On April 19, 1960, at 4:30 PM, a 13-year-old boy named Jeon Han-seung fell near the Academy Theater in Seoul. 🕊️ He was a 6th grader at Susoong Elementary School and a precious only son.
He wasn't a protester. He was just a student on his way home from school. 🎒 Curious about the crowds, he put down his backpack and clapped his hands for the marching adults. Then, police rifles fired. A bullet struck his head, and he died 30 minutes later. 🕯️
The trigger for this tragedy was the rigged election of March 15. To keep power, the regime stole votes through intimidation. When the body of a high schooler, Kim Ju-yul, was found in the sea with a tear gas canister in his eye, the nation exploded in anger. 🌊
The death of little Han-seung brought elementary students to the streets. They held banners crying, "Don't fire at our parents!" 📢 This "Elementary Student Uprising" signaled the moral bankruptcy of the regime. On April 26, after 12 years of dictatorship, the president resigned and later fled to Hawaii in secret. ✈️
Today, Han-seung lies in Grave No. 195 at the National 4.19 Cemetery. 🇰🇷 His tombstone says he died "during the protest," but he was simply a boy who clapped on his way home. Korean democracy stands on the ground where that boy could not return. 👣
"Don't turn your guns on our parents and brothers!"
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