Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Adventurer]

Many of you know there was a massacre in Gwangju in the 1980s. Some Koreans blamed the United States saying the troops had to ask for American permission to engage the protestors. What is your take on that?

Just curious...

[RACETRAITOR]

It was the fault of a pro-American military dictator. He also liked ice cream, but I don't hear anyone blaming ice cream for the massacre.

[Rock]

The Koreans brought this on themselves, as far as I know, which is why it's seldom talked about or mentioned.

I'd delved into this a little when I was there, exclaiming it's worse than some of the so-called "American atrocities" during the Korean War the Koreans are so apt to protest, and proclaim, I citing the Jeju Massacre as a sort of counter-balance.

It just goes to show that war happened, communism was fought against by both Americans and Koreans, and that this incident was a proclammation of the un-thinkable: the Koreans killed their own kind.

[jinju]

Oh please, wasnt it Chun who was president then? He is still alive, living it up in a big house in Hannam dong. He should be executed if the Koreans are so upset over what he did. But one of their failed presidents pardoned him. Now he is living in a mansion. If someone was really upset that house would be gone by now.

[RACETRAITOR]

[jinju]

[Treefarmer]

i'm reading about this at the moment, America was involved in the Jeju massacre a lot more directly than the Gwangju massacre, but the fact is that both of them are atrocities that occured in Korea where the US army sat by and watched despite having a heavy presence in the country so to some extent they are guilty by their inaction

it wasn't an ethical dilema in terms of interfering in korean affairs because the jeju massacre they directly acted to back the anti communist dictator

it's worth reading up about if you are interested in history, probably more brutal than the tinanemen square massacre, and it certainly makes you think how 'free' korea really is when the victims still haven't been properly compensated

[cbclark4]

It's called growing pains.

In order for freedom to flourish it has to mature past it's own tendancy towards tyranny.

The pardons were acts of reconcilliation.

All great democracies suffer through unpeacful tensions.

I think people are naive if they think all countries are without atrocity.

The French revolution suffered through some real perversity.

In the U.S. Torries were lynched during the revolution, after the revolution the green mountain boys were slaughtered over taxes.

Gwangju was but speck on history, like a flake of dandruff.

Get a grip.

You can have peace.
Or you can have freedom.
Don't ever count on having both at once.
- {R.A.H.}

[Ilsanman]

A sad trend here. never their own fault.

They have a movie out right now called 화려한 휴가, all about the massacre. I might see it, just to see if Korea is honest about their unglorious past.

[RACETRAITOR]

[Smee]

Never seen that movie, though a lot of my middle school students listed it as their favorite. (Casting 이준기 helps with that, I guess). A few teachers at my old school mentioned that they liked the idea of the movie, as it would help the rest of Korea understand about the massacre (it seems to fly under the radar of people not living in Jeollanam-do). It's interesting down here in that you have people on both sides of the massacre---soldiers and protesters. I'm curious to know how the soldiers, loyalists, and their families see themselves, and how they're positioned, or if they've absolved themselves by blaming the US. As you can imagine, I find placing the blame squarely on the US pretty disgusting and dishonest.

Some decent write-ups, including a bibliography, are available on this blog: http://populargusts.blogspot.com/ I'm too lazy to dig up the posts now, but just search for Gwangju for some good (but very long) entries.

[chris_J2]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gwangju_Massacre

I went & visited the 5/18 student memorial in Gwangju just 3-4 weeks ago.

http://eng.518.org/english.html

It was clearly a reaction against a Korean military dictator, & had little (if anything) to do with the US.

[koon_taung_daeng]

i heard that all of those people died from fan death

[chris_J2]

The Korean Army & police were hardly "fans" of the student demonstrators.



Looks like Korea's version of Tianamen Square, to me.

More here:

http://hunjang.blogspot.com/2004/03/contemporary-korean-history-kwangju.html

[The Perfect Cup of Coffee]