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LET US FIGHT ON STAUNCHLY FOR THE LIBERATION OF THE FATHERLAND

 
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!