hankyoreh

Kim Gil-ja

“Citizens of Gwangju, our brothers and sisters are being killed right now. How can you sleep peacefully in your homes? We beseech you to come to the provincial office to save your brothers and sisters.”

This was one of the messages broadcast to the people of Gwangju by Jeon Chun-sim, 68, better known as Jeon Ok-ju.

On May 18 at 9:30 am, Jeon stepped onto the official stage for the first time at the memorial concert held at the May 18th National Cemetery, in the Unjeong neighborhood of Gwangju’s Buk (Northern) District. The 38th memorial service for the May 18 Gwangju Democratization Movement, also known as the Gwangju Uprising, showed that change was underway, as namely women who had been forced to stay in the shadows began to share their stories for the first time.

Cha Myeong-suk (58, a resident of Andong, North Gyeongsang Province), another woman remembered for her street broadcasting during the Gwangju Uprising, also took the stage during an event at Gumnam Street in Gwangju held the evening before.

“It was painful and scary to come to Gwangju, but I’m standing here to urge us to learn the truth about the victims who have suffered for 38 years,” said Cha, who was severely tortured by the Gwangju 505 Branch of the Defense Security Command and in Gwangju Prison. This was also Cha’s first appearance on stage on the eve of the anniversary.

“Standing on that stage was so painful because it reminded me of what happened back then. I couldn’t look straight ahead of me and had to look off into the distance as I spoke,” Cha said.

The fact that Jeon Chun-sim sat on the very front row at the memorial service illustrates the changing status of the women of Gwangju. There has been a powerful movement in Gwangju for a proper assessment of women’s contribution to the uprising, given the general view that they only helped out the men in the citizens’ army.

May Mothers’ House, which is run by those who survived the uprising and the families of those who did not, is planning to take action to restore the records of assertive resistance by women while also calling for an investigation that will define the sexual violence and torture of women during the uprising as state violence. Part of that will be an event that will bring together for the first time the women, numbering over a hundred, who were detained in connection with the uprising.

“Even though women’s contribution was 49%, their suffering and hardship has been regarded as nothing more than trivial because they weren’t carrying guns like the men in the citizens’ army. We’re going to make an effort to restore the historical facts not only about women’s suffering but also of their resistance efforts during the Gwangju Uprising,” said Jeong Hyeon-ae, 66, who was put in jail at the Sangmudae Army Compound for her participation in the Gwangju Uprising.

A group of four university students called Women of Hardship has started a crowdfunding project to spread awareness of women’s activism for democracy, including the activities of democratic patriot “Jeon Ok-ju” (that is, Jeon Chun-sim).

Some Gwangju residents have also been expressing contrition for not talking about the incidents of sexual violence despite being aware that they had occurred. The problem was that residents had either not considered those incidents to be as important as the torture and murder suffered by the men or considered them too embarrassing to talk about.

“Women’s groups will be putting together a joint action committee to work on behalf of victims of sexual violence before the investigative committee is launched in September. There needs to public awareness that victims of sexual violence are also victims of state violence so that the female victims in Gwangju will not go back into hiding,” said Baek Hui-jeong, president of Gwangju Butterfly.

Another striking sight at the memorial services was the mothers of the Gwangju victims embracing the mothers of those lost in the sinking of the Sewol ferry. The May Mothers, dressed in white mourning garb, wept as they wordlessly embraced more than 30 mothers of Sewol Ferry victims wearing yellow outfits who attended the events on May 17 and 18.

“Don’t cry anymore. We need to be strong if we’re going to get to the bottom of this and punish the guilty parties so that no one suffers like this again,” said Kim Gil-ja, 79, who lost her 16-year-old son Mun Jae-hak, a first-year student at Gwangju Commercial High School, in 1980. For a long time, Kim held on tightly to the other woman’s hands.

“I don’t know how you endured your rage for 38 years. I will follow in the footsteps of the May Mothers, who have taken the lead in the democracy movement on behalf of their sons,” promised Kwon Mi-hwa, whose 16-year-old son Oh Yeong-seok, a second-year high school student at Danwon High School, died in the Sewol accident.

Since the Sewol tragedy, the May Mothers have maintained solidarity with the bereaved families of victims in the Sewol accident, who have also suffered from state violence.

By Jung Dae-ha and Ahn Kwan-ok, Gwangju correspondents

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