Korean Democracy -- Still an Adolescent
Ooh, don't like that title. But it'll have to do.

It never fails to surprise me that democracy is still so new in this country. You'd think that after the Korean War, what with the American presence and all, a democratic government would have been set up snap boom bang. The situation wasn't like the one we are seeing in Iraq now -- there was no significant underground resistance taking shots at American soldiers, for one -- so... oh, wait. American attempts at setting up democracies. Yeah. Forgot about that.

In video class today, we learned about the time period in which the video we're watching takes place. The drama we're watching, A Winter Clover, focuses on two students -- one a shy, studious sort, the other a rough and gruff toughie -- and their interaction with a teacher at their school. (Side note: then, as now, high school students had to wear uniforms, but the uniforms of the 1980s are clearly modeled after military attire. I've seen Korean military academy cadets of today wearing uniforms that aren't as stiff as the outfits the students in the film wear.)

The toughie tries to straighten up his act after he meets the new, young literature teacher, who encourages him to read the classics, and praises his recitation of a poem (an inside joke, since the "poem" is actually a well-known song in Korea). He seems to be on his way to rehabilitation, when one day, on the way to the teacher's house for her birthday party, he and his nebbishy friend encounter some street toughs.

The street gang starts a tussle, and the toughie, defending his friend, slams the members of the gang down, but is then immediately caught by the police. Despite the pleas of his friend and teachers, he is sent to "Sam Chung Gyo Uke Dae" (Three Cleansings Education Program). This program was begun by a military dictator, Jun Doo Hwan, who happened to also be president during this period. He promised that he would clean up society, and did so, by throwing anyone who committed any kind of crime into this education program -- even for misdemeanors. A bit like Guliani's zero tolerance policy, actually.

As you might guess, the streets did become safer (just like Iraq under Saddam!), but while actual criminals were caught, a good number of people were just in the wrong place at the wrong time. A total of 60,000 people were sent to the re-education program. Of that number, several dozen died while being "educated," while another significant percentage suffered such severe mental stress that they developed post-tramautic distress syndrome, and other psychological illnesses.

We also learned today that in 1980, a historic event happened: the Gwang-ju Massacre. In May of 1980, college students in Gwang-ju, a city in the south, like college students all over the country, were engaged in a protest against martial law and for democracy. When the army was called in, the soldiers beat and killed a number of these protesters in a stunning display of violence.

The news of the day mentioned only that the army had suppressed a group of unsavory characters in Gwang-ju. Only later did people find out that these students had been protesting for democracy.

Lewis, who delivered the report on this event today, said that he had asked a couple of young Koreans (college-age) living in his boarding house about the Gwang-ju Massacre, but that they didn't know enough about it to tell him anything of substance. He had to go to the internet to find the facts. Our teacher, who is probably in her mid-30s or so, said that young people today aren't interested in the sadder parts of the recent past.