KIM IL
SUNG
LET US FIGHT ON STAUNCHLY FOR THE
LIBERATION
OF THE FATHERLAND
Speech
Addressed to the People of Pochonbo
June 4,
1937
Fellow countrymen, brothers and
sisters,
We are combatants of the Korean
People’s Revolutionary Army fighting against
Japanese imperialism for the restoration of the
fatherland and the liberation of the people.
We are very glad to be having this
memorable meeting with you dear fellow
countrymen at home, on a victorious battlefield
where we have crushed the Japanese imperialist
aggressors.
On behalf of the KPRA I wish to
convey our warm thanks to you and to the
patriotic people at home who have given active
material and moral support and encouragement to
us, the revolutionary army.
Dear fellow countrymen,
Today the Japanese imperialist
robbers have enmeshed the whole of our
three-thousand-ri land in a web of army
units, gendarmerie and police and rigged up
various evil laws; they brutally arrest,
imprison and murder countless patriots and are
forcing our people to remain disgracefully
submissive as slaves.
The crafty Japanese imperialists are
trying to drum the “soul of Japan” into our
people by clamouring “Japan and Korea
are one” and the Japanese and the Koreans come
of the same descent,” the aim being to break the
lofty national spirit of our people. They are
even attempting to trample underfoot and wipe
out our beautiful language and our national
culture with its 5,000-year old history.
The Japanese imperialist robbers are
further intensifying the exploitation and
plunder of our people, and are seizing all our
national wealth. The Japanese imperialist
villains have stretched their grim predatory
hands as far as the remote mountain villages
here, plundering all our precious forest
resources. They are bleeding you white by
working you like beasts of burden in all kinds
of drudgery. They even keep you from farming on
fire-fields as you please. Because of this, you
are maintaining a bare existence on roots and
bark, you are poorly dressed in coarse flax, and
leading a wretched life in tumbledown mud huts.
Further stepping up their moves of
late for invading China
proper, the Japanese imperialist robbers are
hell-bent on the fascist suppression and looting
of our people.
Indeed, with the whole country
devastated and turned into a land of darkness,
into a hell on earth, the very life of our
nation is now at stake.
Dear fellow countrymen,
Where there is a tyrant, a struggle
will always break out. The ardent youths and
patriots of our country have turned out
resolutely in the solemn anti-Japanese war to
crush the Japanese imperialists’ tyranny.
The KPRA has fought valiantly with
arms in hand for six to seven years in Korea and in
the wild plains of Manchuria
against the Japanese imperialist invaders in
order to work out the salvation of our nation
and to achieve the liberation of the fatherland.
Our revolutionary army has beaten the enemy
everywhere and dealt a serious political and
military blow to the Japanese imperialists’
colonial ruling system, thereby giving a ray of
hope to our people who are living in humiliation
bowed down with the sorrow of statelessness.
Our strength is increasing and the
revolutionary forces of the world, too, are
growing powerful. The support of progressive
people the world over for our struggle is also
mounting. We will achieve the historic cause of
national liberation without fail and win final victory.
Alarmed by the bold and fearless
operations and great military achievements of
the gallant combatants of our revolutionary army
who are forging ahead despite all difficulties,
the Japanese imperialist aggressors are making
desperate efforts to “subdue” the KPRA and, of late, are frantically building up
the frontier guard line in a foolhardy attempt
to hinder our revolutionary army’s advance into
the homeland. The enemy is even spreading the
absurd, fictitious story that he has “completely
wiped out” the KPRA.
Dear brothers and sisters,
Although the Japanese imperialists are
manoeuvring in this frenzied manner, the KPRA is holding
its own as ever, demonstrating its might to the
whole world.
In its latest thrust into the
homeland the KPRA broke through the frontier
guard line, the much vaunted “iron wall” of the
Japanese imperialists. A few days ago in the
Musan area it showered fire of revenge upon the enemy right
and left and today here at Pochonbo it has fully
demonstrated the indomitable fighting spirit and
lofty mettle of our nation.
Our revolutionary army has just
attacked the Japanese imperialists’ repressive
agencies and ruling establishments such as the
police substation and the sub-county
administration office and finished off the
Japanese imperialist aggressors installed there,
the bitter enemies of our people who had been
imposing all sorts of hard toil and miseries
upon you.
Brothers and sisters,
Look at the flames over there. Those
raging flames show that the enemy is doomed.
Those flames show the whole world that our
nation is not dead but alive, and that if we
fight against the Japanese imperialist
plunderers we can win. Those flames will shine
like a ray of hope in the hearts of our people
suffering from maltreatment and hunger, and will
spread throughout our three-thousand-ri land like a torch of struggle.
The Korean people are not of the
“same descent” as the Japanese imperialist
villains, and we do not acknowledge the idea
noisily propagandized by them that “Japan and Korea
are one”.
We, the KPRA, will tighten our grip
on our weapons of revenge and liberate our 23
million fellow countrymen suffering from hunger
and poverty, ignorance and darkness. We will
liberate our fatherland come what may, and
establish a people’s country free from
oppression and exploitation on the land of the
independent fatherland.
Dear fellow countrymen,
Liberation of the fatherland is the
vital demand of the Korean people today.
Instead of merely sitting and sighing
over our grievous and bitter lot under the
colonial rule of Japanese imperialism, let us
all unite ever more firmly under the banner of
the anti-Japanese national united front and rise
as one man in the lofty struggle to defeat the
aggressor, Japanese imperialism, and achieve the
great cause of national liberation. Struggle is
the only way to existence, to national
regeneration.
You should overcome all difficulties,
unite and cooperate with each other with the
utmost sincerity and enthusiasm, and make an
all-out effort in the solemn anti-Japanese war
for the independence of Korea.
Those who have strength should
contribute strength, those who have knowledge
should offer knowledge, those who have money
should donate money.
By various forms of struggle you
should completely frustrate all the anti-popular
moves of the Governor-General of Korea, the
bloodsucker that lives on the blood of our
people.
You should demonstrate the
indomitable spirit of the Korean people. To do
this, you should smash the false propaganda of
the Japanese imperialist aggressors to
smithereens and defend our language, spoken and
written, and uphold our national spirit to the
last.
With great national pride and the
unwavering confidence that as long as there is
an ever-victorious KPRA our country will attain
independence without fail. You should give
material and moral support to the KPRA and fight
on without yielding. Let us make those flames
rage furiously over the whole of our
three-thousand-ri land.
Fellow countrymen, brothers and
sisters,
The final victory belongs to us who
are fighting for the liberation of the
fatherland.
Let us all advance vigorously,
looking forward to the day when we will meet
again in our liberated country, loudly hailing
our national independence, and live in
happiness.
Long live the independence of Korea!
Long live the revolution of Korea!