Kwangju Diary: Beyond Death, Beyong the Darkness of the Age

By Jae-Eui Lee and Nick Mamatas

First publication in English of this eyewitness account of the 1980 civilian uprising against Chun Doo Hwan's military coup. First published in Korean in 1985 under the name of dissident novelist... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1883191033
• ISBN13: 9781883191030
• Release Date: May 1999
• Publisher: Univ of California Los Angeles
• Length: 170 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Scary.

Jae-eui Lee, Kwangju Diary: Beyond Death, Beyond the Darkness of the Age (UCLA, 1999) How much do you know about modern Korean history? Unless you studied it in school, probably not a great deal. Especially if you're younger than I am; I was alive and old enough to be politically aware during the Kwangju uprising. I don't remember hearing about it on the news at all. Not once. In other words, don't blame yourself for your ignorance. You live in America; your lazy, apathetic media will not educate you. You must do it yourself. When you do, however, always remember to take everything with a grain of salt. It should be relatively obvious to the average reader of Kwangju Diary that you're not dealing with a fair, objective account of the uprising. (Asking such of the author--who was actually involved in the proceedings, unlike the disinterested-reporter news media--would be far too much.) But still, hearing anything about an event of this magnitude that went all but unreported during its time period (and has been followed up on only sketchily afterwards; the afterword is penned by a journalist who covered the incident, and notes that the New York Times, who gave the incident a great deal [relatively] of coverage as it was happening, has completely ignored follow-ups that strongly implicate the American government in the proceedings). Besides, even allowing for a bit of hyperbole and the emotional state of the author when writing, this is a devastating indictment of the Korean government's actions in Kwangju in May 1980 (and, by implication, an indictment of the American government in May 1980 who allowed it to happen--if only, as the afterword seems to imply, as a sin of omission). In any case, for those unaware of the incident itself: Kwangju, a city in southwestern Korea, was under martial law, and the citizens didn't like it. It started with student rallies, peaceful demonstrations calling for the end of martial law; it escalated when paratroopers were called in to aid the police in quelling what the government considered riots. Who exactly committed the atrocities is uncertain (though Lee lays the blame for most, if not all, of them at the feet of the paratroopers, which is probably accurate), and the overall death toll is not clear, but it's reasonable to say hundreds of Korean civilians were killed, a number of those tortured beforehand. It's probably not too unreasonable to increase that to "thousands." At one point before the final crackdown, Lee tells of a committee overseeing the tallying of the dead, and the number two thousand is mentioned. The death toll itself, though, is not the true indicator of the depths of depravity here; Lee speaks of shallow graves, some unfilled when the military retreated before it had time to bury the bodies. He speaks of bodies left in basements and alleyways, of bodies too destroyed for there to be any identification (in one particularly ugly scene, Lee relates a story, later backed up by other witnesse

Amazing account of human courage and solidarity

This book leaves the reader forever changed. It tells the story of the Kwangju uprising--one of the most important events in the history of the struggle for freedom in the latter part of the 20th century. Beyond a history of Korea, this book and its story is of utmost importance to all human beings.

A powerful and wrenching historical account

This is an important book for anyone interested in Korea, human rights, or political movements. An excellent introduction by Bruce Cumings establishes the context; an equally excellent afterward by Tim Shorrock addresses the incident from the viewpoint of US foreign policy. But it is the diary itself that is truly unforgettable.

Riveting first-hand account of a fight for human rights

This detailed, almost moment-by-moment account of the Kwangju rebellion is a fascinating read. A student protest leads to a vicious government crackdown so extreme - using elite paratroop forces against simple protesters - that the people of the city give up their lives and eventually take up arms to take their city back. The introduction provides a capsule history of South Korea, and the afterward an account of the American government's cowardly behavior before, during and after the rebellion. It's a fast read but will leave a lasting impression.