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Koh Jea-hak (left) remembers when martial law was common in South Korea
Koh Jae-hak still vividly remembers the time he saw soldiers gunning down a group of young women in cold blood.
It was April 1960. Students had launched protests calling for the resignation of dictatorial President Syngman Rhee. Mr Koh was working in a government building when he looked out the window and saw protesters confronting police.
“There were protests at different universities, and they all gathered outside… that's when shots were fired,” the 87-year-old said. A few days later, martial law was declared.
South Korea is widely seen as a peaceful model of democracy in Asia, but this has not always been the case. It is a country that experienced 16 episodes of martial law in its first four decades, ruled largely by dictators.
This is why South Koreans now view democracy as a hard-won right. This is also why President Yoon Suk-yeol's declaration of martial law this week – the first in 45 years and under democratic rule – was particularly triggering and elicited such a visceral response.
Almost immediately, lawmakers jumped out of bed and rushed to the National Assembly, scaling barriers to overturn martial law.
Hundreds of ordinary citizens gathered to hold back the troops who had been ordered to expel the deputies.
Some soldiers, apparently unwilling to carry out their orders, reportedly dragged their feet in clearing the crowd and entering the building.
South Korea: how two hours of martial law unfolded
When Yoon declared martial law Tuesday night, he said it was necessary to get rid of “pro-North anti-state” forces. At first, this caused confusion among some South Koreans who believed there was a real threat from the North.
But as they continued to watch Yoon's television announcement, many became skeptical. He gave no proof of the action of these forces, nor explained who they were. Because Yoon had previously used similar language to describe the opposition that had obstructed his reforms, the public concluded that he was actually trying to crush his political enemies.
Previous periods of martial law had also been justified by leaders as necessary to stabilize the country, and sometimes to eradicate what they claimed were communist subversives planted by North Korea.
They restricted freedom of the press and freedom of movement. Nighttime curfews and arrests were commonplace.
Violent clashes have occasionally occurred, most indelibly in 1980, when President Chun Doo-hwan extended martial law to deal with student protesters demanding democracy in the southern city of Gwangju. A brutal military crackdown was launched, and it has since been described as a massacre – while the official death toll is 193, some experts estimate hundreds more died.
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Events like those of 1980 – which ended with the arrest of protesters like these – left a deep scar in South Korea.
South Korea finally transitioned to democracy in 1988, when the government held its first free and fair presidential election following growing public pressure. But the preceding decades have lastingly and profoundly shaped national consciousness.
“Most Koreans are suffering from deep trauma because of martial law,” said Kelly Kim, 53, an environmental activist. “We don’t want to repeat the same thing over and over again.”
Ms. Kim was a young child when martial law was last in effect and she has few memories of it. Yet she shudders at the thought of his return.
“The government would control all media, our normal activities. I work in civil society, so all our activities, like criticizing the government, would not be possible under martial law. So it's really horrible.”
The freedoms afforded by democracy have not only led to a thriving civil society.
In the more than 35 years since that first democratic election, South Korea's creative industries have flourished, with their dramas, television shows, music and literature becoming world-famous. These creative industries have turned their own gaze to the country's past, bringing history to life for those too young to remember it.
The country has seen a proliferation of shows about its past as a dictatorship, immortalizing incidents such as the Gwangju uprising in popular culture.
Some were blockbusters starring South Korea's biggest stars, like last year's 12.12 The Day, a historical drama starring popular actor Hwang Jung-min. The film depicts the political chaos that took place in 1979 when martial law was declared following the assassination of then-President Park Chung-hee.
“As soon as I saw the footage (of Yoon's declaration of martial law), it reminded me of that movie…it made me wonder: Are we about to repeat this story now?” said Marina Kang, a 37-year-old web designer.
“Korea has a wealth of works of visual representation (from that era) in films and documentaries. Even though we only have a vicarious experience of the horrible past through these works… it still gives me the feeling that such events should not happen again.”
BBC / TESSA WONG
There were protests this week calling for Yoon's resignation.
Among young citizens, there is a feeling of disbelief that this situation will ever return. Although they never experienced martial law, their parents and older relatives taught them to fear it.
“At first (when I heard Yoon's announcement), I was excited to take a day off from school. But that joy was fleeting and I was overcome by fear of seeing daily life collapsed. I couldn't sleep.” » said 15-year-old Kwon Hoo.
“My father feared that under martial law he would not be able to stay out late, even though his job required it… When he learned of the possibility of a new curfew, he began to swear while watching the news.
Not all South Koreans feel this way about their past.
“The vast majority of Koreans greatly value democracy and regret postwar authoritarianism,” said Mason Richey, associate professor of international politics at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies in Seoul.
But, he added, “the country remains very divided on many aspects of the authoritarian past, including the justification for certain repressive measures to prevent communist subversion.”
BBC / TESSA WONG
Koh Jae-hak (left) and Kang Hyo-san (right) remember the days when martial law was common in South Korea
A significant portion of the population, especially among the elderly, believes that martial law was once necessary for stability and democracy.
“Back then, it was an era defined by the ideological war between democracy and communist socialism,” said Kang Hyo-san, 83. He was sitting next to his friend Mr Koh at a cafe in Gwanghwamun, Seoul's main square and focal point of the political movement. city protest rallies.
Competing ideologies would lead to clashes and “when the military intervened, the situation would stabilize…this was a process of restoring order and properly establishing a free democracy.”
“Given the circumstances, we couldn't help but view this positively,” he said, adding that he believed each period of martial law left the country in a more “favorable position.” Martial law in South Korea “is fundamentally different” from that in other countries, where it “is not about killing people or resorting to senseless violence”, he insisted.
But this time it's different. The two octogenarians said Yoon's declaration of martial law was unacceptable. “Even though we have experienced martial law many times in our lifetime, this time there is no justification for its declaration,” Mr Koh said.
Like them, Ms. Kim, the environmental activist, was happy that Yoon did not succeed and that democracy ultimately prevailed. “Because we fought so hard to get it, right? We don't want to lose it again.
“Without democracy and freedom to live, what is life?”
