Hero and Saviour of the Korean Nation

August 15, Juche 34 (1945) is the day when Korea was liberated from the Japanese military occupation.

The national liberation was the fruition of the anti-Japanese armed struggle organized and led by President Kim Il Sung.

Having occupied Korea in 1905 by force of arms, the Japanese imperialists ran amok to exterminate the Korean nation: they deprived the Korean people of all their political freedom and rights and cracked down on their national liberation movement. It was their logic that the Koreans had to obey their law or die. As a result, the Korean people could not use their own language at will and were forced to change even their names in Japanese style. A large number of treaties, agreements and various kinds of draconian laws concocted by the Japanese imperialists stripped the Koreans of their elementary right to existence, binding them hand and foot as if they were slaves.

Kim Il Sung, who grew up experiencing the sorrow of the ruined nation from his childhood, embarked on the road of revolution with a high ambition to win back his lost country.

Cherishing an iron truth that an armed enemy had to be countered only by force of arms, he founded the Korean People’s Revolutionary Army in April Juche 21 (1932), and launched the anti-Japanese armed struggle. The guerrillas undauntedly fought against the one-million-strong Japanese Kwantung army without the backing of a state and support from a regular army, even under constant threats from biting cold and starvation and with persisting arduous march and fierce battles.

In those days, Kim Il Sung experienced bitter sorrow and pain of losing his beloved mother, younger brother, and comrades-in-arms with whom he shared weal and woe. However, he overcame all the difficulties, putting the fate of his country and people trampled by the foreign forces before his sorrow and pain.

He always inflicted ignominious defeats on the Japanese imperialist aggressors by employing adroit tactics. Along with this, the Korean people actively turned out in the sacred war against the Japanese imperialists with hatred for the enemy.

On August 9, Juche 34 (1945), Kim Il Sung issued an order to start the general offensive of the KPRA units for national liberation. The offensive was supported by an all-people uprising and joint operations behind the enemy lines.

The Japanese imperialists declared unconditional surrender on August 15.

The following is a paragraph of an article carried in Haebang Ilbo, dated November 5, 1945.

“Rising up with arms in hand and fighting a twenty-year-long fierce war against the barbarian imperial Japanese army; he is the hero of our nation, who would break through the border of natural fortress from the vast Manchurian plain and strike terror in the hearts of the Japanese troops in the northern part of Korea. The youth hero, General Kim Il Sung! He is, indeed, our great fighter and true leader.”

Korea’s liberation was a historic event which brought about a radical change in carving out the destiny of its people.

The jubilation over national liberation inspired the Korean people to a drive for building a new, democratic Korea.

They are conveying Kim Il Sung’s exploits of national liberation for all eternity, highly praising him as the hero and saviour of their nation.