Identity PortfolioDarvi

My Family Tree

My Historical Narrative

The Soccer Ball

! “Be responsible for Park

Jong Chul and Lee Han Yeol’s death!” explodes a student

somewhere behind me. “We do not want an unjust government!”

! People rush past me, veins bulging out of their necks and red

with anger, screaming. Windows shatter and tear gas grenades

explode; rocks fly through the air and various weapons clatter to the

ground. The sky, gray with smoke, is polluted with the smell of tear

gas just durable through the weak protection of toothpaste-tainted masks. Students holding signposts march past me, some heading towards the low

buildings to throw rocks at the police from above. Police with cameras take pictures of the scene, hoping to be able to identify the students with their

photos. And in the middle of this chaos, I stand, throwing rocks at the police with all my might and hoping I’m being helpful.

! I pick up yet another small stone and hurl it at the Jap-Sae, or what we called the police. As I watch it fall, the crowd becomes crazy again.

Pushing forward and screaming, they resemble a ravenous pack of wild

Lee Han Yeol

dogs. I stumble forward in the middle of the angry, alive sea, still picking and throwing large pebbles that seem to be everywhere.

! The noise is almost deafening and never stops; even if the mob of students were silent, the sound of glass shattering, never-ending yells of

pain and the sound of shield against a weapon would wake up the dead.! Where the cops throw tear gas grenades, the crowd parts like Moses

and the Red Sea. The pungent smell stings my nose each time I pass an empty shell, and my eyes start to blur on their own accord. My hands are

wet after rubbing my eyes, and with my blurry vision I find some other students that have salty water streaming down their dirt-streaked faces.

With my eyes burning, I continue working forward, blinking rapidly.! I’m pretty sure the rumors that had made us smudge our masks with

toothpaste was not true by now; the sharp, unpleasant smell slips through my mask and easily attacks my nose, although it does smell strongly of

toothpaste. Occasionally I spot people with no masks; they weren’t common because most of us

knew the Jap-Sae were taking pictures of us, trying to arrest

students with photos as evidences.

! The low buildings surrounding the area rains

rocks; students are on the roof and the windows throwing all

sizes of pebbles from above.

When I look up to identify where the stone that almost hit me came from, I can see my university in plain view. Out of no where, I feel guilty that we,

the students of In-Ha University, were trashing the main road to the very university. I guessed that most of South Korea was being trashed too; there

were demonstrations popping up from not only Incheon but almost all the states.

! Suddenly, through the noise and chaos of the riot, an object flies silently and gracefully through the sky. When one or two people look up,

the rest of the group looks up. Without alerting others with shouts and yells, most of the crowd notice the flying object quite easily. I tilt my head to

follow the object with my eyes, almost blinding myself by looking directly at the sun. I shade my eyes with the flat of my hand and look up again, but

the object had already disappeared to the middle of the sea of heads a long time ago. My brain can only come up with three words: A soccer ball.

! Wait.... What?! Out of the corner of my eye, I see a dumbfounded student slowly stop his march. Other students lower their weapons and

signs to search for the object, their eyes moving frantically. The march stops abruptly. Some students smack into others.

! “What is it?” grumbles a student, his face flushed in anger. “Why did we stop?” When nobody answers him, he follows the others’ gaze and

looks up also.! The crowd is silent for the first time in hours. Curious, I attempt to

search for the object with my eyes by standing on my tip toes and looking through gaps of the wall of people. No luck at all. The thick silence

stretches on. I am suddenly aware of small sounds that I hadn’t noticed

before. Small crumbs of glass crunching every step people take. The fast breathing of others. And the loudest, the sound of my own heart.

! The muffled sound of conversation reaches everyone from where the object had fallen. Small talks break out.

! “What was that?” someone asks.! “Why is it here?” a different voice demands.

! No one knows the answer to any of the questions that we ask each other. We can only wait as the conversation goes on.

! The discussion stops. We hold our breath, waiting for someone announce a war or explain this dumbfounding and unexpected situation.

! “Hey, we’re going to play a soccer game,” a student announces, turning away from the conversation.

! What?! I think, my face scrunching in confusion. Seriously? In the middle of a DEMONSTRATION? Are they crazy?

! “What?” a student next to me voices my thoughts.! “With them?” a tough voice spits out the last word.

! “Why?” someone questions behind me.! “I don’t know why, ask them!” the student gestures at the place where

the soccer ball had fallen. “They just told me we’re going to play a soccer game.”

! We look at each other. Every single one of the faces I see, maybe including mine, has a question mark on it, eyebrows furrowed and mouth

slightly hanging open. One by one, the crowd disperses to talk in smaller groups or rest on the sidewalk.

! “Make space for the “soccer field”!” somebody shouts over the whispers of the crowd. At this, the wall of people stumble back to form a

small rectangular space. Police and students alike collect pieces of wood and big stones. They set them in lines, making “goals” and “borderlines” of

the “soccer field”. I feel that the picture looks wrong without the enemies charging each other with clubs and shields. I watch them as we pick up the

stones, possibly ones that I’d thrown, to clear up the area where soon players would run around.

! After what felt like eternity, I stand with the crowd around the “field”, cheering for the students picked as players. I recognize a few, while the

others are complete strangers. They are all wearing determined faces but look anxious also. The other side cheers for their players too. It sparks a

memory in my head of a contest where you determine who cheers loudest.! In the middle of the field stands the soccer ball. It’s just like any other

soccer ball. But it is special. In the end, after all, it was just a normal soccer ball that bonded the enemies together. The old man running a small

bookstore in front of In-Ha University stands next to the ball with a gas mask on. His wrinkles and leathery skin had hinted to me before that he

was in his 40s, with the slightest wisp of white hair and glasses. He gathers up the players.

! Then he shouts, “GAME START!!”

Interview Q & A

What made you join the fight for Democracy?I joined the fight fro Democracy because I believed the military government was not right for people’s freedom.

When did you join the fight for Democracy?When I was a freshman in University and was 19 years old. 1987 to 1988.

What University did you go to?In-Ha University in Incheon.

Was there anyone else who fought for democracy in your family?No, because only young citizens and university students fought for it. Older citizens joined later.

Was there anyone who told you not to fight for democracy?My mother. She said it was dangerous, and wanted me to quit demonstrating.

How long did a typical demonstration last?About 7 to 8 hours.

Where were you when he announced the direct election system?I was at school. Everyone celebrated the news.

Is there an event that sticks to your mind most during the fight for democracy?Once, in Incheon, during the democracy movement, we were fighting with the police near my university. More than tens of thousands of people attended and tens of thousands of police tried to block the demonstration. I was in the middle of the crowd of people. The front line of students were beaten by polices and they were firing tear gas grenades at the people. People and students including me tried to protect ourselves by throwing stones at the police. It was like war.

Why does this demonstration of all the demonstrations that you attended stick to your mind?In the middle of the fight, a soccer ball came flying out of nowhere to the front row. So for a short while, the leader of the police and the democracy fighters came to agreement to play a soccer game as a break time. So the old man running the small bookstore in front of the university became the referee of the soccer game in the middle of the road. The soccer game went on for about one and a half hour, and the democracy fighters were winning the game. Then the people who were fighting around the other area called for help, so the soccer game was stopped. I suddenly got the thought that we students and police were fighting only because we were in different position.

Why were you demonstrating right next to your university?At that time, the police couldn’t come into the school and students couldn’t protest outside. Also, most of the Democracy fighters were the university students, so we were demonstrating near the school.

Where did you play soccer?On the road. No one was driving their car or parking them near the demonstrating areas, so we played soccer in the middle of the road.

Then were all the stores nearby closed too?Yes. And some of the store owners would find out later that their store windows had been smashed or broken.

Were you one of the players in the soccer game?No. The students picked only a few people out of hundreds to play so of course I was part of the crowd.

Didn’t you get hurt?No. I didn’t even have a lot of bruises or some small scratches on me.

Do you have any friends that stick to your mind at that time?No, but there was a senior who lead the demonstration.

Do you remember his name?I don’t remember his first name, but I remember his last name. It was Choi.

Did the old man start the game by blowing a whistle?No. But what’s funny was that the old man was wearing a gas mask because the road smelled so strongly of tear gas.

You mentioned that students wore masks so that they wouldn’t get arrested by the police. Were you wearing a mask also?Yes. Everyone was. One of the reasons that we wore masks was because we didn’t want to get arrested, but the other was because we didn’t want to get too exposed to tear gas. Funny thing is, at that time the students believed that ‘toothpaste + mask = no tear gas effects’, so everyone including me put some toothpaste on their masks and wore it.

Did it work?I’m not sure it worked. But it did smell like toothpaste.

Did you get the effects of the tear gases?Yes. Everyone did except for the police, who had helmets and gas masks on.

Were the students all on the road?Some students were in the buildings throwing rocks at the police. When the police surrounded the building to arrest them, they would run out or some other students outside the building would distract the police.

Were you in one of the buildings?No. I was one of the students on the road.

How did the old man running the bookstore look like?Well, he was wearing glasses, seemed to be in his mid40s, and had just an average height (165-170cm).

Were there any nicknames you called the police?��. Jap-Sae. It’s what we referred to as the police. It doesn’t really have a positive meaning.

Research Notes

• Lee Han Yeol, an Yonsei University student, was injured by a tear gas grenade shot by the police while demonstrating and died on July 5th, with more than a million citizens participating in his national funeral on July 9th. This caused the National Rally for Banishment of Tear Gas Grenades on June 18th.

• Park Jong Chul was tortured to death on January 14th.• Even church leaders insisted on democracy.• President Chun didn’t push down the democracy movements in

1987 with as much violence as the democracy movements in 1979-1980.

• The four main groups which opposed President Chun was students, labor unions, churches and the parliamentary opposition.

• The 1987 demonstrations were much well planned than the 1979-1980 democracy movements.

• Big and small demonstrations popped up in almost every part of Korea.

Author’s Note

Since 1972, South Korea had been ruled by martial laws. Since President Chun took over, the 1980s were bombarded with demonstrations, mostly lead by university students. Park Jong Chul, a Seoul National University student, was tortured to death when he refused to tell where his fellow activists were. The government announced that his death was caused by a heart attack, that when they ‘tapped’ the desk, Park died of a heart attack. Lee Han Yeol, a student from Yonsei University, was severely injured when a tear gas grenade penetrated his skull. He died on July 5th, and his death caused the June Democracy Movement. Students from all over South Korea participated in demonstrating. Big and small protests popped up from almost all of Korea. The police fought back with tear gas grenades, even after Lee Han Yeol’s death. Many were arrested and injured. Still the students fought back. After their hardships and struggles, they finally got what they wanted. In December, 1987, the first democratic election was held. For nearly 20 years now, South Korea is ruled by democracy.

Bibliography

"June Democracy Movement." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 16 Oct. 2012. Web. 06 Nov. 2012. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/

June_Democracy_Movement>.

“Korea, South.” World Book - Student. Pudong Secondary. Web. 6 November 2012. <http://www.worldbookonline.com/student/

article?id=ar751408&ss=h37>.

“Roh Tae Woo.” World Book - Student. Pudong Secondary. Web. 6 November 2012. <http://www.worldbookonline.com/student/

article?id=ar754506&st=president+chun+korea>.

Pictures

"In Memory of Past Junes." Http://www.hanyang.ac.kr/. N.p., 15 June 2012. Web. 06 Nov. 2012. <http://www.hanyang.ac.kr/

controller/weeklyView.jsp?file=/top_news/2012/063/english3.html>.

"Don't Shoot Tear Gas Grenades." Http://u610.cafe24.com/. N.p., 27 Oct. 2006. Web. 06 Nov. 2012. <http://u610.cafe24.com/

museum/bbs/bbs/board.php?bo_table=pic2>.

"Direct Shooting of Tear Gas Grenades." Http://u610.cafe24.com/. N.p., 27 Oct. 2006. Web. 06 Nov. 2012.

<http://u610.cafe24.com/museum/bbs/bbs/board.php?bo_table=pic2>.

"A Kid in the Street of June." Http://u610.cafe24.com/. N.p., 18 Oct. 2006. Web. 06 Nov. 2012. <http://u610.cafe24.com/

museum/bbs/bbs/board.php?bo_table=pic2>.

"Welcome to Geni." Family Tree. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Nov. 2012. <http://www.geni.com/family-tree>.

Reflection

! While working on this project, I found out for the first time that my dad was one of the protesters of the June Democracy Movement. I never knew that before, and reckoned that my family didn’t really have much history. I think I learned more about myself by learning more about my parents.! I think doing a project like this is important because not only do you get to practice your writing skills, you’re also learning about yourself and your family.! As I was doing this project, I enjoyed interviewing my dad, because I got to hear his story directly from him, and he told me little details, like how they smeared toothpaste on their masks to block the smell of tear gas. One of the challenges I met was the fact that there wasn’t enough information about the June Democracy Movement in World Book and Britannica. So I went on Wikipedia to gather information and ask my dad what was happening during the time.! Compared to the first narrative I wrote in September, I think I’ve grown as a writer. I have more showing (not telling), more details, and less unnecessary information.! To future 7th graders: When you start your historical narrative, make sure you KNOW what event you’re talking about and specifically when and how your family member was included in it. Also, you would want to pick someone who has been in a more significantly historical event, so that your research would be easier.