May 18th

We just got finished watching the movie "May 18th."  I must admit, before coming to Korea I had no idea what May 18th even was to Koreans, or how big of a tragedy it was for them.  I wish I would have learned about this in one of my many history classes, but unfortunately I wasn't.  Essentially, South Korean troops were sent to Gwangju on May 18th, 1980 (interestingly enough the same day that Mount Saint Helens erupted...) to suppress groups of people who were against the newly formed military dictatorship in Korea.  A lot of these groups were formed by college students, or on colleges campuses like Chonnam.  Chun Doo-hwan was the leader at the time, and closed all college campuses. On May 18th, students and citizens of Gwangju met the military at the gates of Chonnam where rioting and fighting began.  The military beat people with clubs, which caused an uproar, and by the morning of May 20th there were over 10,000 rioters going against the military.  On May 21st, the people were told the military would retreat due to the large amount of protesting, however the military began to shoot in front of city hall right before noon, killing many. They warned civilians to step down or else they would come back into the city. The civilians refused and the military came back in on May 27th and defeated the civilians in less than 90 minutes.

The number of causalities is still up in the air.  The official count that is out is a little above 200, with approximately 1,200 injured and 900 unaccounted for.  These numbers are still disputed today, as some believe the death toll is between 1,000 and 2,000 people.  On Wednesday, the international students are traveling to the May 18th Memorial, hence why we watched the movie. Obviously military dictatorship is no longer in South Korea.  Over 1,000 people were arrested for involvement in the May 18th Massacre with a little over 400 being indicted. 7 received death sentences and 12 received life in prison.

Here is the link for the trailer of the movie.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rPZen6lNInY&feature=related

If you get a chance, I would highly recommend watching the movie.  It's one of those things you really can't believe happened. The girls and I were walking back after seeing it and felt like we needed a little boost of happiness, so we're off to T.G.I. Friday's. :) I'll blog later about my home-stay this past weekend!