On the 70^th anniversary of the Bochonbo Battle

Excerpts from the volume 6, President Kim Il Sung’s Reminiscences “WITH THE CENTURY”

Kim Il Sung indicates the way to the national liberation

after the Pochonbo Battle (June 4, 1937)

We crossed the Amnok on the night of June 3.

A strange tension gripped my entire body, not leaving me till the last member of the unit was safely across. The border was said to have been tightly guarded by the enemies with four cordons, for the original three had been found to be unsatisfactory. There were as many as 300 police stations and substations in the northern border area, manned by repressive, highly mobile forces several thousand strong. …

The enemy had dug out trenches and built artificial barriers, such as earthen walls, barbed wire and wooden fences, around the buildings of police substations and agencies in the border areas, and in some vital places they had either set up observation posts or dug out communica­tion trenches. …

The strict watch along the border, however, could not hold us back.

After dark we descended Konjang Hill. Entering Pochonbo, the unit dispersed in several groups and occupied designated positions.

I took up my command post under a poplar tree that stood at the edge of town. The distance from there to the police substation, one of our major targets, was no more than 100 meters. It is a tenet of street fighting that the command post is seldom located near the street, as mine was at the time. Yet this can be said to be one of important fea­tures of the Battle of Pochonbo. My commanding officers had advised me to locate the command post a little farther from the town, but I had declined, for it was my earnest desire to be where I could see every move of the fight at all times and be able to throw myself into the battle if it was necessary.

Still vivid in my memory of the scene just before battle is a group of people playing chess in the front yard of a farmhouse near the command post. Had I been working underground then, I would have spoken to them and helped the players with moves.

At 10 p.m. sharp, I raised my pistol high and pulled the trigger.

Everything I had ever wanted to say to my fellow countrymen back in the homeland for over 10 years was packed into that one shot rever­berating through the street that night. The gunshot, as our poets described, was both a greeting to our motherland and a challenge to the Japanese imperialist robbers whom we were about to punish.

My signal started a barrage of fire destined to destroy the enemy’s establishments in the city. The main attack was directed at the police substation, the lair for the policemen of this region and the citadel of all sorts of repression and atrocities. O Paek Ryong’s machine-gun poured out a merciless barrage of shots at its windows. As we knew that the enemy also gathered at the forest conservation office, we struck it hard as well. The town turned upside down in an instant. Orderlies came run­ning to the poplar tree one after another to report to me of the develop­ments of the fighting. To each of them I stressed that no civilians were to be hurt.

Soon fires began to flare up here and there. The subcounty office, post office, forest conservation office, fire hall and various other enemy’s administrative centers were engulfed in flames, and the streets were floodlit like a theatre on a gala night.

I walked down the middle of the streets, with Kim Ju Hyon just ahead.

People began to gather on the street from every corner. When they first heard the gunshots, they kept indoors, but later, when our agitators began shouting slogans, they came pouring out in a throng. Poet Jo Ki Chon described the scene by saying, “the masses swayed like a noctur­nal sea.” The line was quite apt.

As the people bubbled over around us, Kwon Yong Byok whispered that I should address a greeting to the compatriots.

Looking round the crowd, I found their eyes, as bright as stars, all focused on me.

Taking off my cap and waving my uplifted arm, I made a speech stressing the idea of sure victory and resistance against Japan. I con­cluded with the words:

“Brothers and sisters, let us meet again on the day of national libera­tion!”

When I left the square in front of the subcounty office, which was a mass of flames, my heart felt heavy and full of pain, as if pierced with a knife. We were all leaving a part of ourselves behind in the small border town as we marched away, and the hearts of those left behind wailed silently as they watched us go.

On climbing up Konjang Hill, the entire unit did something unex­pected: The marchers broke up suddenly without my orders and started picking up handfuls of their native soil to put in their packs. Even the commanding officers did it.

The Battle of Pochonbo was a small battle that involved no large guns, aircraft or tanks. It was an ordinary raid, which combined the use of small arms and a speech designed to stir up public feeling. It pro­duced few casualties and none of us was killed in the battle.

The raid was so one-sided that it seemed to have fallen short of the expectations of some of my men. Nonetheless, the battle met the requirements of guerrilla warfare at the highest level. The selection of the objective, the timing and method to attack, especially surprise attack, the combination of brisk propaganda and powerful agitation through incendiary action—all the processes of the operations were per­fectly coordinated.

The significance of a war or battle is determined not only by its mili­tary importance but also its political importance. I believe that those who know that war is the continuation of politics pursued by different means can easily understand why. From this point of view, it can be said we fought a very great battle.

The battle was a triumphant event in that it dealt a telling blow at the Japanese imperialists who had been strutting around Korea and Manchuria as if they were the lords of Asia. The People’s Revolution­ary Army struck terror into the Japanese imperialists by suddenly strik­ing one of their bases in the homeland, where the Government-General had vaunted over their security, and destroying one of their local ruling machines at a stroke.

There was no doubt whatsoever that the outcome of this battle would make a great impact on the world: Korea, a lesser nation that had once exposed the crimes committed by Japan and begged for independence at an International Peace Conference¹², suddenly revealed itself to possess a revolutionary fighting force capable of dealing merciless blows at the army of Japan (which boasted of being one of the five world powers), a force that swiftly broke through the “iron wall” built by the Japanese imperialists and dealt a crushing blow of punishment to the aggressors.

The Battle of Pochonbo showed that imperialist Japan could be smashed and burnt up, like rubbish. The flames over the night sky of Pochonbo in the fatherland heralded the dawn of the liberation of Korea, which had been buried in darkness.

Tong-A Ilbo, Joson Ilbo, Kyongsong Ilbo and other major newspa­pers in the homeland all reported the news of the battle under banner headlines.

The battle was also headlined by the Japanese mass media, such as Domei News, Tokyo Nichinichi Shimbun, and Osaka Asahi Shimbun, and Chinese newspapers, including Manchurian Daily, Manchurian News and Taiwan Daily. Pravda and Krasnoye Znamya, not to men­tion TASS, of the Soviet Union also gave liberal space to this battle.

The Battle of Pochonbo demonstrated to the public at home and abroad the revolutionary will and fighting spirit that drove our people to end Japanese imperialist colonial rule and win back national indepen­dence and sovereignty. Through this battle the Korean communists were able to demonstrate the staunch anti-imperialist stand and the poli­cy of independence to which they had consistently adhered throughout their entire course of action. They showed their effective combat power and the thoroughgoing way in which they practiced what they preached.

The battle also proved that it was the communists, spearheading the anti-Japanese armed struggle, who were the true, most ardent patriots and the most devoted and responsible fighters capable of emerging vic­torious in the fight for national liberation. Pochonbo provided the need­ed impetus for the compatriots in the homeland to rise up nationwide against Japanese imperialism, with armed struggle as the main axis. It also created the necessary atmosphere for pushing ahead with the build­ing of party and the ARF organizations in the homeland.

But the greatest significance of the Battle of  Pochonbo is that it not only convinced our people, who had thought Korea was dead, that this country was still very much alive but also armed them with the faith that they were fully capable of fighting and achieving national indepen­dence and liberation….

Not surprisingly then, this battle had an enormous impact on the people of Korea. Hearing of the news that the KPRA had attacked Pochonbo, Ryo Un Hyong⁽¹⁾ was said to have hurried to the battle site, greatly excited by the news.

On meeting me in Pyongyang after liberation, he made following remarks:

 “When I heard of the news that the guerrilla army had attacked Pochonbo, I felt my distress as a citizen of a ruined nation, humiliated for over 20 years under Japanese rule, disappear into thin air in an instant. Walking around Pochonbo after the battle, I slapped my knee and shouted, ‘What a relief! Tangun’s Korea⁽²⁾ is alive.’ This thought moved me to tears.”

According to An U Saeng, Kim Ku⁽³⁾, too, was exhilarated by the news of the Battle of Pochonbo. He had long served the Provisional Government in Shanghai, working as a secretary for Kim Ku.

One day Kim Ku, who had been leafing through newspapers, came across news of the battle and was so inflamed. He opened the windows and shouted over and over again that the Paedal nation¹⁶ was alive.

Kim Ku then went on to say to An U Saeng: “The situation is very frustrating: with the Sino-Japanese War so imminent, the so-called cam­paigners have all disappeared. How perfectly timed on Kim Il Sung’s part to have led his army into Korea and struck the Japanese in this situ­ation! From now our Provisional Government must support General Kim. I must send a messenger to Mt. Paektu in a few days.”…

The Battle of Pochonbo brought about a great change in the lives of the conscientious intellectu­als of Korea. The conflagration that illuminated the night sky over Pochonbo lighted the path for all conscientious people and patriots of Korea in search of a more genuine life.

Notes

1. Ryo Un Hyong (1886-1947)—A Korean independence campaigner from Yangphy-ong, Kyonggi Province. He was a member of the Korean Provisional Government in Shanghai in its early days and of the Koryo Communist Party, fighting for Korea’s independence. In Seoul, he worked as general director of Joson Jungang Ilbo, chairman of the Nation-Building Union of Korea and head of the Working People’s Party. After the liberation of the country, he met President Kim Il Sung in Pyongyang and returned to Seoul, where he advocated an independent political line and national reunification in alliance with the communists. He was assassinated by the enemy on July 19, 1947.

2. Tangun’s Korea—Tangun is the ancestral father of the Korean nation. Ancient Korea, our first ancient state founded by Tangun at the beginning of the 30th century B.C., is called Tangun’s Korea.

3. Kim Ku (1876-1949)—A Korean independence campaigner from Haeju, Hwang-hae Province. He participated in the Anti-Japanese Righteous Volunteers struggle at an early age. After the March First Popular Uprising he went to Shanghai, China, where he occupied the post of President of the Korean Provisional Government and other posts in succession, and founded the Independence Party of Korea. After the defeat of the Japanese imperialists, he returned to the homeland and fought in south Korea against dependence on the United States. He participated in the Joint Conference of Representatives of Political Parties and Public Organizations in North and South Korea, held in Pyongyang in 1948. After that, he returned to Seoul and fought for national reunification in alliance with the communists. He was assassinated.