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<p><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Dear colleagues,</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 11pt;">We are pleased to announce the publication of <em>Witness to Korea 1945–47: The Unfolding of an Authoritarian Regime</em>, now available in print and PDF, with the Kindle eBook edition to follow shortly. The two major 1940s texts at the center of this volume raise questions that, in the present moment, no longer seem safely distant. They speak with renewed force to the making, enabling, and export of authoritarian politics. </span><br /><span style="font-size: 11pt;"> </span><br /><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><em><strong>Witness to Korea 1945–47: The Unfolding of an Authoritarian Regime</strong></em>. Edited by Frank Hoffmann and Mark E. Caprio. Asia Research Series 1. Berkeley: Academia Publishers, 2026. viii, 542 pp., illustrations, notes, references, glossary and index. $29.95 paper; $39.00 hardcover; $29.95 Kindle eBook; $29.95 PDF.</span><br /><span style="font-size: 11pt;"> </span><br /><span style="font-size: 11pt;">An extensive preview and a request form for review copies can be found here:</span><br /><a href="https://academebooks.com/publications/witness-to-korea-1945-47/"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">https://academebooks.com/publications/witness-to-korea-1945-47/</span></a><br /> <br /> <img src="cid:f6edb3a331a67cb3c3df9a47ca4d3c58@koreanstudies.com" width="369" height="555" /><br /> <br /><span style="font-size: 11pt;">The book brings together two major English-language eyewitness accounts of immediate post-liberation southern Korea: Richard D. Robinson’s “Betrayal of a Nation” and Mark Gayn’s “Korea” section from <em>Japan Diary</em>. Written between 1945 and the beginning of the Korean War in 1950, these are among the most substantial, intense, and critically engaging descriptions of southern Korea in the immediate post-liberation period.</span><br /><span style="font-size: 11pt;"> </span><br /><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Robinson’s academic essay and Gayn’s journalistic diary each combine sharp political analysis with personal eyewitness observation, despite the differences in genre. Both examine the early Cold War politics of the United States Army Military Government in Korea (USAMGIK) and American support for right-wing Korean politicians. Both authors also came under attack during the McCarthy era. In today’s terms, Robinson would be considered a whistleblower. To avoid court-martial by the U.S. Army in Korea, he fled to Turkey, where he bided his time for almost a decade; Gayn ultimately left the United States for Canada.</span><br /><span style="font-size: 11pt;"> </span><br /><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Robinson’s “Betrayal of a Nation” is published here for the first time in its original English. Both Robinson’s and Gayn’s texts are extensively annotated, with notes that identify persons, organizations, events, and historical references that would otherwise remain obscure.</span><br /><span style="font-size: 11pt;"> </span><br /><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Three supplementary essays by the editors examine the lives of Robinson and Gayn during McCarthyism, the emergence of right-wing politicians and fascist youth groups, and America’s culpability in the establishment of South Korea’s first authoritarian regime.</span><br /><span style="font-size: 11pt;"> </span><br /><span style="font-size: 11pt;"> </span><br /><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><strong>Contents</strong></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Acknowledgments, viii</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 11pt;">At Long Last — <em>John Merrill</em>, 1</span><br /><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Richard D. Robinson and Mark Gayn: A Whistleblower and a Journalist — <em>Frank Hoffmann</em>, 5</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><strong>Source Texts</strong></span><br /><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Betrayal of a Nation — <em>Richard D. Robinson</em>, 53</span><br /><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Japan Diary: Korea — <em>Mark Gayn</em>, 327</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Democracy, Authoritarianism, and Culpability in Southern Korea: Gayn and Robinson on the U.S. Military Government — <em>Mark E. Caprio</em>, 430</span><br /><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Sprechen Sie Deutsch? Fascism in Korea — <em>Frank Hoffmann</em>, 462</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 11pt;">References, 514</span><br /><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Image Credits, 527</span><br /><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Glossary and Index, 529</span><br /><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Contributors, 541</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 11pt;">.............<br /> </span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 11pt;">With best wishes,</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Frank Hoffmann and Mark E. Caprio</span><br /><span style="font-size: 11pt;">co-editors, <em>Witness to Korea 1945–47</em></span></p>
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