had painful stories from the incident try to get revenge on the main leader, Chun Doo-hwan, and young people who didn’t know about the incident had chances to learn about it.

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