Kim Il Sung Memoirs 3.7: Korean Youth Communist League
Young Kim
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Due to the tireless activities of "Down with Imperialism" Association and
our secret book club members, Marxism-Leninism spread rapidly and I began to
see marked changes in young people's ideological outlook. Progressive ideas
induced many young people and students to view where they stood in time and
to see clearly what their missions were in life. We continued ideological
indoctrination and formed associations to bring them into organizational
frameworks, through which Marxism-Leninism could be propagated faster and
our political power could grew stronger by day.
My revolutionary life began with youth and student activities. The main
reason why I began with youth movements and placed so much emphasis was,
although my being a student at the time had something to do with it, my
conviction that they could play key roles in motivating the working class
and peasants. Marxism-Leninism tells us that youth and students are
teachers and vanguards of revolution; they educate, motivate and lead the
mass into revolution. I embraced this notion. As our revolution progressed,
our opinion and outlook on the roles played by our youth and students
changed fundamentally. We broke out of the old mold that relied on workers
and farmers for revolution and came to believe that our youth and students
were also essential components of our revolution.
Our youth and students were vanguards of March First Movement, June 10th
Movement, Kwangju Students Incident and other patriotic activities prior
Liberation. Our youth had ushered in the new communist movement and
anti-Japan armed struggles were mainly done by the youth of Korea. After
Liberation, the youth and students led revolution in South Korea. The April
19th uprising was engineered by the youth and so was the 1980 Kwangju
Uprising. In China, students led May 4th Movement.. The old-time
revolutionary models that excluded youth and students did not apply to Korea
and we pioneered the new revolution method that centerpieces youth and
students for the first time in human history.
In the early 1920s, youth and student movements in Korea were void of class
struggles and anti-imperialism, thus lacking the support of the mass. The
movements were led by intelligentsia and leaned to mass enlightenment. Early
on, we recognized these shortcomings and did our best to avoid them.
However, soon we learned that this was no easy task and we had run into many
problems. By that time, there were already several youth and student groups
organized by Korean nationalists and communist factionalists: Jirin Youth
Association, Korean Jirin Students Association, Teens Association and
several others.
Starting yet another group was a challenge. It would have been easy to
start an association, but had it not been for the myriad of associations
already in existence with active participation by youth and students. We
could not ignore them. After lengthy discussions, we decided to ignore those
associations that were inactive but to work with those that were new or had
some activities. The latter type could be led in the right direction.
Korean Jirin Teens Association was the first organization we had formed in
Jirin. At the time, there was an organization for Korean teens in Jirin,
which was setup by Korean nationalists but was not widely known to Korean
teens of Jirin. In April 1927, we formally established Korean Jirin Teens
Association at Rev. Song Jung Do's church. This was a legal entity, properly
registered with the city government.
I worked with Kim Won Wu and Park Il Pa (aka Park Wu Chun) in leading this
organization. It had sections for organization, propaganda, culture and
sports; it had cells in various schools and districts. Whang Gwui Hun, who
graduated from Jirin Women's Teacher School, was in charge of propaganda.
Teens Association had members from workers, farmers, petit bourgeoisie
families in Jirin. The primary mission of the Association was to instill
anti-Japanese spirit in young Korean teens and to train them into a powerful
second echelon of our front. Learning new progressive ideas and propagating
them among the mass was expected of all members.
In May of that year, we renamed Korean Jrin Ryuh Students Association to
Korean Jirin Yu Students Association. This association had quite a few
members and had some influence. It was originally created for mutual
assistance for Korean students studying in Jirin and Korean nationalists
supported it. Rev. Son Jung Do was on its advisory board. When we proposed
to reorganize it, some people wanted to dismantle it completely because it
was purely a social organization created by nationalists. They argued that
it would remain in the domain of the nationalists, no matter what we did
with it; these people wanted to overthrow the old-time nationalists.
In those days, there was an intense competition for people's support by
communists and nationalists. Within the communist camp, there were several
factions competing for people's backing. One day, Seoul faction would take
control of Young Korean Communist League and next day, "Tuesday" faction
would form its own youth association to counter it. One day, "Tuesday'
faction would form a peasants association and next day, 'Seoul' faction
would follow suite by creating its own association to counter it. The
factions went to the extent of forming terrorist gangs to interrupt
competing organizations. There was no way we could adopt these tactics of
the old-time Korean communists. Creating a new association would have caused
tension with nationalists and caused dissention among the Korean students in
Jirin. We decided to work from within; we joined the association and began
to reform it from a social club into a revolutionary organization. I, a
communist, became its honorary chairman and we maintained friendly relations
with Korean nationalists and the local authorities. We began to reshape the
political landscape of Jirin..
The association changed the daily routines of Korean students in Jirin: the
members in small groups held early morning meetings and on Sundays, the
members marched to Mount Buk for a mass rally; they marched singing
revolutionary songs and held athletic events. We applied various tactics
tailored to attract Korean students to our association. There were many
students from Christian families; they were influenced by their Christian
parents into believing in God. Merely telling them that God did not exist
would not change their faith. One day, we asked a woman teacher of a Korean
school to lead a prayer meeting for our Christian members. She took our
Christian friends to a church and prayed all day reciting "Oh, Almighty God,
Our Father in Heaven, we are starving and please. give us bread." There was
no food from God and the kids became hungrier and hungrier. Next, she led
her flock to a wheat field after harvest and had them collect wheat grains
dropped by the farmers, and baked loaves of bread. Our Christian kids got
the message: "it is better to work for food than to beg God for free meals".
This was a simple lesson but was effective in correcting old bad habits.
Our effort to teach our young students not to attend church services and not
to become addicted to religion was not meant to eliminate religion all
together; instead, it was based on our belief that young Koreans with
religious belief would be useless for our revolutionary activities. Some
members marched singing Christian hymns. Such was the influence of
Christianity on our youth in Jirin. You cannot fight the enemy passively
singing hymns. What we needed more were young Koreans singing revolutionary
marching songs. Thus we taught the youngsters progressive songs and soon
fewer and fewer kids marched singing Christian hymns. "Teens Song of
Patriotism" and Korean Students in Jirin Association song began to ring out
in the streets of Jirin.
One of the most memorable events of the association was the Korean language
summer school. We taught Korean language to Korean students attending
Chinese schools and those Korean kids who could not speak Korean at all.
Most of these kids were born in Manchuria and spoke Chinese better than
Korean. We started the slogan - "Koreans must know Korea". Geh Young Chun,
Kim Won Wu and Park So Sim took turns teaching Korean. In those days, we had
no teachers per se and all of the key leaders became teachers as well.
After 20 days of lessons, our young students were able to read children's
publications in Korean. We organized picnics, site seeing trips, special
lectures, debates, study groups, oratory contests, book reviews, song fests
and stage plays. Kangnam Park was our favorite place for holding secret
meetings; the park was on an island in Songwha River, a beautiful place;
some Jirin capitalists planted trees on the island turning it into a
botanical garden and collected entrance fees.
Another site for our secret meetings was Mount Buk Unlike the Park which
was open in warm months only, Mount Buk was open year-around. It was the
most favored play ground for the citizens of Jirin and for this reason,
there were many retail shops around the place: food stalls, tobacco shops,
dime stores, teach houses, play rooms and retail shops for Western goods.
Mount Buk had stunning scenery as well as old relics, including Yakman
Temple, a place of worship for Sun Yaksan, whose birthday was celebrated
from June 4th to June 6th, a 3-day holiday for the people of Jirin.
Government dignitaries held solemn ceremonies at the temple.
During the 3-day festivities, Jirin police set up a station near the
mountain and patrolled the area, making sure that incense burnings at the
temples did not go out of control and started forest fires. Rickshaw and
taxi drivers gouged the public by charging as much as ten times the normal
fares during this period. Huge crowds flocked to the mountain to enjoy the
scenery and also to attend the ceremonies. While the merchants made a
fortune during the festival, progressive activists took advantage of the
crowds to preach enlightenment: better personal hygiene, ethics, law and
order, neighborliness, exercises and so on. There poured their hearts out
trying to enlighten the mass. We, too, took advantage of the situation and
did some propaganda among the celebrants. The monk in charge of the temple
was on our side and allowed us to hold secret meetings in the temple
basement.
During my school years in Jirin, I delivered many lectures. I gave talks at
public debates organized by Korean nationalists. Oh Dong Jin, Lee Tak and
other leaders of Jungyi Command organized public debates on August 29th
(Foundation day), March 1st, and October 3rd (Tanggun's birthday). The
Jirin Students Association held open debates on Ahn Joon Gun's way of
terrorism versus Lee Jun's way of petition to big powers. The became to
realize that neither terrorism nor petition to foreign powers would bring us
independence; and that we must find the right method to gain freedom. We
made the first Sunday of May the Teens Day and held athletic events on this
day for the youth, their parents and relatives and independence activists of
Jirin. Once we had the youngsters properly indoctrinated, we mobilized them
for mass enlightenment activities. When schools were out for summer breaks,
we dispatched kids as young as eleven years to countryside to help with farm
chores and also to enlighten them.
Indoctrinating the Korean youth of Jirin to think in one mind than in one
hundred minds was was exhilarating valuable experience for me. Korean
Students Association of Jirin, Jirin Korean Teens Association and
Marxism-:Leninism Book Club became more and more widely accepted in Jirin
thanks to the key members of "Down with Imperialism" Association. Our rank
of young revolutionaries grew fast. We had students leave for villages right
after their Saturday classes and return home Sunday evenings. In this way,
they were able to work with peasants every week.
As our organizations, some legitimate and some underground, grew and grew in
Jirin and Musong regions, we saw a crying need to consolidate these into a
single unified organization. Thus we formed Anti-Imperialism Youth
Association and later renamed it Young Korean Communist Association. At the
time, I was involved with all organizations and acted as the main liaison
among them. Choe Chang Gul, Kim Won Wu and Geh Yiung Chun acted as concerned
communist youth and had no official title. It was clear that we needed a
more effective way.
In those days, Japanese imperialists were busily planning to invade
Manchuria and waged savage war against the Korean people; they induced
reactionary Chinese warlords to help oppress the Korean people. Young Korean
rose up against the Chinese warlords and Japanese imperialists at various
locations in Manchuria, and they were in need of an effective leadership.
Old-time Korean nationalists and Korean communist factions fought over
hegemony and Korean youth had no leadership to speak of. There were
several youth associations in Manchuria at the time: Korean Communist Youth
of Manchuria (an underground organization), South Manchuria Korean Youth,
North Manchuria Youth, East Manchuria Youth, Jirin Youth, Kilwha Youth,
Three Province Youth and several other organizations vied for membership.
Various factions worked feverishly to line up youth associations. Sometimes,
it was not clear whose hands you were shaking.
To be frank about it, if Korean communists had their acts together in those
days, it would have saved us much grief and sacrifices. Even though we had
communist parties. Korean communist youth organizations derived no benefits
from the communists. It was a sad situation. Korean revolution had many
internal problems; every step forward was met with obstacles and
difficulties. We had to deal with old-time nationalists, communist factions,
our Chinese hosts and foreign communist parties and faced problems after
problems. Furthermore, Korean communists in Manchuria faced suppression
campaigns by Chinese warlords and Japanese militarists.
Under these circumstances, there was urgent needs for experienced and
effective leadership. By this time, we had enough experience in leadership
through our work with "Down with Imperialism" Association, which had spawned
a hardcore cadre of communist leaders, untainted by bad habits of old-time
communists of Korea. I decided to establish Young Korean Communist League
and drafted its charter and platform. I emphasized that the new
organization must avoid factionalism and work for Korean revolution. On
August 28, 1927, we formally established the League at the basement of
Yakwang Temple. In attendance were Choe Chnag Gul, Kim Won Wu, Geh Young
Chun, Kim Hyok, Cha Kwang Su, Huh Yul, Park So Sim, Park Gun Won, Han Young
Ae and other members of Anti-Imperialism Youth Association and young
communists.
At the meeting, I gave a speech, which was published in a booklet. On that
day, we linked our arms and sang International as we did when we formed
"Down with Imperialism" Association. The new organization was an
underground association of young Korean communists and it primary mission
was to lead and organize Koreans for revolution and independence; it was a
vanguard for mass revolutionary movement. We paid special attention to keep
our members pure; we were on guard against Japanese, Chinese and Korean
informers and saboteurs infiltrating our organization. Our members held
open discussions on imperialism, colonialism, Korean independence and other
topics. Our members went through a rigorous program of thought purification
and self-critique. Members were expected to follow our rules and
regulations. Our members were assigned to various tasks and their
performance was closely monitored and critiqued. In this way, our members
grew more and more effective in revolutionary works.
Our membership grew in leaps and bounds; in a short time period, our
influence reached not only Jirin and its neighborinbg regions, but also
Donwha, Honggyong, Whajun, Musong, Ahntung, Bansuk, Jangchun, Harbin and
other key towns of Manchuria and northern provinces of Korea. The League had
fulfilled its mission of leading Korean revolution. Even though, Korean had
communist parties, it fell on the League to lead not only the youth of
Korea, but also workers and farmers of Korea. After forming the League in
secrecy, we quietly joined the mass. We worked for Korean revolution and
sought no fame or recognition for our achievements. Korean revolution and
independence were our rewards. The young members of the League became the
founding fathers of the new Korean Communist Party formed in summer of 1930.
Not long ago, we made August 28th, the day the League was formed, the Youth
Day of Korea.