Jason's Awesome Blog: 2014

Been some time since I last blogged, eh? I was busy with schoolwork and whatnot so I had zero time to blog I have been working on. Today I have a short first draft of a short story that I'm working on. It's based on the Gwangju Uprising. If you don't know what it is, check out this site: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gwangju_Uprising
Here's the story(Might be a bit long and boring, though):

These days, when I see young kids fooling about with their smartphones and whatnot, I wonder. How did kids become so ignorant, so uncaring for the country? Compared to what me and my friends did when we were young… I bet that none of the younger generation would stand up even if a second dictator, a second President Chun showed up. I remember…

***

“And so, General Chun has become the de facto successor to President Park, with no agreement from the citizens of South Korea, particularly of those in Kwangju,” a voice blared from the radio. This station was one of the few that weren’t controlled by the government.

“Right now, General Chun has taken over the entire military and claims that the government will use ‘armored force’ if the demos continue. General Chun has also taken over most of the media so the entire world and most of South Korea have no knowledge of the massacre happening right now in Kwangju.”

I sighed. Wasn’t Korea supposed to be a democratic government? Isn’t that the reason that we are divided into North and South? Why then, is some person trying to become like a dictator? Thinking those thoughts, I went to our makeshift shelter under a bicycle shop.

***

I led a pretty much uneventful life. I was born in Kwangju in 1957 and attended Kwangju schools. Then, I went to Chonnam National University where I studied physics. At that time, President Park Jeong Hui was president and a lot of people were protesting for his so called dictatorship. During those days, I wasn’t really interested in politics and didn’t care about what President Park did. Then, President Park died. One day while I was studying at college, a radio broadcast announced that President Park was assassinated. After hearing the news, I was secretly glad. Finally, Korea can become a democratic country! Or so I thought. In 1980, a new person by the name of Chun Doo Hwan became de facto ruler of Korea. Because of him, everywhere in the country was filled with soldiers. At that time, I felt that it was too much so I decided to lead a peaceful protest with my friends. Firstly, I and my good friends Minju and Taesu set up a campaign for our schoolmates to join the protest against General Chun. Surprisingly, a whole lot of people joined in on the campaign. After a few days of acquiring members for our campaign, I, Minju, and Taesu learned that about 4 more campaigns like ours were running in various colleges across Kwangju. We arranged to meet at April 10^th to discuss how we were going to do the protest and whether our campaigns should unite. At the makeshift ‘meeting,’ we decided to do the protest at May 18^th. After making a whole lot of posters about democracy, we started the protest. Sadly, we had no idea what would happen soon after.

***

“Hey, Minju. You okay?” I said with concern once I went into the shelter.

During the protest, the soldiers suddenly started throwing grenades and bullets at us. It was wholly unexpected and so we were totally unprepared for what happened. I managed to take control of the situation and make sure that everyone knew that we should meet up at the bicycle store and various other stores across Kwangju. The other protesters, in reply to the soldiers, started throwing rocks at the soldiers. Because of this, the soldiers started throwing more grenades. It was total chaos. I also threw rocks at the soldiers all the while screaming, “We are FREE! We are FREE! We are FREE!!!!” The fighting continued for hours and hours. It smelled of blood and sweat and human waste. After a couple of hours, the fighting slowly went down. The soldiers went to their camps to rest and refuel while the protesters went to small, hidden shelters scattered around Kwangju. The shelter that I had set up had about a hundred people or so. It was one of the larger ones. The second largest was the shelter was set by Taesu a couple kilometers to the south.

“Yeah, I’m fine except for a couple of bruises on my leg. Compared to others, I’m healthy!” said Minju.

“What others?”

Minju pointed to the other side of the shelter. There, someone was crying over a charred, red shape. It took me a moment to realize that it was a human. The person’s face was unrecognizable. It was covered in so much blood and ash. In fact, I was unsure if he could even see.

“Oh my god.”

I suddenly became angry. Chun Doo Hwan, even after doing this to an innocent boy, was claiming that nothing had happened and that Korea had nothing to worry about.. What a &%@#* he is!

“Is that guy alive?” I asked.

“Well, according to a medical school student he is. But he has not much longer to live. We’re unsure if he can even make it through the night.” Minju said.

I took a moment to analyze the situation. Then I sighed and decided to go to sleep. It had been a long day, after all. After saying some encouraging words to the survivors, I went to sleep.

***

I awoke to the sound of sobbing. I rubbed my eyes and stood up. In front of me stood Minju and some kid that I haven’t seen before. It seemed to be that I had woke up in middle of a conversation. The kid was crying and sobbing like the world was about to end.

“What’s this all about?” I asked.

The question was directed at the sobbing kid but it was Minju who answered.

“It seems that this kid came from Taesu’s shelter.”

“So Taesu’s all right?”

“Yes. In fact, he’s here right now getting some rest.”

“Well. That’s good news.”

“It’s the only good news.” Minju paused. “The kid says that a couple hours ago, while most of the kids in Taesu’s camp were sleeping, it was raided by the police and soldiers. Thanks to a couple of kids who were keeping watch, about a third of the kids were able to escape but the rest were arrested and dragged away. One of them died.”

“…”

“This one is one of the kids who escaped. He says that some of the kids who were arrested knew the location of this camp and that we should get ready in case of a raid.”

“Well. Isn’t that perfect?” I said. “Is there anywhere else we can go?”

“Well, yes, but according to Taesu, most of the available shelters are overrun with police. It’ll probably be better in the long run to just stay here and set up a barricade.”

“Isn’t it dangerous? I think it’ll be better if we just moved to another dong(동).”

“That’ll be a great idea if the surrounding provinces weren’t covered with soldiers. If we move, we might get caught. It’s too risky to move.”

“Well… All right. Let’s get the chairs and other furniture to make a barricade so the soldiers can’t come in”

“OK.”

A couple hours passed. A third of us were assigned to building the barricade while a third of us readied stones and other weapons in case the soldiers attacked. The rest who were not wounded took care of the kids who were hurt. I personally went around trying to heighten up the moral. It was hard. Everyone was feeling scared and afraid. Even after I said reassuring things to people, they just stared at me with doubting eyes.

At around 11 am, there was a sudden booming noise. A girl who looked like she was still in middle school ran up and shouted, “Soldiers have come and are shooting guns at us!” After she said that, she collapsed. A couple ran to her help while the others readied stones with grim faces. The siege had begun.

We managed to hold the shelter/fort for a couple of days. During the fighting, I thought, “Is this what the soldiers in the Korean War felt during battle?” I felt sorry for the soldiers that fought for us during the Korean War. I also thought of what a monster Chun Doo Hwan was. How can he go to sleep at night after killing so many? How can he go to sleep at night after having killed so many young, innocent people and tortured hundreds, no thousands of others? I simply couldn’t understand.

It was the third day of fighting. About a half of our number had been injured or arrested. The people left were in bad spirits and some even muttered among themselves about giving themselves up to the police. Each time I heard this, I went up to them and said, “Don’t despair! We will win. How can you give up when we are fighting so hard for our freedom? For freedom’s sake, don’t give up and fight on.” After hearing this, some got hope and got courage. Some just looked away and cursed beneath their breath. I didn’t care. If they were going to give up their freedom, then be it.

BOOM! Suddenly, the world rocked. I swayed for a bit then everything went black.

***

I woke up in a dark room tied to a chair. My moth tasted of copper. I slowly opened my eyes. In front of me, there stood a large and muscular man who looked like he had been working out for years. He had a crew cut and was staring at me intently.

“So you woke up, eh? How do you feel?”

“I feel like the poor person who met Chun Doo Hwan in person.”

“Shut up! You now have no right to speak unless I ask you to,” the muscular man said.

“So, do you know where the other traitors are hiding?”

I didn’t answer.

“I asked you if you know.”

“…”

“Why aren’t you answering???!!!”

“Because I don’t like your ugly face.”

The muscular man roared and started beating me up with his fists. After what seemed like eternity, the man stopped and said, “If you don’t answer, I will beat you up until you can’t speak.”

“Okay. I don’t really want to talk to you anyway.”

The muscular man than picked up something that looked like a whip and started flogging me with it. After a couple hours, I was thrown out of the room and let go. The room turned out to be a police station. By that point, I had difficulty seeing and had difficulty in standing up, let alone walk. I managed to stumble home. It seemed that that the fighting had ended.

When I came home, there was my mother was in my old room. The moment she saw me, her eyes went wide and rushed to me.

“Oh, my precious son! What have you done?” she said, and burst into tears.

“Has the fighting stopped?”

“Yes, it has.” My mother said between sobs. Just then, my father came into the room. He patted my mother and stared at me for a long time, saying nothing. He then said, “ Honey. It was for a good cause. I’m proud of what he did.”

Yes, dad. I am too.

***

These days, kids are too ignorant of politics. They don’t know what price freedom has. The take it for granted and even dislikes the right to vote. They don’t know what me and other students went through for freedom. My own grandchildren think that my experiences are little more than a bedside fairy tale. I hope that our younger generation will recognize the value of freedom and be more thankful of it without having to go through the horrors I experienced 30 years ago.

These days, I hear from a lot of my friends that they're feeling depressed. I really don't know why fun and loud friends suddenly turn up one day and spend the day not saying a word and staring into space. If a friend is depressed, I often say reassuring words to him/her to make him/her feel better. I know a lot of people aren't seeing my blog as I'm relatively new at blogging, but I just want to say this to people who, like my friends, are feeling depressed.
Yes, there are hardships during life. Sometimes you might want to just give up everything. Sometimes, nobody might be next to you to assure you that everything is okay. Sometimes, you might fall into a hole with no way out.
But, remember this. Remember everything that you had accomplished in the past. Think of everything you have done. And think of what you can do in the future. If you give up, wouldn't everything you have done until now be a waste? Wouldn't everything, everything you have done until now be a waste of time, resources, and energy? Think about that the next time you want to give up on yourself