5-18 Democratic Uprising

Today is the anniversary of the 5-18 uprising in Gwangju. To honor this day, the entire school took a field trip yesterday (good thing we didn't go today, because it's raining!). There's just under 800 kids in the school, 19 homeroom classes, and went I got to school in the morning, I noticed all the busses. 19 of them! One for each class.

I went with Mihey and class 7, her homeroom class. I hadn't spent much time with them as a class before yesterday, but wow, they've got a lot of energy. I don't know how she does it!

Our first stop was at the new 5-18 cemetary in East Gwangju. This is where people who have recently died that were injured/shot in the uprising 30 years ago are burried. They have a nice memorial there, and pictures of each person burried. They also had a nice museum/expo center where you can learn about the uprising. We had a tour guide that took our class around. God, I loved her outfit so much. It's so Korea:



A little bit about the uprising: It is considered one of the most tragic chapters in modern history since the end of the Korean war. The uprising lasted 10 days, and thousands of people were injured/killed by armed forces who were controlling a new generation of military elites trying to find an excuse to seize power. There were numerous student demonstrations at Chonnam National University, and downtown on Geumnam-ro street. So basically, there was tons of violence- clubbing, beating, shooting, torture, you name it. At one point, there were more than 100,000 protesters. The official number of victims was 4,369!

In the afternoon, we got to go to the old military police headquarters, close to the military airport in Gwangju. The kids got to experience what it would have been like if they had been taken prisioner at the time. Here are the kids being lead to the jail cells. Note the guns:



Here are the kids in prision. The prisioners had to sit like this for 16 hours a day! I think the kids enjoyed the experience, and I know the other teachers and I really got a kick out of it!



I know it probably should have been a serious experience, but it was actually quite funny. I've got some more pictures online, and here's more information about the uprising:

Pictures- http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=38606019&id=59501140#!/album.php?id=59501140&aid=2202876&s=140&hash=23f212a78f4a58a28a8c376649d1d999

Korea Times- http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/special/2010/05/180_66017.html