Kim Il Sung Memoirs 3.5: In Search of Progressive Ideas
Young Kim
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I returned home to Musong and rested for about a month there. After spending
New Year's Day with my family, I left Musong middle of January. I returned
to Jirin during busy day hours. I recalled the day I arrived at Jirin for
the first time. I had written down my father's friends' home addresses in my
black book, but I thought looking it up one by one in public would not look
right and memorized the addresses. Jirin was busting city boasting a long
history and a country boy that I was found it awesome. After leaving the
station, I could hardly walk with the excitements of starting a new life. I
took a long, hard look at my new environment.
One of the most striking scenes was the hordes of water vendors. Jirin used
to be famous for its abundant clean fresh water, but apparently, water was
running out; I wondered what would happen to its citizens in the future. In
Jirin, even a gulp of water was not free and I felt uneasy about my empty
pockets; but such was life and I strode toward the downtown section with my
chin up. A short distance from the station on Charu street was a wall that
enclosed the old Jirin city. There were 10 gates around the city: Joyang,
Singae, Paho, Rimgang, Boksoo, Duksung, Bukguk, and three other gates. The
gates were guarded by Chiang Tzolin's troops. The wall had numerous gaps due
to the elements, attesting to its antiquity.
Although I had never been there before, Jirin did not look totally foreign
to me, perhaps, because, I wanted to visit this city since my early years
and many of Father's friends lived there. I had about ten names to look up
in my address book; among them were Oh Dong Jin, Jang Chul Ho, Son Jung Do,
Kim Sa Hun, Hyon Muk Kwan (aka Hyon Ik Chul), Goh Won Ahm, Park Ki Baik and
Whang Baik Ha. They were my father's friends and I wanted to pay them a
courtesy visit.
Oh Dong Jin was the first on my list. His house was located between Charu
and Sangbu. I was somewhat apprehensive about meeting Oh because of my early
separation from Whasung Military Academy, that he had worked so hard to get
me enrolled. Luckily, Oh received me with no visible hard feelings. I
related to him why I quit the Academy and came to Jirin. Oh nodded his head
and fell silent for a while in deep thought and said: "Looking at you
showing up here out of the blue sky, I cannot help but recall your father.
He, too, dropped out Sungsil Middle School. I was concerned when I hear
about it, but later I came to believe your father did the right thing.
Well, anyway, you had the guts to quit the Academy after only six months and
came here. If you like it here, you should make your home here." That was
all what Oh said about my quitting the Academy and I was glad that he was
such an understanding man.
He said that it would have been nice, if my mother and brothers had moved to
Jirin with me. At my father's funeral, Oh Dong Jin urged, several times, my
mother to move to Jirin, where many of Father's friends lived, but Mother
did not wish to move that far from Father's grave. I met Oh's secretary,
Choe Il Chun; Oh always bragged about how capable Choe was and I felt I had
met him already. Choe was known as the 'writer of Jungyi Command'. He and I
became close comrades. That afternoon, Oh took me to Sampoong-jan, where
several nationalist leaders were staying. I met Kim Sa Hyon, to whom Kim Si
Woo from Whasung Military Academy wrote a letter of introduction on my
behalf me, and Chang Chul Ho, the Command Guard commander.
Sampoong-jan refers to Sampoong Hotel, 'jan' being Chinese for "hotel". In
addition to Kim Sa Hyon and Chang Chul Ho, there were other nationalist
leaders resident at the hotel. It was, in effect, a dormitory for Korean
nationalists just was Taepoong Mill was. The hotel was a popular resting
place for weary Korean expatriates coming out of Korea. The owner of the
hotel came from Rev. Son Jung Do's home town, Jungsan, South Pyongahn
Province. He was persuaded by Rev. Son to come to Manchuria. Sampoong was
called a hotel, but it was more like a dormitory or a meeting hall.
The hotel was located less than 100 meters from the Japanese Consulate,
which was the nerve center of the Japanese police looking for Korean
nationalists. It did not occur to the Japanese that their preys were meeting
and sleeping right under their nose. Koreans laughed at the blind Japanese
police and the old Korean saying - "Every candle casts its own shadow" -
applied to that situation. Strange though it may sound, no nationalist had
been arrested at the hotel. I myself stayed at that hotel several times.
After reading Kim Si Woo's letter of introduction, Kim Sah Hyon told me that
he knew Kim Gang, a Korean teaching at Yookmoon Middle School, and asked me
if I would be interested in attending that school. It was a private school
established by progressive citizens of Jirin and reputed to be the best in
Jirin, Kim said. The school's good reputation was widely known, largely
thanks to Kiljang Daily news, which printed articles favorable to the
school. The school had money scandals and a spat of dictatorial principals
in the past; in fact, Lee Kwang Han had just replaced Jang Hum Hun, a
Nanking university graduate not long before my arrival. The fact that four
different principals had come and gone showed how well the school was no
nonsense. Its teachings were progressive, righteous and puritan. Because of
this, I was attracted to it.
Next day, Kim Sa Hyon took me to meet Kim Kang at Yookmoon Middle. Kim was
well versed in English. Kim took me to the principal, Lee Kwang Han, who
was a leftist Chinese nationalist and a middle school classmate of Chou
Enlai. Lee and Chou were close friends since childhood. I learned about this
many years later. Premier Chou came to Pyongyang on a state visit and I told
him about my Chinese friends who had helped me during my years in China. I
mentioned Lee Kwang Han's name and Premier Chou's face lit up; he said Lee
and he were close friends and were in the same class at Namgae University
middle school in Chunjin.
Lee Kwan Han asked me what I planned to do after graduation and I answered
that I wanted to work for Korean independence. He commended me for my
lofty plan and readily granted me my wish to be enrolled in the sophomore
class. Lee Kwan Han helped me many times since; on account of my youth
movement activities and covert actions, I missed many classes. He knew what
I was into, but he looked the other way; he protected me from reactionary
teachers on the warlord's side who might have turned me in; he had helped me
escape through backdoor when warlord troops and Japanese police came looking
for me at the school. Being a clean conscientious principal, he attracted
many progressive teachers to the school.
After completing my enrolment, I returned to Oh Dong Jin's house. Oh and
his wife told me to stay with them instead of the school dormitory, until my
graduation. This offer was much appreciated because my mother could send me
only three won a month, which was barely enough for my tuition, books and a
pair of shoes; there was nothing left for food and lodging. My mother worked
as a laundress and a seamstress and three won a month was the most she could
send to me. I had to rely on charity and goodwill of Father's friends. Thus,
I stayed at Oh's house until he was captured by the Japanese, and then at
Chang Chul Ho's house for a year, several months at Hyon Mook Kwan's house
and lastly at Lee Woon's house. Lee Woon took over Oh Dong Jin's position.
[Lee Hwa Rang note: Chang Chul Ho (1892 - 1945) commanded Company 5 of
National Command, Gukmin-bu. In 1929, he took over the 2nd Battalion of
Korean Revolutionary Army, Chosen hyuk-myon-gun. He died on February 2,
1945. Photo: Chang Chul Ho.]
Most of the nationalist bigwigs had known my father and they were kind and
generous to me; I got to meet many other nationalists through them. At that
time, most of the Jungyi Command leaders lived in Jirin. The Command had
administrative, financial, justice, military, education, foreign affairs,
security and judiciary branches; in addition, it had local offices even in
remote regions and collected taxes from Korean residents. It acted as if it
were a sovereign state. A guard unit of 150 soldiers protected this
quasi-governmental office.
Jirin was a provincial capital, one of the key political, economic and
cultural hubs, along with Bongchun, Jangchun and Harbin, of Manchuria.
Chiang Jaksung, a nephew of warlord Chiang Tzolin, headed the Jirin
government. The younger Chiang was cool to the Japanese and kept them at a
distance; he rebuffed Japanese demands for information on communists and
other "bad" elements, and he had the guts to tell the Japanese to mind their
own business. His attitude was driven more by his ego and ignorance than any
ideological conviction, however. Revolutionaries recognized his traits and
took advantage of him. Jirin Province was the chosen place for most Korean
expatriates in Manchuria. For this reason, many Korean nationalists and
communists congregated in Jirin and consequently, Jirin became the main
stage for Korean activists. "It is the Anti-Japanese base of the three
eastern provinces" was what the Japanese police said of Jirin.
Since the second half of 1920, Jirin was the home for leaders of Jungyi,
Chamyi and Sinmin commands, the main nationalist groups at the time. Jirin
had a Korean newspaper; activities for setting up Korean schools in Whajun,
Honggyong and Yongjung. "LM", "Tuesday", Suhsang and other communist
factionalists frequented Jirin trying to recruit new members. Any communist
who was somebody came to Jirin, tooting his own horn. Jirin had all kinds of
Korean nationalists, communists, refugees and exiles. Young Koreans looking
for truth and new ideas came to Jirin as well. In one word, Jirin was a
rainbow pot of mixed ideas and personalities.
Jirin was where I began my career as a communist revolutionary. Several
members of "Down with Imperialism" Association had preceded me to Jirin and
found jobs at Mookkwang Middle School, government organs and the wharf. Upon
learning of my arrival, they came to see me at Oh Dong Jin's house. They
told me that living costs were high in Jirin and jobs were scarce, but there
were a plenty of books available. I said that I could live with cold and
hunger, if had enough books to read. They said my school was good, although
some of the teachers were rightwing nationalists, the majority were either
communists or socialists. I was relieved to hear that about my school. I
learned later that both Sang Wol and Mah Joon, my teachers, were members of
Chinese Communist Party.
I was determined to study true revolution to my heart's content and to do my
best to achieve the goals set forth by "Down with Imperialism" Association.
All Association members in Jirin agreed to do the same. Those not in Jirin
were scattered to Korean villages and towns in various provinces such as
Musong, Bansuk, Hongyong, Yuha, Anhdong, Janngchun and Yidong. Some of the
members rejoined their army units. It was no easy task in a messy city like
Jirin to spread our ideals with a handful of activists. It was tough to make
our voices heard over the babbles of the city. We believed that if each
Association member made ten or hundred converts and one hundred converts
converted one thousands converts more; soon we will have an avalanche of
converts numbering tens of thousands and we could then change the world.
I began to study Marxism-Leninism in earnest in Jirin. Before coming to
Jirin, I had some limited exposure to communism during my days at Whasung
Military Academy. The socialistic atmosphere of Jirin fanned my desire for
communism. I spent more time reading books on Marx, Engels, Lenin and
Stalin than my school books. There were many Chinese translations of good
books published in the Soviet Union and Japan. A Beijing monthly,
"Translation Monthly", published progressive literature, which was immensely
popular with young students. Books that were unavailable in Musong or
Whajun were found in Jirin. The problem was that I had no money to buy
them. You may not believe this but I wore shoes only for school and went
around without shoes when not needed.
The library at Woomahang charged 10 jun per month and I saved every penny I
could for the library fee. After school, I stopped by the library and read
books and newspapers for several hours. In this way, I could read
publications that I could not afford otherwise. On occasions, I nudged rich
kids to buy books and let them loan me their books. Some rich kids bought
books to fill their library, not to read them. The school was administered
democratically. The school librarian was elected semiannually by the
student body. The elected librarian had the authority to order books for the
library. I was elected to this position twice and bought many books on
Marxism-Leninism for the school library.
Now, the problem was that there were too many books to read; I did not have
enough time to read all the books I wanted. I had to learn to speed-read.
Father taught me how to read when I was very young; he made me to write down
abstracts of what I read and lessons I learned. This became habits with me
and served me well in my later years. I was able to read and digest many
books in short time periods. I read through the night in my school days; it
was not because of my curiosity or interests in new ideas alone, I thought
reading would help me fight the Japanese. I searched for ways to defeat the
Japanese.
Taking up arms for revolution, instead of merely preaching Marxism-Leninism
and pushing abstract ideas, was the path I reached after years of reading
and studying books. I read book after book - "Communist Manifest", "Das
Kapital", "Nation and Revolution", "Wage Labor and Capital", numerous
classics on Marxism-Leninism and commentaries. In addition to books on
ideology, I read literary works by Maxim Gorky and Rosin. When I was in
Musong and Paldo-gu, I read "Chunhyang Story", "Simchun Chronicle", "Admiral
Yi Soon Sin", "Western Dreams" and other traditional classics. In Jirin, I
read "Mother", "Steel River", "Congratulations", "Aku", "By Yalu River", "A
Boy Wanderer" and other revolutionary novels. In later years when I often
recalled inspirational books such as "Steel River" at times of hardships;
they rejuvenated my resolve to fight on and uplifted my sagging spirits.
Literary works play important roles in shaping people's world outlook, and
for this reason, I encourage writers, whenever I meet them, to come out
with revolutionary novels. Our writers have produced a number of excellent
novels.
In addition to books, political awakening came from by observing how people
lived in abject poverty, misery and social injustice. Many Korean
immigrants came first to Jirin for orientation before moving to their final
destination. They brought news from Korea. Most immigrants crossed Yalu into
Manchuria, took trains to Jangchun, from there to northern regions of
Manchuria or from there to Jirin and nearby regions. Jirin station and
hotels were packed with Korean immigrants during cold winter and early
spring seasons. There were stories of unbelievable hardship.
One day, my friends and I went to a show called "Chiangsi". After the show,
the actress who played the main part came over and asked us if we knew a
Choe, her boyfriend. To our surprise, she spoke in Korean, totally
unexpected because the show did not originate in Korea. Her name was Ok
Boon, from Gyongsan Province. Long before she was born, her father had
entered into a pact with his neighbor, whereby, if they had a daughter and a
son, respectively, they would be married; if they had a son and a son or a
daughter and a daughter, they would be made brothers or sisters. Some time
later, one had a son and the other had a daughter. The babies were married
symbolically; a silk scarf was cut into two as the marital contract. The two
families were forced to leave the village due to financial difficulties and
went in different directions.
The boy's family moved to Jirin and he attended Moonkwang Middle School and
his parents bought a house and made a comfortable living running a rice
refining business. The girl's family ran out of money in Dandong and had to
sell their young daughter to a Chinese. Ok Boon was forced to learn Changsi
and became an actress. When she got older, she began to wonder about her
'husband'. Everywhere she went, she had been inquiring about her Choe, but
that day, she found her Choe. She wanted to quit the show and stay with her
husband, but her owner demanded a huge sum of money and Ok Boon was forced
to stay with the show. She promised her sad husband that she would return to
him after he had paid off her pwner with her future earnings. That was a
heart-breaking story; we were angry at the show owner but there was not much
we could do. We called the show owner "Snake Bitch" and let her know how
cold-hearted she was.
The stench of filthy class struggles among hundreds of thousands of human
beings crowed into a city was everywhere. On one hot summer day, my friends
and I witnessed an unpleasant scene on our way back from a trip to Buksan;
it seemed that a rickshaw man was being shorted by a father and son load.
The poor man begged for a few more pennies in the spirit of democracy. The
rich passenger took an offense and struck the poor man. We could not stand
it anymore and rushed to the rich fellow and demanded that he must give the
poor fellow more money. This made me wonder why some people had to pull
rickshaws while others rode in them; who some lived in palatial mansions,
while others were homeless and roamed the streets. As the first step in
forming revolutionary world outlook, people must realize where they stand in
the society, which social class they belong and what interests they must
protect; hatreds toward the exploiters and burning desire to fight their
rights and interests are prerequisite to becoming revolutionaries working to
build a new society.
I read many Marxism-Leninism classics and other books on revolution, and
began to develop class consciousness. I got to see the world and realized
that social inequities abounded; I came to hate the exploiters and
exploiting societies, and made up my mind to work for an exploitation-free
society. As I studied books by Marx and Lenin, I developed the urge to share
my knowledge with my fellow students. Kwon Tai Suk was the first friend I
made at Yukmun Middle School. There were only four Korean students at the
school, two of them, Kwon and I, were interested in politics and the other
two were only for making money. Kwon and I had many things in common and hit
it off good. Jang Sin Min was a Chinese friend of mine; Jang and I spent
hours discussing politics; we talked about the ills of our society, evils
of imperialism, Japanese invasion of China, Chiang Kaisek's reactionary
deeds, and so on.
In those days, Marxism-Leninism was only a curiosity for young people and
students; they adored Marx, because they believed he was a great man; they
thought studying Marxism was a fashionable thing to do and few had the
desire to put Marxism into practice. Based on my Whajun experience, I
started a secret book club with some of my friends at Yukmun Middle School.
Our purpose was to educate progressive-minded youth and students on
Marxism-Leninism. The club expanded rapidly to other schools - First
Middle, Fifth Middle, Girls Middle, Teacher Training School, and others in
Jirin. As the membership grew, we had to rent a room at a rice mill,
which was operated by Korean nationalists. Members of Yugil fraternity
managed the reading room.
Today, we have libraries everywhere and we have huge palatial libraries such
as the People's University Library. But in those days, setting up a tiny
reading room was no easy task for us. Books had to bought, book shelves and
reading desks and chairs had to be acquired, but we had no money. Every
Sunday, we did manual labor for pay; we carried railroad beds at the
stations and fetched sands from the river for minimum wage; girls worked at
the mill picking husks. We bought books with our sweat-money. We made a
secret storage for revolutionary books; we posted a simple catalog of our
books at various locations in the city. Soon the words got out and our
readership expanded rapidly. We had romantic novels to the library to make
it more attractive to the readers. The love stories were big hits with our
young audience. They cut teeth on sweet love stories and those wanting to
read more were introduced to social science and other more serious books;
after which there were exposed to Marxism-Leninism and other revolutionary
books from our secret stack.
Our library included "Resurrection", "Inhumanity", "Pioneer" and other epics
by Lee Kwang Soo. Lee wrote "February 8" Independence Declaration in Tokyo,
a few days prior to March First Movement; he actively participated in
independence movement and wrote many progressive novels. His works were
popular with young Koreans. Unfortunately, Lee became reactionary in his
later years and wrote "A Revolutionary's Wife" and other decadent stories.
When I stopped in Musong on my way to South Manchuria with my guerrilla
army, I had the chance to read it. "A Revolutionary's Wife" depicts an
illicit affair between woman married to a wounded communist revolutionary
and a medical student attending to his wound. This novel drew an unfavorable
picture of communists and made pun of communism. It showed where Lee Kwang
Soo stood on communism.
Every Saturday and Sunday, we met at Jirin Chapel or at Buksan Park and held
book reviews. At first there were some love story reviews but they were not
well received and soon no one talked about love stories and all reviews were
serious revolutionary books. In order to attract more people to our
indoctrination program, we tried our hand at "Sugar Water" approach. One
day, I got sick and had to skip some classes. On my way home, I passed by
Buksan and noticed a large crowd was gathered listening to a storyteller.
He was reciting the epic story of "Three Nations" from memory. When he came
to the heroic battle of Je Kalring, he beat a drum to dramatize his story.
When he came to a dramatic section, he stopped and passed a hat for
donation. This sales gimmick was called "Sugar Water" by the Chinese people.
It worked well with the mass.
We adapted this technique for our movement. We had a fellow who was good at
cracking jokes and talked well. We had him work with Christians. He could
recite the Bible backward and forward and offered wonderful prayers; he was
better than any preacher I knew. The Chinese storyteller did it for money
nut our storyteller did it for revolution. Our man used some juicy love
stories and at critical moments, he stopped and did some communist
propaganda, and then moved on to the next climactic moment. After an hour or
so, his act continued to the next day, and next day; it became a continuous
event.
One of the converts from our storytelling propaganda work was Park So Sim.
There was a large bookstore called New Book Store, which I frequented. Park
was a frequent visitor there, too. He lurked in the area that handled books
on communism and socialism, looking for new arrivals and we ran into each
other often. He was tall, lean and pleasant. Occasionally, I went to the
store with my friends and bought an armful of books for the school library.
On these occasions, Park got more excited and involved in selecting our
books; he told us which books to buy and which books to ignore. In this way,
Park and I became friends. Later, he stayed with me for a while when I
lived in Dongtae-tan.
Park came from Seoul. His health was poor and he wrote wrote short articles
for magazines and newspapers; that was about all his health would allow. He
did not participate any communist movement but he was highly critical of
communist factionalists. Because of his literary skills, numerous leaders
attempted to entice him to their camps. Park read Das Kapital, translated
from Japanese, through the night. When he ran out of money, he hocked his
clothe to buy books. Unlike some other pundits, who acted as if they knew
everything after reading a handful of books, Park read virtually all books
on communism and recite key verses and chapters from memory. Park introduced
me to Das Kapital and explained to me what it was all about. As with the
case with some communist books, Das Kapital has some rough spots for novices
and Park gave lectures on those spots. He became our 'professor' of
communism.
Once I asked him about proletariat dictatorship. Park recited the evolution
of this notion in the context of historical developments. Various Marxist
theorists gave their best explanations relevant to the existing conditions.
His explanations were clear and made sense. I did stomp him on one question,
though; I asked him if our independence should come before our communist
revolution in Korea. At the time, this was question was hotly debated among
young students. In those days, communist theorists had little to say about
national liberation. Park's answer to his question was unclear.
I said: "Communists theorists talk about revolution in colonial powers and
in colonies, which are organically connected, but they emphasize proletarian
revolution in colonial nations. If that is the case, then Korea will not be
freed until proletarian revolution is achieved in Japan. Doe this mean
Korea's toiling mass must sit tight and wait for their Japanese comrades get
their work cone?" Park could not answer this one. He stared at me with a
puzzled look on his face. Finally, he said that was true according to the
internationally accepted Marxist doctrine. Noting that I was not
comfortable with his answer, he confessed that he studied Marxist doctrines
for many years but had had no practical experience. I was somewhat
disappointed, "What good is it to master communism doctrines, if the
knowledge is not put to work?"
One of the most striking differences between communist revolution in Russia
and Korea was that the October revolution could never happen in Korea,
because the conditions were drastically different. Proletarian revolution in
a backward feudal colony like Korea was not realistic. Korean patriots were
forced out of Korea and had to work outside Korea; how could they lead the
mass in Korea from outside? How can they carry out their tasks of Korean
independence and revolution and also meet international obligations? It took
us a long time to find the answers and the answers came at high costs to us.
Park joined Anti-Imperialism Youth League and Communist Youth Association,
and devoted his life to educating our young members. He was transformed from
a recluse book-warm to an ardent activist in spite of his deteriorating
health. He had tuberculosis and we sent him to Kahryun hoping that the
climate there might help him. Park So Sim built himself a tiny
straw-thatched hut on the bank of Mugae River and lived by himself, cooking
his own meals. I dropped in to see him as often as I could. He was so
happy to see me and we spent hours recalling our good old days and debating
Marxist doctrines.
One day, to my surprise, he showed me his wife's photo. I assumed that his
wife passed away or left him. It was clear from the photo that his wife was
well educated and she was pretty. He told me that he received a letter from
his wife recently from Seoul. When I asked him why had had not brought her
here, he replied that she was from a wealthy family. I asked: "Didn't you
know that she was rich when you married her?" Park said: "Yes, I knew. My
life philosophy was quite different in those days."
I found his answer somewhat strange and inquired: "Did you forget your
wife?" He said: "Yes, until now. But since receiving her letter, I cannot
get her off my heart." I told him that he should bring her here if he truly
loved her. I said: "How can you carry the world into a new world, if you
cannot convert your own wife? Anyway, your wife can really help you here."
he nodded in agreement and said: "Well, Sung Ju. If that's what you think I
should do. I will ask my wife to come here. It is too late for me; my life
is almost over. I am a failure." He had no child, no property to speak of,
no spiritual legacy to leave behind for the next generation.
"My life wish was to write a book for the toiling mass of Korea. That is why
I have spent all my life reading books. But time has run out. When I was
young and healthy, I did not know enough to write down anything, but when I
had finally the truth, I am too weak to write anything down." Park was a
broken man. I, too, was sad; Park was a sincere hardworking scholar of
Marxism and I regretted that he did not have the opportunity to practice his
theory while he was able; had he done so, he would have made significant
contributions to our movement. No one should forget our independence and
people's happiness. Park So Sim did not live long enough see Korea freed.
Park's wife came from Seoul to care for him. Park kept on writing short
stories and articles until his last day. The ancients sai that if you find
the truth in the morning, you can die happily in the evening. I was sad to
lose Park, who knew so much and could have done so much for us, and who had
found the truth.
I spent three years in Jirin - three of the most memorable of my life. It
was here that I learned Marxism-Leninism from scientific points of view and
thanks to this learning, I found the true way to free Korea and bring
happiness to the Korean people. Being a son of a state-less people, I was
forced to learn the truth early in my life. The Korean people's sufferings
and miseries were my sufferings and miseries. My life philosophy and work
outlook were formed and gelled during my years in Jirin. My learning and
experiences in Jirin became the foundation and springboard of my
revolutionary actions in the years that followed. Even today, I emphasize
that the very first step in becoming a revolution is education. Your
revolutionary activities must be based on clear understanding of
revolutionary ideals.