‘I saw death in his eyes’: decades later, reporter haunted by hero of bloody South Korean uprising
A brutal 1980 crackdown against anti-government protesters in Gwangju left at least 170 people dead
Even decades later, the wounds of a bloody uprising that shook the South Korean city of Gwangju in 1980 remain raw, but for retired reporter Bradley Martin, the most searing memory remains the heroism of a nameless rebel leader he met one day before his death.
“He kept looking at me, and finally I asked him: ‘The military has encircled the city, they are far more powerful than you, they will kill you, what is your plan?’” Martin recalled in Seoul this week. “He said, ‘We will fight to the end, we will resist to the last.’ I saw death in his eyes.”
The retired reporter and two colleagues were visiting South Korea as guests during commemorations for the Gwangju Uprising, which took place 18-27 May 1980. Pro-democratic citizens in the city rose against an oppressive central government; a subsequent military operation ended in a massacre. With Korea under martial law, foreign, rather than local journalists reported it – a traumatic landmark in Korea’s recent history.
This year, Minister of Patriots and Veterans Affairs Park Sung-choon was barred from the memorial cemetery by victims’ families Wednesday after Korea’s right-wing government ordered that a choir, rather than participants, sing the uprising’s anthem March of the Beloved. Some conservatives insist the song reflects leftist ideals.
President Park Geun-hye did not attend.
