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!