Witnessing Gwangju: A Memoir

As a young Peace Corps volunteer working with leprosy patients in rural South Korea in 1980, Paul Courtright got caught in the middle of a brutal military suppression in Gwangju. Over a span of 13 days, he witnessed the unfolding Gwangju Uprising, during which he was trapped in the city, ringed by the military. The residents of the city rallied to create their own government and militia, and Paul and his colleagues translated for a few foreign reporters and photographers who managed to get into Gwangju. His first attempt to get out, to Seoul and to inform the US Embassy of the true nature of events, failed. His second attempt, over the hills to his village and then to Seoul, was successful but harrowing. This memoir is the first by a foreign witness to the Gwangju Uprising. It offers both a clear-eyed record of the events and a reflection of Paul’s emotional journey as the uprising went through its various twists and turns.