{"id":78067,"date":"2024-06-21T12:32:13","date_gmt":"2024-06-21T12:32:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/06\/21\/his-photos-exposed-a-bloody-crackdown-but-his-identity-was-a-secret\/"},"modified":"2024-06-21T12:32:13","modified_gmt":"2024-06-21T12:32:13","slug":"his-photos-exposed-a-bloody-crackdown-but-his-identity-was-a-secret","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/06\/21\/his-photos-exposed-a-bloody-crackdown-but-his-identity-was-a-secret\/","title":{"rendered":"His Photos Exposed a Bloody Crackdown, but His Identity Was a Secret"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align:center\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1050\" height=\"550\" src=\"https:\/\/i3.wp.com\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2024\/06\/19\/multimedia\/00skorea-photographer-profile-tpzq\/00skorea-photographer-profile-tpzq-facebookJumbo.jpg?resize=1050,550&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"His Photos Exposed a Bloody Crackdown, but His Identity Was a Secret\" title=\"His Photos Exposed a Bloody Crackdown, but His Identity Was a Secret\" \/><\/div><p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">It is an iconic image \u2014 a <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.japantimes.co.jp\/news\/2014\/05\/17\/asia-pacific\/politics-diplomacy-asia-pacific\/dying-democracy-1980-gwangju-uprising-transformed-south-korea\/\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">black-and-white photo<\/a> of a blood-splattered student being clubbed by a paratrooper medic. It was the first photo to slip through the military cordon around Gwangju, South Korea, in 1980, exposing the brutal suppression of what would be known as the <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/event\/Kwangju-Uprising\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">Gwangju Democratization Movement<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">But for years, the identity of the photographer \u2014 an unassuming man named <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/photo.518.org\/sub.php?PID=0102\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">Na Kyung Taek<\/a> \u2014 remained a secret.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Na dared not take credit for the photo and other unsettling images from Gwangju for fear of the military junta and its leader, <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2021\/11\/23\/world\/asia\/chun-doo-hwan-dead.html\" title=\"\">Chun Doo-hwan<\/a>, whose crackdown there left hundreds killed or missing in the darkest chapter in South Korea\u2019s long struggle against dictatorship. Mr. Chun\u2019s rule ended in 1988, and now many in South Korea support <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/constitutionnet.org\/news\/south-korea-office-president-rejects-amendment-proposal-modify-constitutional-preamble\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">a Constitutional revision<\/a> to sanctify Gwangju\u2019s role in the country\u2019s democratization. Still, most have never heard of Mr. Na.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Na, 75, sounded indifferent to the lack of recognition during an interview in Gwangju, where he was a photojournalist for four decades until his retirement in 2007. But he was still haunted by what he saw that fateful spring.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cSouth Korean democracy began in Gwangju,\u201d he said. \u201cI just did what little I could for its citizens.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Na was born in Naju, near Gwangju, in 1949, a farming family\u2019s only son with five elder sisters. He joined Jeonnam Maeil, one of the two Gwangju daily newspapers, in 1967 after high school.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">When then-President <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/1979\/10\/27\/archives\/he-ran-south-korea-down-to-last-detail-he-ran-south-korea-down-to.html\" title=\"\">Park Chung-hee<\/a> visited the region amid drought and it happened to rain, the two dailies blared identical front-page headlines praising the military strongman as a \u201crainmaker.\u201d The editor of Mr. Na\u2019s paper bragged that his headline was bigger than his rival\u2019s.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cOur newspaper had three photographers but two cameras,\u201d Mr. Na recalled. \u201cWhen one of us came in, another took the camera and went out.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">When Mr. Park\u2019s 18-year rule ended with his assassination in late 1979, Mr. Chun, another army general, seized power. The next May, Mr. Chun banned all political activities, closing schools and arresting dissidents. When people in Gwangju rallied against martial law, he sent in tanks and paratroopers.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Na was attending a Sunday Mass in a suburb on May 18 when people from Gwangju were reporting a commotion. It was the beginning of a 10-day uprising during which soldiers shot protesters and citizens fought back with stones and rifles stolen from police stations.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Na found the city center so thick with tear gas that he could not take any pictures; he had no gas mask. The next day, he saw a radio station car on fire. Under martial law censorship, local media vilified the protesters as \u201cviolent mobs\u201d but did not report military brutality. Angry citizens later torched two TV stations as well.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cI was as afraid of protesters as of soldiers,\u201d Mr. Na said. \u201cWhen they saw a reporter, there was murder in their eyes.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Na hid on the fifth floor of a building and took pictures of what was unfolding down on the street: a civilian made to kneel before armed soldiers, a man and woman with blood streaming down their heads as they were dragged away by paratroopers, and the student cudgeled by a paratrooper wearing a medic\u2019s red-cross armband.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Na rushed to his evening newspaper, only to find it unable to publish anything about the crackdown. When reporters put together a bulletin, editors confiscated and destroyed its typesetting.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cWe saw citizens being dragged away like dogs and slaughtered, but could not report a single line about them,\u201d said the reporters\u2019 <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ohmynews.com\/NWS_Web\/View\/at_pg.aspx?CNTN_CD=A0002790227&amp;CMPT_CD=SEARCH\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">joint letter of resignation<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Na and a sympathetic editor decided to hand over his photos to foreign news media.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Tony Chung, a photographer for the American news agency UPI, was in Seoul when two reporters from Gwangju furtively approached him. They were carrying two envelopes, one for Mr. Chung and the other for The Associated Press in Seoul. Each envelope contained photographs taken by Mr. Na and Shin Bok-jin, a photographer for the other Gwangju daily, Jeonnam Ilbo.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">There had been sketchy reports about \u201criots\u201d in Gwangju, Mr. Chung, who is retired and lives south of Seoul, said by telephone. But the photos contradicted the government by bearing witness to military atrocities.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Chung didn\u2019t know who took the photos and didn\u2019t ask. The photographers\u2019 identities had to be protected for their safety, he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The first of the several photos Mr. Chung transmitted abroad was that of the club-wielding medic. The government\u2019s information minister accused him of propagating a \u201cfake\u201d photo, and an intelligence agent warned Mr. Chung to watch his back at night. Mr. Chung was not intimidated and years later, in 1987, his <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/steemit.com\/leehanyeol\/@minsu977\/the-photograph-showing-korean-student-named-lee-han-yeol-being-paralyzed\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">photo<\/a> of a student killed in an anti-government protest, taken for Reuters, helped propel South Korea\u2019s democratization to its climax.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cThose photos from Gwangju told the truth, compelling <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2017\/08\/02\/world\/asia\/south-korea-taxi-driver-film-gwangju.html\" title=\"\">foreign journalists<\/a> to rush there,\u201d said Mr. Chung, 84.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In 1980, although his newspaper had closed, Mr. Na continued to take pictures until more journalists, including Mr. Chung, arrived in Gwangju. Together, they captured the city in indelible images. Citizens gathering around people killed by soldiers. The burning of \u201cChun Doo-hwan the murderer\u201d in effigy. The commandeering of military jeeps and trucks. Paratroopers moving in with armored vehicles, and surrounding and bludgeoning students cowering on the street. Protesters lying dead in blood. Mothers wailing over rows of coffins.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Na spent nights hiding inside a bullet-scarred building, hungry and fearful of army snipers. Protesters once grabbed him by the collar, asking \u201cwhat kind of reporter I was, not publishing what I saw.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cI didn\u2019t know how to make them understand that I wanted to leave a record with my camera, even though I could not publish my photos,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Today, the pictures by Mr. Na and Mr. Shin, the photographer for the other newspaper, who died in 2010, remain virtually the only images capturing the early days of the turmoil, said Jang Je Geun, an editor of three books of Gwangju photos.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The uprising ended on May 27, when paratroopers stormed the city hall, where the protesters, including high school students, took their last stand with a rifle and a few bullets for each. As the early-morning attack began, a female student named Park Young-soon appealed through loudspeakers on the roof: \u201cCitizens of Gwangju, please don\u2019t forget us.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">By the official count, nearly 200 people were killed in Gwangju, including about 20 soldiers, half of them by friendly fire. Civic groups have suggested that the toll was much higher.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Na\u2019s newspaper reopened six days after the blood bath ended, but still could not mention the events. When the paper carried a poem describing a city \u201cabandoned by God and birds,\u201d most of it was <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"http:\/\/www.kwangju.co.kr\/read.php3?aid=1637668800729606006\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">redacted<\/a> by censors. Mr. Na and other reporters visited the victims\u2019 graves and <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/m.ohmynews.com\/NWS_Web\/Mobile\/img_pg.aspx?CNTN_CD=IE002901655&amp;atcd=A0002790227\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">laid flowers in apology.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Na hid his negatives in the ceiling of his apartment because the military was looking for the source of the picture of the baton-wielding paratrooper. When officers visited his home demanding copies of all his photos, Mr. Na kept sensitive ones hidden.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Gwangju inspired a wave of protests across South Korea, forcing the government to agree to democratic reforms in the late 1980s. The photos Mr. Na hid were finally shown in public exhibitions and used as evidence when Parliament investigated the military crackdown. But it was not until 1990, when the Catholic church honored him for his courage, that Mr. Na was identified as their source.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In 2011, an archive on the Gwangju uprising, which included 2,000 photos by Mr. Na, was <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.unesco.org\/en\/memory-world\/human-rights-documentary-heritage-1980-archives-may-18th-democratic-uprising-against-military-regime\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">inscribed<\/a> into Unesco\u2019s \u201cMemory of the World\u201d program that aims to preserve important documentary heritages around the world.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Married with three grown-up daughters, Mr. Na worked at a health center for the elderly for several years after leaving journalism. But he is never free from the pain of Gwangju.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Today, the old military <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2021\/07\/18\/world\/asia\/korea-misinformation-youtube.html\" title=\"\">disinformation<\/a> \u2014 that the Gwangju \u201criots\u201d were instigated by \u201chooligans\u201d and \u201cCommunist elements\u201d \u2014 is still amplified online by right-wing extremists. Mr. Na spends his retirement giving lectures and attending photo exhibitions to help set the record straight.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Looking back, Mr. Na has one regret.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">On the fourth day of the uprising, he found himself amid paratroopers, with his cameras hidden under his shirt. He heard a captain repeating an order that came through the radio to shoot into the crowds. Mr. Na fled for his life, and no one took pictures of the mass shooting.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cI should have taken out my camera,\u201d he said, \u201calthough if I had, I probably wouldn\u2019t be here.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/06\/21\/world\/asia\/south-korea-photos-gwangju-crackdown.html\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It is an iconic image \u2014 a black-and-white photo of a blood-splattered student being clubbed by a paratrooper medic. It was the first photo to slip through the military cordon around Gwangju, South Korea, in 1980, exposing the brutal suppression of what would be known as the Gwangju Democratization Movement. But for years, the identity [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":78068,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2024\/06\/19\/multimedia\/00skorea-photographer-profile-tpzq\/00skorea-photographer-profile-tpzq-facebookJumbo.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[12645,1343,7906,12346,9456,5054],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78067"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78067"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78067\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":78069,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78067\/revisions\/78069"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/78068"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78067"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78067"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78067"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}