The 5.18 Uprising of Gwangju, South Korea marked the beginning of a ten-day battle between the citizens of the city and the military forces. Led by university students of Chonnam National University, the people fought a bloody battle to combat the martial law that they believed should end with the fall of the previous Yushin Regime.

The Yushin Regime was a tumultuous era in South Korea with Park Chung-hee at the forefront. His push for economic prosperity through industrialization led some regions of the peninsula, including Gwangju, to suffer financially and left its people to face discrimination. Eight years before the Uprising, Park declared martial law and a new constitution which gave him far more power, including the closure of universities. His new measures lasted until a military coup by General Chun Doo-hwan who took control soon after.

Chun needed to justify his ascent to power and block any student resistance that may arise from the end of the Yushin Regime, so he decided to make an example out of Gwangju. With the fall of the regime, students believed that martial law should come to an end and turned campuses into democratization movements by staging street demonstrations demanding the removal of martial law. Instead of acceding to these demands, Chun played on existing stereotypes and cracked down on the students on May 18th, 1980, with paratroopers armed with clubs that viciously attacked defenseless students attempting to go to class. Gwangju citizens responded with ten days of rallies, protests, and marches where students and citizens were met with violent opposition by the martial law forces at the cost of countless lives. The conflict came to an end on May 27th when the military pronounced themselves the victors.

What followed was years of distortion of the Gwangju Uprising and claims made by Chun’s government that the “riot” was due to communists attempting to sow discord as an attempt to misinform and influence outsiders’ views of Gwangju citizens and their plight. Subsequent uprisings and protests proved this narrative wrong as people continued to rally for a new, democratic constitution and leadership. Despite this, it would take just over a decade before Gwangju citizens received justice for those killed when in July 1990, over 2,000 people were compensated and in December 1995 when the Gwangju Special Act was passed, making it possible to retroactively punish those responsible. In 2018, the building now known as Jeonil Building 245 was officially recognized as having been subject to helicopter machine gun fire during the Uprising, completely overturning the false claim that the military was invoking the right to self-defense and acting as a catalyst for uncovering the truth. The building was remodeled and opened as a historical and cultural space where one can see the marks left behind by the 245 bullets that showered the building and stands as a reminder of the struggle Gwangju citizens experienced in a bid for democracy.