KIM IL SUNG
THE INAUGURAL DECLARATION OF
THE ASSOCIATION FOR
THE RESTORATION OF
THE FATHERLAND
May 5, 1936
Compatriots, brothers and sisters at home and abroad,
It is already 26 years since the 20 million Korean people
with a long history of five thousand years were robbed of
their dear homeland by the enemy, the Japanese imperialists.
Under the colonial oppression of Japanese imperialism, our
compatriots lead the miserable life of a ruined nation,
worse than that of animals, undergoing all manner of
hardships and privations and dripping with sweat and blood.
No longer able to endure the Japanese imperialist tyranny,
large numbers of our fellow countrymen were compelled to
leave their beloved home villages and wander about in quest
of a livelihood. Even in strange lands, all alone, they are
subjected to every form of humiliation and contempt and are
being trampled underfoot and slaughtered everywhere they go.
Our nation is, indeed, in an unheard-of wretched plight.
Which road should our people take now, deprived of their
homeland and weighed down with a terrible misfortune? For
our nation there is no alternative but to fight against the
Japanese imperialist marauders. This is the only way to
usher in the dawn of national liberation.
That explains why tens of thousands of Korean youths
burning with love for their country joined the Korean
People’s Revolutionary Army and are fighting bravely against
the Japanese imperialists with arms in hand. Now, in all
parts of the country the struggles of workers, peasants,
youth and students against Japanese imperialist colonial
rule are taking place one after another,
In the past, too, the ardent patriotism of our nation was
displayed fully. A great many people took part in the
Righteous Volunteers’ Army Movement and fought bloody
battles for several years against Japanese imperialism’s
occupation of Korea, and at the time of the March First
Movement27 the whole nation rose in an anti-Japanese
uprising in every nook and comer of the land. As a result,
the spirit of our nation, ingenious and valorous, was
demonstrated to the whole world. This fact proves that the
Korean nation with its earnest desire for independence and
sovereignty and a passionate fighting spirit will certainly
accomplish the cause of national liberation.
However, the aim of national independence and liberation
was not achieved, though in the past many patriots had
fought courageously, falling and dying- The principal cause
is that all movements for the country’s liberation were not
conducted according to a unified political programme and a
correct line of struggle, and that an unsupported fight was
fought without achieving the solid unity and cohesion of the
anti-Japanese patriotic forces. Not only that. An allied
front against the common’ enemy, the Japanese imperialists,
was not built up in close contact with countries and nations
opposed to Japan. This is also a major reason for failing to
win the final victory.
We put forward the main political programme and the
struggle tasks to fulfil the sacred duty for the liberation
of the country on the basis of the bitter lessons and
experience of the past. In accordance with this programme,
we are setting up the Association for the Restoration of the
Fatherland as a general leading body for uniting as one all
the anti-Japanese forces at home and abroad and ensuring a
unified leadership for them, and are adopting its Ten-Point
Programme.
On the basis of the main content of the Ten-Point
Programme of the ARF, we declare to all our compatriots at
home and abroad as follows:
1. The whole Korean nation will fight in unity against
the enemy, the Japanese imperialist aggressors, irrespective
of class, sex, social status, party affiliation, age and
religious belief, so as to win back the country and
establish a genuine people’s government in Korea.
We 20 million Korean people are leading the life of a
homeless race, condemned to indescribable national
oppression and ill-treatment and cruel exploitation under
the colonial rule of predatory Japanese imperialism. The
Korean nation’s liberation is the supreme task facing all
Koreans.
If all 20 million of us, united in a body, join the
anti-Japanese national-liberation front, those with money
contributing money, those with food donating food and those
with skill and knowledge devoting their skill and knowledge,
whether men or women, young or old, regardless of all
distinctions, the Japanese imperialists will be destroyed
and our national liberation and independence will be
achieved.
2. Koreans living in Manchuria will strive to overthrow
the aggressive machines of Japanese imperialism and its
puppet state “Manchukuo” through a close alliance with the
Chinese people, and to bring about genuine national autonomy
for the Koreans in Chinese territory.
The national autonomy of the Koreans in Manchuria we
assert has nothing in common with the “autonomy in Jiandao”
advertised by the predatory Japanese imperialist aggressors
and their agents to hoodwink and alienate the Korean and
Chinese nations from each other. All Koreans in Manchuria
will achieve genuine national autonomy for the Korean
residents in Manchuria by resolutely opposing the deceptive
enemy-vaunted “autonomy in Jiandao” and overthrowing the
Japanese-Manchurian rule in close alliance with the
anti-Japanese masses in China.
3. For the liberation of the fatherland, we will expand
and strengthen the revolutionary armed ranks. The Japanese
imperialists and their agents are villainous aggressors and
hangmen armed to the teeth. We must counter the armed foes
with arms.
We can topple the accursed system of colonial rule and
achieve the independence of Korea only when we further
strengthen the Korean People’s Revolutionary Army and form
various armed units with the revolutionary masses everywhere
to defeat the Japanese imperialist aggressive army by
fighting bloody battles against the enemy.
4. In order to build a wealthy and mighty independent and
sovereign state, we will carry out economic and cultural
policies that are genuinely popular and democratic.
We will unconditionally confiscate factories, mines,
landed estates, shops, banks and all other property owned by
the predatory Japanese imperialist aggressors and
treacherous pro-Japanese agents, promote the steady
development of national industry, agriculture and commerce,
ensure our people freedom of speech, press, assembly and
association and equality of the individual, abolish the
system of slave education and introduce an eight-hour day
for the workers.
In order to facilitate the cause of national liberation,
we will receive special donations and other forms of active
assistance from capitalists with national conscience and
from conscientious patriots and personages.
5. We will form a common front against the enemy, the
Japanese imperialist aggressors, in close alliance with
states and nations which express goodwill and maintain
neutrality towards the Korean national-liberation movement.
We should crush the robber-like Japanese imperialist
aggressors in close alliance with China and other countries
hostile to Japanese imperialism and with the people
oppressed by Japanese imperialist colonial rule.
We must regard as friends the countries and nations which
sympathize with the Korean national-liberation movement and
approach it with good faith and treat as enemies those who
help the Japanese imperialist marauders and oppose the
Korean nation.
Compatriots, brothers and sisters, who love their country
and nation and want to cast off the yoke of bestial slavery
and lead a worthwhile and hopeful existence as human beings.
We sincerely hope that you will immediately form
organizations of the ARF in the factories, mines, railway
service establishments, schools, “swspaper offices, army
barracks, shops and elsewhere in the urban and rural areas
and will wage a vigorous struggle to win back the country
through the concerted action of the whole nation under the
banner of the Ten-Point Programme of the ARF.
The cause of our people fighting in firm unity for the
country’s liberation is invincible.
Let us all fight for the complete independence of the
country and the freedom and liberation of the nation!
Long live the Association for the Restoration of the
Fatherland!