ABSTRACT
I would like here to recount memories of four quite distinct topics: a visit by two foreign correspondents to Kwangju, and how, as an impromptu spokesman for student militants, I reacted to their questions about the origins of the violence there; the student leadership —how it worked, who was there, and what my role in it was, however briefly; the conduct of the martial-law troops in the city, as I saw it, during the early days of the uprising; and, finally, my own pitiful behavior as I saw the way things were going—and faced a choice between (a) staying on in the Provincial Hall, the seat of government in the province in normal times, where the student leadership was to be found during the last five days of the uprising (May 21-27) and where many of them died, or (b) making my escape.
