Painful democratic awakenings for South Korea, Taiwan

BY SHINICHI KUMAMOTO AND MASAYUKI NISHI

THE ASAHI SHIMBUN

Watching the campaign for Taiwan's presidential election on March 22, we were seized with a feeling of deja vu.

Buses and taxis played a key role in pro-democracy demonstrations in the Kwangju Incident. (PROVIDED BY MAY 18 MEMORIAL FOUNDATION)

Demonstrators and police clash in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, on Dec. 10, 1979, in what later became known as the Kaohsiung Incident. (AP FILE PHOTO)

Yao Chia-wen

Chi Myong Kwan

It appeared so similar to the campaign for South Korea's presidential election three months earlier that we felt as if we were watching a rerun of the South Korean election.

Top contenders were engaged in heated debates on television while criticizing each other with various tactics in an attempt to kick out rivals from the race.

Rallies packed with excited supporters resembled rock concerts.

But such enthusiasm is not the only common element between the two elections. The setups were also similar.

In both countries, the incumbents, who once almost put their lives on the line in their struggle to bring democracy to their homelands, were challenged by candidates descending from dictatorial administrations that suppressed them.

In the end, the candidates from the opposition camps won, and the administrations changed hands.

It appears that democracy in South Korea and Taiwan is developing in a different form from Japan, where a change of governments has yet to take place even though the political scene is moving toward a two-party system.

The foundation must be the people's experience of having endured long periods of authoritarian rule as well as their energy to realize democratization and overthrow dictatorships.

If we look back on the histories of democratization in South Korea and Taiwan based on this viewpoint, we realize that they, too, share much in common.

We turned our eyes to two incidents that occurred around 1980: The Kwangju Incident in South Korea and the Kaohsiung Incident, also known as the Meilidao Incident, in Taiwan.

In both incidents, dictatorships suppressed citizens demanding democratization. But the way the governments clamped down on pro-democracy demonstrators not only failed to bring the situations under control but added even more fuel to the fire.

Is it a coincidence that the two similar incidents occurred around the same time?

Yi Haeng Gi, 56, who was a taxi driver in Kwangju, South Korea, vividly recalls what happened on May 18, 1980.

He did not think anything was up when he saw a group of students holding a demonstration. Student demonstrations were not uncommon in those days.

The next moment, however, soldiers were chasing the students and attacking them with clubs.

Unable to sit back and do nothing, Yi stopped to pick up a group of students and drove off. Soldiers then started attacking drivers and citizens.

The clash marked the beginning of the Kwangju Incident.

Demonstrations continued the following day and thereafter as citizens took to the streets and squared off with troops empowered by martial law.

Taxis and buses took part in demonstrations, turning on headlights and blowing horns.

As many as 300 vehicles, including Yi's taxi, formed convoys and inched forward together. Before them stood armored vehicles and soldiers with guns at the ready.

"I wasn't afraid at all," Yi recalled. "On the contrary, we were encouraged by the many citizens who surrounded us."

Soon, tear-gas canisters were lobbed and billowing white smoke blocked the view. Someone suddenly broke the windshield of his taxi with a gunstock.

Yi was dragged out and beaten to a pulp. Citizens who had rallied fled, and Yi was taken to a hospital.

Students' demonstrations were just a catalyst of the struggle that ensued. The driving force was the people's anger against indiscriminate violence.

Some women supported the movement by preparing meals for demonstrators.

To this day, when May comes around each year, taxis run the streets in formation to observe the anniversary.

"We take pride in having achieved democratization although it cost the lives of fellow drivers and citizens of Kwangju," Yi said.

'Turning point' for Taiwan

The Kaohsiung Incident, meanwhile, took place in Taiwan five months earlier in December 1979.

Yao Chia-wen, 69, a lawyer who had returned from his studies in the United States six years earlier, was arrested at his home one early morning.

He was tried in a military tribunal and sentenced to 12 years in prison for insurgency.

In February 1980, the home of a fellow activist, who was also arrested for his involvement in the incident, was attacked, and his mother and young daughters were killed.

"But the incident proved to be a major turning point for Taiwan to move toward democratization," Yao said.

He became the chairman of the newly formed opposition Democratic Progressive Party after he was released in 1987.

He currently serves as president of the Examination Yuan--the equivalent of Japan's National Personnel Authority--under the administration of President Chen Shui-bian.

At the time of the Kaohsiung Incident, Taiwan was under the dictatorship of the Kuomintang, which fled to the island after its defeat by the Chinese Communist Party in a civil war on the Chinese mainland.

Taiwan had been placed under martial law since 1949, and there was no freedom of the press or assembly.

Still, Yao and others met from the late 1970s under the pretext of such functions as weddings and birthday parties to start a movement for democratization.

They formed the magazine publisher Meilidao because political parties other than the Kuomintang were banned.

Yao believes that the death in 1975 of Chiang Kai-shek, the Kuomintang's charismatic leader, had a major impact on lifting the oppressive mood.

In this regard, too, the situation is similar to that of South Korea, where the assassination of President Park Chung Hee by an aide ended 18 years of his oppressive rule in 1979.

The military crackdown by Chiang's successors not only drew fire from citizens. It also alerted the rest of the world to keep an eye on developments in Taiwan.

"During the trial, we were able to make a long speech calling for the lifting of martial law before representatives of foreign human rights organizations who sat in on the court proceedings," Yao said. "It also took more than a week for the court to hand down a ruling, which previously only took a day."

He said it must have been hugely problematical for the Kuomintang not to hand down the death sentence for him, saying that a 12-year prison sentence is the lightest for insurgency.

What makes the Kaohsiung Incident significant is the way it "awakened the entire Taiwan island to politics," says Chou Wan-yao, 52, a National Taiwan University professor specializing in Taiwan history.

"It aroused the interest of Taiwanese who had been indifferent to politics," she said. "The Kuomintang realized that it could not clamp down on democratization movements like it had done before."

Be that as it may, Taiwan had to wait until the lifting of martial law in 1987 for "true democratization" to emerge.

Once again, it was the same year when massive pro-democracy demonstrations spread across South Korea, forcing the authoritarian government to make a "declaration of democratization."

Chou herself took part in the democratization movement as a student, prompted by the developments in South Korea.

"I saw South Korean women climbing over barbed-wire entanglements to fight. As a woman, I was encouraged," she said. "I also envied South Korea where people were able to stage mass demonstrations."

Some pro-democracy activists said, however, that Taiwanese stuck to nonviolence during the 1980s because they learned from the Kwangju Incident that excessively violent demonstrations would lead to oppression.

Opening a crack in the wall

While South Korea had an impact on developments in Taiwan, neither newspapers nor television in the country reported the Kwangju Incident for domestic audiences at the time.

But a series of magazine articles published in Japan opened a crack in the wall, releasing a flood of information on what happened in South Korea.

From 1973 to 1988, the monthly magazine Sekai, published by Iwanami Shoten, ran the series, titled "Report from South Korea."

The articles, whose author was identified only as T.K.-sei, criticized the military dictatorship and reported the anguish of the people under military rule.

Park Se Il, 59, a professor of law and economics at Seoul National University, read the series in Japan, where he studied from 1973.

At the time, he was followed by South Korean authorities as a student activist.

Park said he believes that Japan made a major contribution to Asia's democratization.

"Including 'Report from South Korea,' I thought there were many lessons to be learned from Japan," he said. "I came across many good teachers, and I also had friends who supported the South Korean movement."

Choi Jang Jip, 64, a professor of political science at Seoul's Korea University, read the series while studying in the United States.

"Since the South Korean mass media was completely under information control at the time, there was no way for people to know what was happening at home," he said. "Students taking part in the movement learned facts from 'Report from Korea.'"

The series was also read by students and intellectuals in South Korea, including Hwang Suk Young, 65, a novelist who was a key figure of the democratization movement.

"Copies were made of the original articles, which were translated into Korean and distributed underground," Hwang said. "The translator was the owner of a pharmacy who published the articles as a pamphlet in Kwangju."

Among those who took the risk to smuggle South Korean information into Japan were many Christians in Japan, South Korea and Germany. The situation produced many dramas.

For example, one Japanese woman was handed a small piece of paper in Seoul. It appeared to be a letter written by an imprisoned activist.

Anyone leaving the country had to undergo strict security checks. The woman decided to hide the paper in her bra and wrapped it in a sock so that officials conducting body search would not feel the papery touch.

The identity of the series' author remained a mystery until 2003, when Chi Myong Kwan, 83, a religious philosopher, came forward.

At the time the articles were published, he was living in Japan in virtual exile while working as a professor at Tokyo Woman's Christian University.

Chi, who subsequently returned to South Korea, has written a book that looks into Japanese and South Korean newspaper reports during the 1970s and 1980s.

"I thought I should carefully record what happened so as not to forget history," he said.

Chi said it is time Japan and South Korea worked together to build "an age of East Asia, in which countries are not oriented toward their own domestic affairs."

In the December presidential election, Chi supported Lee Myung Bak of the Hannara Party, which descends from the former dictatorial administration.

"Asia and the world are changing," he said. "This is not a time to stick to old images and continue fruitless confrontations."

With the advancement of democratization, South Korea, where it was difficult to find out what was going on in Taiwan around 1980, underwent a drastic change.

In 2002, Juan Mei-shu, who lost her father during a Feb. 28, 1947, military crackdown on an anti-government uprising in Taiwan, was invited to Kwangju to speak at a seminar on the Kwangju Incident.

As someone who lost a loved one in the so-called 2.28 Incident, which is considered the starting point of Taiwan's democratization movement, Juan had a chance to talk with people who took part in South Korea's democratization movement.

The 79-year-old Taiwanese said a photo of the Kwangju Incident she was shown at the seminar left an indelible impression on her.

"The victim's face had no eyes, and the nose was crushed. It was the same as the 2.28 Incident," Juan said. "Thinking that my father was killed in a similar manner, I could not hold back the tears."

During dictatorial rule, it was taboo to even talk about the 1947 incident.

Juan's book that came out in 1992 attracted attention as the first account of experiences written by a bereaved relative.

A Japanese translation was released in 2006 from a small Japanese publisher.

Juan has been worried about China's future.

In 1989, she was invited to Chongqing, China, to meet with students after the government cracked down on pro-democracy demonstrators.

One student asked: "Did the Tiananmen Square Incident really happen?"

The question made her realize that China was enforcing information control that had been practiced in Taiwan in the past.

Another student said: "Please take me to Taiwan with you."

Juan is still wondering what has become of the second student.

Site of War symbolizes interlinked Easr Asia

There was a place we wanted to visit again before wrapping up this year-long series. It is the site of the First Opium War that we took up in the first installment.

Guangzhou, where British forces had advanced during the war, was bursting with Japanese and South Korean products.

The streets were crowded with Toyota, Honda and Hyundai cars, all produced in this southeastern Chinese city.

Stores were selling DVDs of Japanese movies and South Korean television dramas.

At a subway station, a wall was occupied by a colorful ad featuring Mount Fuji and cherry blossoms. It was placed by the Japan National Tourist Organization as part of a campaign to lure Chinese tourists to Japan.

GZL International Travel Service Ltd., the city's largest travel agency, sent 18,000 tourists to Japan last year.

The figure is double the previous year, according to Zhao Wenzhi, the company's vice general manager who heads its Japan-South Korea division.

"As China became affluent, overseas travel has become part of everyday life," he said.

We also met Guo Li, 28, a reporter for Nanfang Zhoumo (Southern Weekend), a local weekly newspaper.

Last spring, he took part in a symposium for Japanese, Chinese and South Korean journalists, held at the University of Tokyo.

A story that he wrote upon his return, which called on readers to look at Japan from different angles, stirred controversy.

"In China, we were told that Japan is following the path of militarism. But when I went there, it looked different," Guo said. "When I wrote so, I became a target of criticism on the Internet from people who asked whether I was being paid by Japan."

He is now following Taiwanese politics.

"When it comes to democratization, China lags far behind. There is a lot to learn from Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, which are more advanced," Guo said. "We must look at the Taiwanese presidential election as an example of democratization, instead of focusing on which side won."

History is a continuation of events from the previous age to the next. East Asia comprises a group of nations that are linked with each other. No country can survive on its own. That is how Guo feels from his experiences.

Fact File: Kwangju Incident

A small number of hard-liners in the South Korean Army, centering on Chun Doo Hwan, imposed martial law across the country on May 17, 1980, at a time when the democratization movement was gaining momentum.

They detained influential politicians of the opposition camp, including Kim Dae Jung, and leaders of the student movement.

Troops were dispatched to Kwangju, the central city of Jeollanam-do province and Kim's stronghold, where citizens were staging violent demonstrations.

The government used force on May 18 to crack down on protests by students from Chonnam National University and citizens.

As of 2004, 207 deaths were confirmed in addition to 2,392 people who suffered injuries, according to the May 18 Memorial Foundation. Many others still remain missing.

In 1995, the South Korean national assembly passed the law on the May 18 democratization movement, and former presidents Chun Doo Hwan and Roh Tae Woo were convicted for their involvement in the incident.

In South Korea, the incident is also known as the 5.18 Kwangju democratization movement and the Kwangju democratization (popular) struggle.

Fact File: Kaohsiung Incident

This refers to the crackdown on anti-establishment, pro-democracy demonstrators that occurred in December 1979 in Kaohsiung, southern Taiwan, under the Kuomintang's single-party rule.

It is also known as the Meilidao Incident.

The magazine Meilidao (Formosa), which was launched in May of the same year with anti-establishment leader Huang Hsin-chieh as publisher, organized a rally to commemorate the Dec. 10 Human Rights Day in Kaohsiung.

The authorities tried to block the rally on grounds it was not approved and clashed with citizens who had gathered for the event. Nearly 200 people were injured.

In addition to Huang, Meilidao officials, including current Taiwanese Vice President Annette Lu, were tried in military court and were found guilty of treason.

All of them subsequently joined the leadership of the Democratic Progressive Party.

Among the counsel for defense were current Taiwanese President Chen Shui-bian as well as Frank Chang-ting Hsieh and Su Tseng-chang, the Democratic Progressive Party candidates for president and vice president in the March presidential election.(IHT/Asahi: April 28,2008)