The Archives for the May 18th Democratic Uprising in Gwangju, Republic of Korea
On 18th May 1980 the people of Gwangju rose up to protest against the military dictatorship in control of Korea at that time. The city was taken over by the protesters on 21st May. Soldiers then besieged the city until 27th May when they crushed the protests with great brutality, with many protestors killed or injured.
The crushing of these protests led the military government to lose much of its authority and in 1987 it finally fell, to be replaced with today's democratic Korea.
The documents relating to this protest have been inscribed on the International Memory of the World Register in 2011.
They include official state records, letters, newspaper cuttings, newsletters produced during the protest by the protesters, photographs taken by journalists and others, eyewitness testimony taken after 1987, medical documents of victims, documents from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and documents relating to the granting of compensation to victims after 1987 (3,880 volumes).
Want to learn more?
See the May 18 Memorial Foundation website and the UNESCO Register for more information.
A detailed description of the May 18th Democratic Uprising archives can be found in pages 118-119 of the publication Memory of the World: Documentary Heritage in Asia and the Pacific.