The commemoration of the Gwangju Uprising: of the remnants in the nation states’ historical memory
Hang KIM
On October 26, 1979, then President Park Chung Hee was assassinated by the Head of the Korean Central Intelligence Agency. Due to this accident, the autocracy sustained for 18 years has finally ended. Facing this state of emergency, various political sectors like parties, student movements, and the military, tried to meet the situation with their own scenarios. It was a clique of the military who took the initiative. They arrested the army chief of staff who was the chief martial law administrator at that time and ventured a military takeover, that is, ‘the December 12thcoup d’etat.’ The coup enabled Chun Doo Hwan, the head of them, to usurp the state power, which spurred a nationwide resistance by the citizens and students. To suppress the opposition, Chun declared the martial law, which had been limited in Seoul by that time, to be extended to the entire country at 0:00 on May 18, 1980.
Author’s biography
Hang Kim received Ph.D degree from Graduate School of Interdisciplinary Cultural Studies at University of Tokyo. He published several books in Korean and Japanese, including Speaking Mouth and Eating Mouth 말하는입과먹는입(2009, Saemulyul 새물결) and The Threshold of the Japanese Empire 帝国日本の閾(2010, Iwanamishoten 岩波書店).