Protest movement in South Korea in the early 1960s
Miranda Hornung - 17145429
Overview
The 1960s in South Korea were a remarkable decade for many reasons. It was a period of exponential economic growth, and the beginning of its robust military dictatorship. Moreover, the turn of the decade marked the beginning of a significant and incredibly dynamic social movement; the first radical wave against the government after the state’s establishment. Regarded as an ‘incomplete revolution’, the 1960s demonstrations signpost historically significant string of events. Civil disobedience took various forms, including marches, demonstrations, vigils and foundational publication of uncensored information by the media. Consequentially, a public discourse
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On Election Day, in March, protest spread to Masan, where citizens had been intentionally un-enrolled from the electoral roll. The police retaliated violently, eventually killing many citizens. Investigations took place, which culminated in the discovery of a body dumped in the bay at Masan, ‘with a police tear gas canister lodged in the left eye socket’. The finding of this particular subject symbolised the vicious response of the state. In turn, outrage again drove residents to the street in protest and spurred university students into action.
Students at Korea University then spent a number of days planning a major demonstration to take place in Seoul. A small protest demanding a new election took place in Seoul on the 18th of April, but the government officials were unresponsive. The following day, approximately 50 000 students from a range of colleges and high schools gathered outside government buildings. Demonstrations across South Korea took place in solidarity to the cause. These demonstrations multiplied in size and number after the police applied ‘indiscriminate and uncontrolled’ force to protesters in the
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The Movements of the New Left by Van Gosse documents the events that shaped American’s lives during the 1960s and 1970s. In these 45 documents, Gosse touches on topics of race, antiwar, gay rights and nonviolent demonstrations. The Civil Rights Movement and the Feminist Movement both shared the ideas of equal rights for everyone. Both movements relate to mainstream liberalism, share similar goals or differences, evolved in the 1970s, and still have an impact on American’s to this day.
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The Sixties, by Terry H. Anderson, takes the reader on a journey through one of the most turbulent decades in American life. Beginning with the crew-cut conformity of 1950s Cold War culture and ending with the transition into the uneasy '70s, Anderson notes the rise of an idealistic generation of baby boomers, widespread social activism, and revolutionary counterculture. Anderson explores the rapidly shifting mood of the country with the optimism during the Kennedy years, the liberal advances of Johnson's "Great Society," and the growing conflict over Vietnam that nearly tore America apart. The book also navigates through different themes regarding the decade's different currents of social change; including the anti-war movement, the civil rights struggle, and the liberation movements. From the lunch counter sit-in of Greensboro, N.C. in 1960 and the rise of Martin Luther King, Jr. to the Black Power movement at the decade's end, Anderson illustrates the brutality involved in the reaction against civil rights, the radicalization of some of the movement's youth, and the eventual triumphs that would change America forever. He also discusses women's liberation and the feminist movement, as well as the students' rights, gay rights, and environmental movements.
However, while it remains a matter of some contention where exactly these anti-authoritarian sentiments originated, it is my opinion that this discontentment gained real momentum during the 1950s and 1960s.
Pearson, Lester B. "Documents on the Korean Crisis." University of Manitoba. January 24, 1951. http://www.umanitoba.ca/libraries/units/archives/canada_war/tribune/website/clippings/korea/Documents_on_the_Korean_Crisis1.shtml (accessed December 18, 2011).
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