English translation of 『Gwangju Diary』 was published with the title “Gwangju Uprising” by VERSO

『Gwangju Diary: Beyond Death, Beyond the Darkness of the Age』 is a book about the history and value of the May 18 Democratization Movement, and the English translation of its revised edition (2017) was published with the title “Gwangju Uprising, the Rebellion for Democracy in South Korea” by a British publisher, VERSO, in May this year.


『Gwangju Diary: Beyond Death, Beyond the Darkness of the Age』 is the first book of its kind, capturing the reality of the May 18 Democratization Movement in 1980. It was first published in 1985 and was then translated into English and Japanese. It has earned a reputation as a reliable source of truth about the democratization movement and, 32 years later, a revised edition was published in 2017 by adding new facts and supplementation.

The English translation, published this year, bears significance as it is designed for general readers at large and is expected to become a valuable asset shedding light on the truth of the May 18th Democratization Movement against the backdrop that books delivering distorted facts about the movement are available through overseas online book markets.

Thus far, the only way foreigners could indirectly experience the May 18th Democratization Movement was through Han Kang's novel, 『A Boy Is Coming』, translated into 『Human Acts』. More recently, 『Witnessing Gwangju – A Memoir (by Paul Courtright )』 was published in both Korean and English in 2020, and 『Called by Another Name A Memoir of the Gwangju Uprising (by David Lee Dolinger )』 was published also in Korean and English in 2022.