ON THE WALL
OUT OF TIME 1972-1980 Award-winning photographer and FCC member Robin Moyer remembers two very different assignments in his distinguished career and marks a tragic anniversary
L-R: CBS cameraman and FCC member Derek Williams, AP’s Terry Anderson, John Hamill (NY Daily News), CBS correspondent Bruce Dunning and AP’s Simon Kim.
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APRIL 2020
Crowds of mourners in Gwangju, South Korea, after special forces killed hundreds of citizens demonstrating against martial law, May 1980.
A family’s vigil over the coffin of a son killed in the Gwangju Massacre of May 1980.
THE CORRESPONDENT
PHOTOS: © 2020 ROBIN MOYER
Gwangju Massacre: 10 Days In May 2020 marks the 40th anniversary of the Gwangju Massacre, a black mark in the history of South Korea. From May 18 to 27, 1980, protests in Gwangju in Cholla Nam Do against martial law began a grassroots campaign that would assert civilian rule 10 years later. Hundreds of civilians were massacred, beaten and tortured by the military following the orders of Korean President and General Chun Doo-hwan, desperate to maintain order over students and citizens in Gwangju who defied the martial law edict. The official death toll is 170, but estimates of as many as 600 to 2,000 killed have gained credibility. Associated Press reporter Terry Anderson, his assistant Simon Kim, and I cross-referenced our individual search lists over a few days and agreed on a figure of just over 300 confirmed. But rumours claimed that truckloads of corpses had been spirited away in the earlier nights and buried in unmarked graves. Anderson and I arrived on May 21, a few days after the initial massacre. The paratroopers had pulled back and we were able to go about the job of reporting. Neither Terry nor I spoke more than a few words of Korean. Luckily Terry’s reporter, Simon Kim, had arrived and witnessed the massacre. He was our constant companion. The final night found most of the reporters who had managed to get into the city huddled in the hallways of a small hotel near the provincial offices. Around dawn, Anderson tried to take photos of soldiers on a rooftop, which brought a rain of M-16 fire through the window, hitting inches from Terry’s head. As the military consolidated their control, we were able to move out (carefully) and do some reporting. I don’t remember how we got back to Seoul. A few years later, in Lebanon, Terry was taken hostage by Hezbollah and held for six years in the Bekaa Valley.