In the period just after his release, Chol Soo Lee felt like a celebrity as he went on a tour to thank his many supporters. People even approached him to ask for his autograph. After ten years in prison, he was finally a free man, thanks to a landmark pan-Asian American social movement that formed in his name.

But reentry proved an incredibly difficult process, especially in 1983. Like many formerly incarcerated people, Chol Soo struggled to deal with the trauma of his experiences in prison and to find sustained support after incarceration. He not only carried these mental demons from his incarceration, but also held the weight of a community—and what he felt he owed them—on his shoulders. In addition, he lacked a stable family support system to fall back on. Rather, he had scars dating back to his childhood, from abandonment and abuse by his biological mother, the forced severing of ties with his loving family in Korea, and then his institutionalization in the US.