Book review: forgotten heroes of April Revolution

"Agents of the April Revolution" by Oh Je-yeon et al. / Courtesy of Yukbi

By Park Han-sol

In the year 1960 ― 15 years after gaining independence from Japanese colonial rule (1910-1945) and just seven years after experiencing the devastating Korean War (1950-53) that ended in armistice ― a historic turning point in the battle for democracy came to Korea in the form of the April Revolution.

Commonly referred to as the April 19 Revolution, the event actually consists of a series of nationwide mass protests spanning from Feb. 28 to April 26, 1960, against the autocratic rule and political corruption of Korea's first president, Syngman Rhee.

What is characteristic of this decade-defining incident that eventually led to Rhee's abdication is that the movement was a result of the spontaneous solidarity formed among people of different social classes and backgrounds who largely resorted to non-violent resistance.

But the historical narrative revolving around the April Revolution has for long depicted the event as the sole property of students ― especially university students ― and intellectuals, thereby erasing the record of other social group's participation, six history scholars argue in the book "Agents of the April Revolution."

By primarily focusing on the roles of students, urban poor and women, the book, compiled by the Institute for Korean Democracy, examines the reason behind such marginalization.

Of course, one cannot ignore the students' sociopolitical contribution that came to be at the center of the revolution, which began in Daegu on Feb. 28 through a number of protests led by middle and high school students against the Liberal Party's authoritarian rule and rigged presidential election in March. In addition to such demonstrations, the death of student protester Kim Ju-yul eventually led to the mass participation of college students and the general public.

Oh Je-yeon, assistant professor of history at Sungkyunkwan University, explains how the student population was able to systemically take an initiating role to become the principal agents of the pro-democracy protests. These factors include their social position in the 1950s amid the national educational expansion, their self-identification as a "pure elite" fighting for justice and truth as well as their formation of intricate regional and organizational networks.

But unlike students, the urban poor were largely dismissed from the movement's historical narrative despite the fact that more casualties occurred among the working class and the unemployed.

Ha Keum-chul, a Ph.D. candidate at the Academy of Korean Studies, analyzes how the urban working class' participation in protests was portrayed as that of rioters stoking fears of social disorder.

Ha criticized the binary depiction of "day protests" and "night protests" in the various chronicles of the April Revolution as they separated the students who symbolized the spirit of non-violent resistance during the day from the urban poor who "resorted to violent methods" during the night, without concrete evidence. As a result, the protests of the lower class became devoid of political significance and instead were interlaced with the images of arson, pillage and crime.

Another marginalized social group in the history of the revolution were women whose roles were either viewed as relatively insignificant or even nonexistent, Hong Seuk-ryule, a history professor at Sungshin Women's University, states.

The most extreme case occurred on April 25 in the so-called "Masan Grandma Protest." The mass demonstration led by middle-aged and elderly women made the demand for President Rhee's resignation clearer than any other protests at the time, but was removed from the spotlight compared to the protest shepherded by university professors in Seoul that occurred the same day.

Hong added that when women weren't excluded from the narrative, their roles were still described in discriminatory rhetoric, citing Kim Mi-ran's thesis "'Young Lions' Revolution and the Lower Classes' Evaporation ― Representation of April Revolution and Rhetoric of Elimination."

"Women's protests are always viewed as something out of the ordinary. The portrayal of their activities reduces them to mere helpers who carry stones to throw, cook food and fetch bowls of water. They are also always seen to be crying on-site. And the description of their looks becomes prominent," Hong stated.

Although it is true that women often partook in assisting and protecting the demonstrators, Hong stressed that instead of dismissing such activities as secondary, one should interpret them as a sign of their active support for democracy and a bridge connecting the protesters and the general public.

Such marginalization of women and other social minorities in the existing chronicles of the April Revolution is an inevitable result of the historical narrative's tendency to focus on the Seoul region, the elite class and male population, the book explains.

In the end, the message of "Agents of the April Revolution" highlighting the importance of acknowledging and drawing the participation of different social classes instead of erasing them from the history altogether remains relevant, especially to those who continue to fight for democracy to this day.