As noted above, I would not classify the Kwangju Uprising as a “democratic movement,” but as an over the top mob action. Things were bad and the people had been wronged, but it is just fantasy to classify the uprising as such a movement.

I think it was Don Oberdorfer who wrote in, The Two Koreas, that the ROK government actually made radio announcements or dropped leaflets (one or the other, I don’t recall which) to the effect that the U.S. had given permission (didn’t happen and not required under the security agreements) and in fact supported the ROKA actions in Kwangju. That sentiment has since been picked up by Korean academic, and even propagated by shills like Tim Shorrock (a so called “journalist”).

I will say that not all residents are anti-American, however. In the summer 2002 I visited the Kwangju Satae Myoji (Kwangju Uprising Cemetery), which is on the outskirts of town. Upon leaving he cemetery I missed the bus, which only comes once an hour (or did then), so I started hoofing it to my next destination, the very nice museum in Kwangju.

A Korean gentleman probably in his 60s came along and offered me a ride, and I gladly hopped in as it was hot. Chatting with my limited Korean, I found that he’d lived in the area for “a long time,” and was a grandfather. He asked where I was from and what I was doing there, and I told him American, in Korea for the summer to brush up on language, and in Kwangju to visit the cemetery, memorial, and museum. He was very friendly, and even went out of his way to take me to the museum even though I only asked to be dropped of at a bus stop. It was one of those times that made the whole weekend (I have had the opposite experience as well, from an elderly person at Soraksan).