Special exhibition hopes to shed light on Gwangju uprising
![A special exhibition dedicated to the 40th anniversary of the May 18 movement in Gwangju is open through Oct. 31 at National Museum of Korean Contemporary History in central Seoul. [ESTHER CHUNG]](https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/data/photo/2020/05/17/f25d9d1d-90c0-4665-bf38-7ad74a241444.jpg)
A special exhibition dedicated to the 40th anniversary of the May 18 movement in Gwangju is open through Oct. 31 at National Museum of Korean Contemporary History in central Seoul. [ESTHER CHUNG]
Features first-person accounts from government and citizens involved
Kim was a third-year student at Chonnam National University at the time and among dozens of other students and civilians gathered at the building to protest Chun Doo Hwan’s seizure of power in a military coup five months earlier.
Kim survived to tell her tale of the May 18 movement 40 years ago.
Many others did not.
A special exhibition launched last week at the National Museum of Korean Contemporary History in central Seoul is hoping to bring more of their stories to light.
“This is the first time that a large-scale exhibition on the May 18 movement is being held in Seoul,” said Chu Chin-oh, director of the museum, at the opening ceremony of the exhibition on Tuesday. “It is our hope that the exhibition will bring the May 18 Democratization Movement closer to the people and remind them that what happened in Gwangju was not a regional event. It was a national one.”
The movement was probably the most important milestone in Korea’s struggle for democracy in decades past but still remains subject to intense dispute over its significance between opposing ideological sides in the country.
The May 18 movement, also called May 18 Democratic Uprising by Unesco or the May 18 Gwangju Democratization Movement, took place from May 18 to 27, 1980, when thousands of citizens joined a public uprising in the southwestern city of Gwangju to protest Chun Doo Hwan’s seizure of power in a military coup five months earlier. Chun’s military junta deployed troops to the city in a brutal crackdown.
The violent nature of the event was the spark of a struggle for democracy that ultimately culminated in nationwide protests in June 1987 and gave birth to Korea’s current democratic system.
Open through Oct. 31, the exhibition, “May, When the Day Comes Again,” includes written and verbal accounts of what took place from May 18 to 27 in Gwangju, from the perspectives of both the government and ordinary citizens.
Some items on display have been added to Unesco’s Memory of the World Programme.
“Items registered by Unesco that are being displayed publicly for the first time are the original copies of written instructions for an emergency martial law decree and a short film in English the government produced in 1980 after the uprising, to put out a message to the world that ‘all is O.K.’ when it wasn’t,” an official of the National Archives of Korea told the Korea JoongAng Daily.
![The original copy of the written instructions for an emergency martial law decree. [ESTHER CHUNG]](https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/data/photo/2020/05/17/c05d6778-15ae-4d13-bbe4-d107ba5859f6.jpg)
The original copy of the written instructions for an emergency martial law decree. [ESTHER CHUNG]
![A visual and audio account by a mother who lost her son during the uprising. [ESTHER CHUNG]](https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/data/photo/2020/05/17/1474b941-dc1c-4fc5-803d-b50bfd6914f7.jpg)
A visual and audio account by a mother who lost her son during the uprising. [ESTHER CHUNG]
![A comparison of a page in the Jeonnam Daily Newspaper, published on June 2, 1980, shows that one reporting about the May 18 movement was censored. Shown on the left is the page of the newspaper before parts of the reporting about the movement were edited out. Shown on the right is the final published version. [ESTHER CHUNG]](https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/data/photo/2020/05/17/c6454a23-a849-4a3e-a1fd-73bc6f3d2f55.jpg)
A comparison of a page in the Jeonnam Daily Newspaper, published on June 2, 1980, shows that one reporting about the May 18 movement was censored. Shown on the left is the page of the newspaper before parts of the reporting about the movement were edited out. Shown on the right is the final published version. [ESTHER CHUNG]
![Located on the third floor of the museum, a motion picture screen and map show where in the city the civilian-military scuffles took place during the May 18 movement in 1980. [ESTHER CHUNG]](https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/data/photo/2020/05/17/bd3c5e5d-396d-488d-84f6-d3ed12a7c6ee.jpg)
Located on the third floor of the museum, a motion picture screen and map show where in the city the civilian-military scuffles took place during the May 18 movement in 1980. [ESTHER CHUNG]
BY ESTHER CHUNG [[email protected]]
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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