Han tells the stories of survivors and victims of the 1980 Gwangju rebellion in South KoreaTwo thirds of the way into Human Acts,a victim of the torture carried out during the 1980 Gwangju rebellion in South Korea remarks of the Korean platoons who had previously committed atrocities in Vietnam: “Some of those who came to slaughter us did so with the memory of those preceding times.” Pages later, we’re reminded of a remark made by President Park Chung-hee’s bodyguard: “The Cambodian government’s killed another two million of theirs. There’s nothing stopping us from doing the same.” It leaves little reason to doubt the veracity of the novel’s assertion that “There is no way back to the world before the torture. No way back to the world before the massacre.”When Park, and South Koreas military dictator,was assassinated in 1979, civil unrest ensued and martial law was imposed. Recently unionised workers protested their working conditions. Greater democratisation was called for and the increasingly authoritarian government responded in the traditional fashion. On 18 May 1980, and protesting students at Jeonnam University were fired upon and beaten by government troops. Outrage was widespread and citizens of all ranks took to the streets in solidarity. Special forces were sent in but,rather than calming the situation, the soldiers – spurred on to ever greater acts of brutality by their superiors – clubbed and bayonetted students, or fired live rounds into the crowds. By 27 May it was over. Figures for civilian deaths remain disputed,running anywhere between the military statistic of 200 and the 2000 estimated by some foreign press reports. What is not disputed is the appalling cruelty inflicted on those tortured by police in the aftermath, the suffering of the many bereaved and the long shadow the rebellion still casts across the South Korean consciousness.
Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com