Dear comrades and friends,

Revolution must be waged with the force of arms, and the end of all forms of struggle for national independence and social liberation is decided generally by the armed struggle. The basic factor of our victory in the anti-Japanese revolution was that we had our own independent revolutionary armed forces.

In the theatre of the national liberation struggle of our country there were various forces, like Kim Ku’s, Syngman Rhee’s and Ryo Un Hyong’s, but the force that the Japanese imperialists saw as their most fearful enemy was our KPRA. And why? It was precisely because we fought against them tenaciously by the method of armed struggle, the highest form of national liberation movement, not through petitions, strikes, writings or speeches.

The victory of the anti-Japanese revolution convinced us of the correctness of the truth that revolution must be waged with the force of arms, and after liberation it induced us to hold fast to the line of building a revolutionary army and channel all our efforts into building powerful revolutionary armed forces throughout the whole course of building a new Korea and accomplishing the cause of socialism.

The power of a nation and its pride rest on arms.

A strong army ensures a reviving nation and a prospering country. Independence is inconceivable apart from arms. If arms get rusty, the people become slaves.

That Comrade Kim Jong Il is today training the Korean People’s Army to be an unrivalled, ever-victorious army and scoring marvellous successes in army building at the helm of the revolutionary armed forces is the most brilliant, historical achievement he has made in inheriting and consummating the revolutionary cause of Juche pioneered on Mt. Paektu.

(Volume VIII)

The Winter Mingyuegou Meeting of 1931 marked the start of the anti-Japanese armed struggle; it was a historic meeting that brought about a fresh turn in the anti-Japanese national liberation movement and communist movement in our country. The line of the armed struggle advanced at the Kalun Meeting was developed in depth through this meeting. If the will of the Korean nation to switch from the anti-Japanese national liberation movement to an armed struggle, its highest stage, was confirmed in Kalun, in Mingyuegou that will was reaffirmed and an anti-Japanese war was formally proclaimed with a view to annihilating the Japanese imperialists under the slogan “Oppose armed force with armed force, and resist counterrevolutionary violence with revolutionary violence!” At this meeting the main point of the strategy defining the direction of the guerrilla war and of its tactical principles was defined and, on the basis of this, immensely rich and varying methods of armed struggle were created….

I gave a particularly great deal of thought to the question of the armed struggle.

In my draft report I put it forward as the basic line of the anti-Japanese national liberation struggle, as the foremost task for the Korean communists, to wage a comprehensive anti-Japanese war.

It took a long time to decide upon the armed struggle and to fix it as our line. Before it was adopted as a line at Kalun, we were virtually empty-handed. I proposed that if an armed struggle was to be launched, the young communists should found a new type of army….

I was convinced that an armed struggle led by communists alone could wage a thorough anti-Japanese war of resistance and be revolutionary. This was because communists alone could rally in their armed ranks workers, peasants and other broad sections of the anti-Japanese patriotic forces and lead the Korean revolution as a whole to victory, taking charge of and waging the noble war by employing scientific tactics and strategies which would accurately reflect the interests of the masses….

I emphasized to those attending the meeting that the sudden change in the situation following the September 18 incident, as well as the historic lesson of the anti-Japanese national liberation movement in our country, urgently demanded that we should wage an organized armed struggle and that launching an armed struggle was a requirement of our revolutionary struggle and a qualitative advance in it. Then I set two major tasks, namely, the task of making full military preparations for the armed struggle and the task of laying a firm mass foundation for it….

The Imjin Patriotic War^* gave me many ideas concerning a definition of guerrilla warfare as the basic form of our struggle. I regarded the struggle of the volunteers who won a glorious victory in the Imjin Patriotic War as an example holding an outstanding place in the history of guerrilla warfare. I was totally fascinated by the bravery displayed and the varied fighting methods employed by the famous generals who emerged from among the volunteers such as Kwak Jae U, Sin Tol Sok, Kim Ung So, Jong Mun Bu, Saint Sosan, Choe Ik Hyon and Ryu Rin Sok. The words guerrilla warfare gripped my heart with the approach of the great battle against the heavily-armed Japanese imperialists….

I spoke to the following effect: So far as the form of the armed struggle is concerned, there has been regular warfare and guerrilla warfare throughout history. Regular warfare has been predominant, but guerrilla warfare has also been employed. We must choose one of these two forms. I am of the opinion that guerrilla warfare will be more suitable to the situation in our country. Under the conditions in our country where regular warfare is impossible, guerrilla warfare should be the main form of our struggle, irrespective of what has been happening until now.

Then I said, “Constantly-varying guerrilla warfare is the main form of the armed struggle which we must choose. In our country which has lost its statehood, it is impossible to oppose the Japanese imperialists by waging regular warfare. We must wage constantly-varying guerrilla warfare because we must fight the powerful Japanese imperialist aggressor army with an armed force which is inferior both in military equipment and in numbers. There can be no other way than this.”…..

I said to them:

“We are the sons of ruined people who have been deprived of all their state power, territory and resources. We are empty-handed young people who are now living in a foreign country. However, we have not hesitated to challenge the Japanese imperialists. What is it we are relying on in doing so? We have decided to start an anti-Japanese war by relying on the people. The people are the state, the people are the home front and the people are the regular army. When the war starts, the people will become soldiers and rise up. Therefore, the guerrilla warfare which we shall wage can be called a people’s war.”

Thus after a long argument we reached complete agreement on the matter of organizing and waging an armed struggle with guerrilla warfare as its basis.

Guerrilla warfare is a method of armed struggle with which one can deal heavy political and military blows to the enemy while preserving one’s own forces and annihilate, with a small force, an enemy who is superior both in numbers and equipment. We firmly believed that we would ultimately be able to defeat the enemy if we organized and waged an armed struggle by relying on guerrilla warfare, the active support and encouragement of the popular masses and the favourable natural and topographical conditions.

When all others regarded guerrilla warfare as a means of helping regular warfare, we confirmed it as the basic form of our struggle and adopted it as our policy. This was a scientific and creative decision commensurate with our situation.

When our consultation on waging an organized armed struggle with guerrilla warfare as the basis was over, we discussed ways of conducting it….

Our armed forces had to fight without any home front and without the support of a regular army. Therefore, only when there was a base where we could rest securely after battle while putting our ranks in good order, replenishing our weapons and ammunition, carrying out military training and giving medical treatment to the wounded soldiers, would we be able to wage a guerrilla war for a long time. Therefore, we had to build a base at the same time as forming a guerrilla army.

At the end of an animated discussion we decided to build a guerrilla base in the mountainous areas of Jiandao where there was a good mass foundation, fine supply conditions and favourable terrain. We decided to establish a base first in Jiandao for the time being because in Manchuria with its wide area the enemy’s rule was spread more thinly than in Korea. And we agreed that when the time came, we would go into the homeland and occupy the wide forest area of Mt. Paektu and the Rangnim Mountains.

The form of the liberated area, the area where the enemy’s rule could not reach, had to be the main form of the base and we had to establish that base without fail in the mountainous areas along the River Tuman which were convenient for us both in conducting our operations into the homeland and in getting support from the people there. Along the River Tuman there were many mountain villages providing good conditions for supplying materials and unfavourable for the enemy to attack but favourable for us to defend ourselves. …

As the discussion deepened and became more detailed, the matter was raised of operating and maintaining the base for a long time; there were many complicated practical problems such as how to conduct agricultural production and manage the economy, how to build an ordnance repair shop and a hospital and who should take charge of population administration and how to conduct this work.

At the meeting we also discussed the matters of laying a mass foundation for the armed struggle and forming an anti-Japanese joint front of the Korean and Chinese peoples, as well as the problem of strengthening party organizational work and the work of the YCL.

All these were important problems which had to be solved in order to wage an armed struggle with guerrilla warfare as the major tactic. At the meeting all these matters were formulated as a policy.

It was truly gigantic and unfathomable creative work. There was no history of guerrilla warfare in any era or in any country which could provide something to serve as a model for our revolutionary struggle. Therefore, we had to think over all the problems by using our own brains and establish the base by our own efforts. It was an unavoidable task for us Korean communists who had to wage a guerrilla war in unprecedentedly arduous conditions without any home front or the support of any regular army….

In forming the armed units we considered cadres and weapons as the most essential two elements. But we were short of them both.

By cadres we mean those who were prepared militarily and politically. We needed young people who understood politics and military affairs and were ready to fight in arms for the country and people for a long time….

In the national liberation revolution in colonies it is impossible to make people take up arms by means such as a mobilization order or a system of obligatory military service. In the revolution the appeal of the leader of the revolution or farsighted people replaces the law, and the political and moral awareness and militant enthusiasm of each man decides his voluntary entry into the army. The masses take up arms for their liberation of their own accord without the request or direction of anyone else. It is an act natural to the people who regard independence as their lifeblood and are ready to devote their lives to it….

Antu became the headquarters of the Korean communists who were forming the Anti-Japanese People’s Guerrilla Army. Political workers and messengers from several counties along the River Tuman often came to Xiaoshahe to make contact with us. The news of our activities to form the guerrilla army in Antu spread from mouth to mouth as far as the homeland. On hearing the news, young patriots in their early twenties from Korea and various parts of Manchuria flocked to Antu, at the risk of their lives, to volunteer for the guerrilla army….

In the second half of April 1932, we held a meeting to finalize the preparations for the formation of the Anti-Japanese People’s Guerrilla Army in Antu. The meeting discussed the date and place of the inauguration of the guerrilla army along with the final screening of the applicants, defined the area of its immediate activities and adopted general measures related with the activities of the guerrilla army….

On the morning of April 25, 1932, we held the founding ceremony of the Anti-Japanese People’s Guerrilla Army on the tableland at Tuqidian. The guerrillas, dressed in their new uniforms and with their guns on their shoulders, lined up in unit order in the clearing on the tableland surrounded by larch trees, and the people from Xiaoshahe and Xinglongcun were buzzing, as they stood in a group at one edge of the clearing.

When looking at the fresh, sturdy soldiers, my mind was flooded with surging memories. How many miles our comrades had walked, how many meetings they had held, how many speeches they had delivered, how many rugged mountains they had trekked, and how many comrades had laid down their lives in the course of forming this armed force! The Anti-Japanese People’s Guerrilla Army was a priceless creation of our revolution, born of superhuman efforts, a bloody struggle and sacrifice.

Feeling an irresistible urge to summon all the comrades and people who had sacrificed themselves for this day to this tableland at Tuqidian, I made a speech, with strong emotion bursting out of my heart.

As I proclaimed the founding of the Anti-Japanese People’s Guerrilla Army, the soldiers cheered at the top of their voices and the people applauded them enthusiastically.

On May Day, the militant holiday of the working class of the whole world, the AJPGA entered the county town of Antu with the red flag flying in the van and marched in parade, while blowing trumpets and beating drums. Kim Il Ryong, who had been appointed an officer of the guerrilla army, led the chorus of the march that day. Not only the citizens but also the officers and men of the Chinese anti-Japanese nationalist army units crowded out to the streets and extended a welcome to us with their thumbs up, applauding us to congratulate us.

When we returned to Tuqidian after the parade, Cha Kwang Su and Kim Il Ryong hurried to my house and fetched my bed-ridden mother. Her face did not look well, with wrinkles between her eye-brows and with grey hairs on her head; but her eyes were smiling a quiet smile. She walked to Ri Yong Bae and stroked his rifle, cartridge belt and five-pointed star. Then she proceeded to Kim Chol, Jo Tok Hwa, Kim Il Ryong, Pang In Hyon and Cha Kwang Su, stroking this or that rifle and patting one man’s shoulder, and then another’s. Before long, her eyes were moist. She said:

“I am proud of you. Now we have our own army! That’s what we needed. You must destroy the Japanese and win back the country without fail.”

Her voice was thick. Forgetting her devotion to us, she was apparently thinking of the painstaking efforts of my father and other patriotic fighters who had passed away, praying for the liberation of the motherland.

Later guerrilla units were formed in Yanji, Wangqing, Hunchun, Belong and other parts of east Manchuria. Guerrilla units were also formed in north and south Manchuria by such staunch Korean communists as Kim Chaek, Choe Yong Gon, Ri Hong Gwang and Ri Tong Gwang, and began to fight the enemy.

The spring of 1932 advanced with the rumbling of the gunfire of the great war against the Japanese imperialists.

* The Imjin Patriotic War — The seven-year-long war (1592-1598) provoked by Japan’s invasion of Korea. Toyotoroi Hideyoshi provoked a war of aggression by mobilizing 250,000-strong armed forces, but the Korean people repulsed the aggressors and emerged victorious in the war.

(Volume II)