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I think that we forget 18 May partly because it succeeded. There is no enormous symbol of the failure and suppression of 18 May in the same way that there is of
by eynsham 5y ago
I think that we forget 18 May partly because it succeeded. There is no enormous symbol of the failure and suppression of 18 May in the same way that there is of 4 June. I suppose that another massacre that sticks in my mind is the Kent State Massacre, which also passes unremarked. The lesson I draw from this is people may forget even when the state does not encourage them to do so: it’s much easier to discuss the Kent State Massacre in the US than 4 June on the Mainland, and yet it’s not really very obvious which in the respective area is better known.
- jinwoo68 5y agoMay 18 succeeded? It was a beginning of a long dictatorship in Korea. Maybe we can say it was a success because Korean people achieved democracy as a result of a long battle against the dictatorship that shared with May 18 in spirit. But it was a big loss at that time causing huge sorrow in people’s hearts.
- eynsham 5y agoI suppose that you are right that it is an infelicitous turn of phrase: I mean what you mean, i.e., that the long battle eventually was won. In China, the vindication of 4 June looks more distant a prospect than ever.
- yongjik 5y agoAmerica largely forgot about 5/18 because they never got the chance to know it: on the very same day, Mount St. Helens erupted, killing 57. I can only imagine the media frenzy after that. Of course, in South Korea, it was never forgotten. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1980_eruption_of_Mount_St._Helens https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1980_eruption_of_Mount_St._Hel...
- xbar 5y agoI liked this story. The failure to account for the amount of mindshare Mount St. Helens' eruption consumed is regrettable. This date, May 18, 1980, is clearly burned in my memory as the day of the eruption. As a youth, I cut out the the headlines and photos from 2 newspapers and saved them for decades.