The democratic uprising in Gwangju on May 18th was an unplanned resistance by the citizens who got angry with the airborne troop’s brutal suppression of them. Another factor that caused Gwangju to uprise was the legacy of the Yushin regime. Park Jeong-hee regime mobilized the army with the political aim to support the Neo-military forces.
The civilians in the democratization movement force in Gwangju resisted against the dictatorship that was the Yushin regime. The movement force organized an opposition against the Yushin regime in many areas during the regime’s last days. In the period of ‘Spring in Seoul,’ democratization movement forces developed a campaign to liquidate the Yushin regime. However, some activists were arrested in advance or left Gwangju when martial law was extended to the whole country.
Since May 18th, witnessing young people injured with clubs and bayonets and dragged by troops, citizens in Gwangju got angry. Relentless and brutal suppression in a big city of the province angered them. Already before martial law troops fired a collective volley on May 21th, over 100,000 of the citizens gathered at Geum’nam-ro in front of the Jeolla Nam-do Provincial Government Office, and showed their will to drive the martial law troops out, especially the airborne troops, and not to suffer any more casualties. After the martial law troops’ collective and intentional firings, citizens in Gwangju grabbed guns and ran into a hazard situation in which all of them might actually be killed.
Democratization movement activists who stayed in Gwangju carried out their role to converge the rage of the citizens. They published handbills in the early period of the uprising and organized the citizens’ rally since May 22th when the martial law troops withdrew from Gwangju. Also, they turned down the martial law troop authorities’ unilateral request of surrender. They chose to die with the citizens in the Provincial Government Office and the YMCA at dawn on May 27th when the martial law troops finally crushed the uprising by force. They did not abandon their weapons till the last point, as they were against the dictatorship which they had already experienced under the Yushin regime. They named the citizens’ struggle as an ‘Uprising for democracy,’ and named the groups which commanded the brutal suppression as ‘Remnants of Yushin’ or ‘Sons of Yushin’. The democratization movement force which fought against the Yushin regime played a part in the 5·18 democratic uprising. They struggled to their death, against the martial law troops’ bloody suppression at the dawn on May 27th, and were killed screaming, “we are not rioters.”