Foreign pastor spread news of Gwangju uprising
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Gwangju Mayor Yoon Jang-hyun pays tribute to the late missionary Charles Huntley at the missionary’s residence in Yangrim-dong, Gwangju, July 6. /Courtesy of Gwangju city office
By Park Jin-hai
Hong In-hwa
The life of missionary Charles Betts Huntley, also known by his Korean name Heo Cheol-seon, and his wife Martha cannot be separated from the painful moments of the 1980 Gwangju democratic movement of Korea.
Huntley, former pastor of Kwangju Christian Hospital, braved to take pictures of innocent civilians shot by Korean soldiers under the military dictatorship of Chun Doo-hwan, and spread the news to let the world know the truth, along with his journalist-turned missionary wife, Martha. He died at his U.S. home on June 26.
Hong In-hwa, former Gwangju city councilor and president of “The 1904,” an organization that pays tribute to foreign missionaries in Gwangju, prepared a memorial service after she belatedly learned the sad news.
“They were at the center of the May 18 democratization movement in Gwangju,” said Hong, who then as a high school freshman attended the Monday English Bible study Martha conducted for local students. “After seeing high school girls who volunteered to go to the street and ask others for blood donations just a while earlier, then were carried back to the hospital shot dead, Huntley, slipping on the blood in the hospital, took pictures of the dead to let the world know about what happened at Gwangju. When he saw a corpse with half its face blown off due to a gunshot, he cried like wolf.”
He took pictures of what the brutal military government did to citizens and secretly printed the pictures in the darkroom at his residence.
Martha wrote many columns and articles for The Korea Times, the Korea Herald, and the PCUS monthly magazine in the U.S, leaving detailed descriptions of the situation in Korea.
Her articles and pictures about the Gwangju Democratization Movement on May 18 in 1980 became so well known that the missionaries had to leave Korea in 1984, according to Hong.
Huntley provided his residence as a sanctuary for frightened citizens, evading the heavy inspections of the military. At one point, 22 people stayed there hiding.
“On Wednesday morning there were thousands of people gathered to protest what had been happening. The soldiers, nervous, or acting under orders, began to fire into the crowd. Not over their heads. Not at the ground in front of them. No, right into the crowds!
“The people of the city, some nervous, some scared, some angry, raided the arsenals for the use of the Reserve Army in town and in the surrounding villages. When the shooting started, it was in both directions. That was when the hospital started receiving civilians with gunshot wounds and corpses. Perhaps this day was the worst day for us. We could not believe that the Army of the Republic of Korea was actually shooting our neighbors!” wrote Martha Huntley, recording the horror of the day.
Until their 1984 return to the U.S., the couple helped the victims and their families who needed medical or scholarship help. They also adopted a Korean boy.
“Like so many missionaries who worked namelessly for Gwangju citizens, the Huntleys devoted their lives to the people. Their devotion, expecting no return, should never be forgotten,” Hong said.
By the recommendation of Hong and her organization, Charles Huntley was given the “May Mothers Award” this May, which honors those who devoted their efforts to the May 18 Democratization movement and those who fought for human rights and justice in a broader meaning, just a month before his death.
His residence in Yangrim-dong, Gwangju, is now used as a guest house called “The 1904” where Huntley’s darkroom and equipment are preserved.