By: Phone Min Thant, Arts & Culture Editor
Content warning: Brief mention of military brutality
Beyond Death, Beyond the Darkness of the Age — a poetic name for a book that has so much suffering, death, and destruction. While the book’s first revised, English-language publication did not carry its original name, it carried the painful experiences of ordinary South Koreans in their struggle for freedom and democracy.
Gwangju Uprising: The Rebellion for Democracy in South Korea is a hefty book that details the movement for democracy espoused by citizens of Gwangju against the authoritarian military dictatorship of Chun Doo-hwan. Written by activists with input from the acclaimed novelist Hwang Sok-yong, the original publication in the 1980s — although discreetly distributed and read throughout South Korea — faced numerous efforts at censorship, landing the authors in jail.
In a style dissimilar to many other history books that I have read, Gwangju Uprising can best be seen as a testimony from a courtroom extrapolated into over 500 pages of reading. The book takes the reader through every detail of the protests (later uprising), from the formations used by the riot police and soldiers to the types of injuries sustained by victims of military brutality. Accompanying each chapter (each of which roughly represents a day during the ten days of the uprising) are maps which chart all the routes taken by security forces as well as the protestors at critical moments of the movement.
Also complementing these observations are the first-hand testimonies of those involved in the uprising. Many of these quotes reflected the real emotions of those seeing horrific events unfold right in front of their eyes, but also give insight into the inhumane mentality of the soldiers assigned to suppress the protests — many parallels could be drawn from these quotes to contemporary protests happening around the world, and how the oppressed can remain hopeful in the face of unbelievable oppression. The juxtaposition between quotes from soldiers describing their experiences beating up protestors with their batons and those from activists asking, “Don’t you remember which country you are sworn to defend?” painfully highlights the usual power imbalance between authoritarianism and its victims.
Another noticeable feature I also enjoyed about the book is that the authors did not forgo important geopolitical analyses in their quest for first-hand record-keeping. There are many references to issues such as the US’ implicit consent to South Korea’s military government, or the negligence of its military and diplomatic officials regarding the situation in Gwangju. This was something I found particularly useful to me as someone who is both interested in history but also wanted to learn more about how the Cold War’s diplomatic and security environment negatively affected democracy in countries like South Korea.
Given the intensity and detail of the book, you might be wondering if it is suitable for someone who doesn’t know anything about the protests or even about South Korean politics. While most of the content focuses on the protests, the first few chapters significantly (and concisely) lay down the domestic political situation leading to the uprising, beginning with the assassination of president Park Chung-hee and the rise of Chung Doo-hwan in the military — and later political — echelons. There is enough information — without unnecessary jargon — to get the layreader going!
Coming from a country whose citizens have stood up to military authoritarianism, many of the scenes in the book spoke to me dearly, sometimes painfully, sometimes with hope. Gwangju Uprising is not only a history book, but also a homage to ordinary people fighting for democracy, in South Korea back then, and around the world today.
