[Reminiscences]Chapter 4 8. Crossing the River Tuman

8. Crossing the River Tuman 

My father said on many occasions that the people of Jiandao had great fighting spirit. Having experienced the May 30 Uprising\and then the August 1 Uprising, I realized that the Koreans in Jiandao had an extraordinary revolutionary spirit.

Jiandao\and the northernmost areas of Korea had for a long time been the stage of the activities of the volunteers\and the soldiers of the Independence Army. Under the influence of the October Socialist Revolution in Russia, Marxism- Leninism was disseminated in these areas before anywhere else. Although the communist movement in Jiandao was going through many twists\and turns owing to the petty-bourgeois impetuosity that appeared among its leaders, the revolutionary advance of the popular masses was continuing.

Therefore, as early as the time I was in prison I was resolved to make the northern border area of Korea with Mt. Paektu as the centre\and Jiandao, an important strategic position once I started the armed struggle.

The Japanese imperialists had also been viewing this area for a long time. While we intended to make the northern border area of Korea with Mt. Paektu as the centre\and Jiandao, an important strong point for the anti-Japanese armed struggle, they wanted to make the area a strategic point for invading Manchuria\and Mongolia. It was with the aim of creating an occasion for realizing this ambition that the Japanese imperialists provoked various incidents in east Manchuriarom the beginning of the 20th century.

Under the pretext of “protecting the Koreans” the Japanese imperialists sent their troops into Longjing, Yanji County, in August 1907,\and there they set up the “police sub -station under the residency-general in Korea.” In 1909 they induced the reactionary Chinese government to conclude the Jiandao Treaty\and, further, they even obtained the concessions for the Jilin-Hoeryong railway project. Afterwards the “police sub-station under the residency-general in Korea” in Longjing was raised to the status of a Japanese consulate general. It was not with the aim of ensuring that the Koreans in Jiandao could live in luxury that the Japanese imperialists set up a consulate general in Longjing\and five branch consulates under it. In addition to these consular machines, they established police stations in various places\and set up numerous\organizations of their lackeys, such as the Association of Korean Residents\and made them watch with sharp eyes every movement of the Koreans living in Jiandao. The branch office of the\oriental Development Company\and the financial circles also exerted their influence on the area. East Manchuria was under the complete control of Japanese imperialism both politically\and economically.

Thus, east Manchuria was turning into a place of acute confrontation between revolution\and counterrevolution.

Therefore, I never ceased to think that the thick forest areas of Mt. Paektu\and east Manchuria should be made the base of the armed struggle. After experiencing the August 1 Uprising I felt many omens of the imminent invasion of Manchuria by the Japanese imperialists. So I became more firmly resolved to unite the people in east Manchuria who had strong revolutionary spirit and launch an armed struggle as soon as possible. So, I went to east Manchuria.

When I told my comrades about my intention to go to east Manchuria they tried to dissuade merom doing so. They said that going to a place\where the Japanese imperialists had established a strict repressive apparatus\and intelligence network was like jumpingrom the frying pan into the fire. However, I left for east Manchuria without fear, fully determined to make the revolution among the workers\and peasants there.

It can be said that until then I had worked mainly among young people\and students in urban communities. If we were to take our struggle onto a new, higher stage to meet the demands of the revolutionary line adopted at the Kalun Meeting, it was essential for us to mix more closely with the massesrom all social sections, such as the workers\and peasants,\and prepare them as soon as possible for the war of resistance against the Japanese imperialists.

The Comintern supported my idea of going to east Manchuria. First I headed for Dunhua. This was because this area had suffered most in the August 1 Uprising. Dunhua was the source of

the uprising,\and its central stage.

Here were stationed the headquarters of a garrison of the Japanese army, a branch consulate under the Jilin consulate general\and the headquarters of the 677th regiment of the former Northeast Army. That such a reckless revolt as the August 1 Uprising had broken out there\where the enemy’s forces of repression were so concentrated had something to do with the fact that many Left adventurists worked there. Along with Panshi, Dunhua was the base of the M-L group\and also the centre of the movement to rebuild the Korean Communist Party. Such prime movers of the August 1 Uprising as Pak Yun Se\and Ma Kon were also based there.

In Dunhua there were various revolutionary\organizations, such as the party, the YCLK\and the AIYL, which we had established, as well as such reliable comrades as Chen Han-zhang, Ko Jae Bong\and Ko Il Bong.

When I arrived in Dunhua I made my home at Chen Han-zhang’s house. Wearing the Chinese clothes of Shandong Province, I worked to remove the evil consequences of the uprising. Chen Han-zhang, who had attended middle school when I was forming groups of the Young Communist League in Jilin, was also conducting\organizational activity in Dunhua. After the occupation of Manchuria by the Japanese imperialists he worked as chief secretary at the general headquarters of the unit under Wu Yi -cheng. In the Anti-Japanese Allied Army in Northeast China he worked as divisional chief of staff, division commander, commander of a route army,\and secretary of the south Manchurian party committee. But at that time he was a simple\and quiet YCLK member.

Chen Han-zhang was the son of a rich man, like Zhang Wei-hua. However, he led a perfectly sincere life in the YCLK\organization, displaying extraordinary passion for the revolution. Being a very rich farmer, his father had hundreds of horses\and many rifles. His house was surrounded by an earthen wall\and looked awe-inspiring. He told me jokingly that his family was one which should have been overthrown\and that they did not encroach on other people’s land because all the land around his house belonged to them. Although I do not know exactly how much land his family owned, they were very rich.

Chen Han-zhang treated me hospitably, saying that it was I who had taught him communism. Because they were leading a comfortable life, his family did not grudge me taking my meals without paying for them.

I started to search for the dispersed\organizations through Chen Han-zhang\and Ko Jae Bong. In the daytime I dressed in Chinese clothes\and spoke Chinese when calling on my comrades,\and at night I restored the\organizations clad in Korean dress\and speaking Korean. After dealing with the evil consequences of the uprising like this, I formed in Dunhua the YCLK committee of the eastern region of Jilin Province as I had been authorized by the Comintern.

Afterwards Ko Jae Bong\and some other YCLK members left for the area along the River Tuman with the task, entrusted to them by me, of going to the towns\and rural communities in the area, making the masses revolutionary\and establishing party\organizations there.

After giving Chen Han -zhang the task of conducting YCLK activities at Dunhua Middle School, I also left Dunhua.

Helong was the first place I visited when I went to east Manchuria.

In Helong there was a Chinese man named Cao Ya-fan who had worked in our YCLK\organization when he was attending Jilin Normal School. There was also a Korean whose name was Chae Su Hang. I believed that, by relying on them, I would be able to deal with the aftermath of the uprising\and also expand the\organizations.

I went first to a place called Dalazi\where I met Cao Ya-fan. Pointing out that the consequences of the August 1 Uprising

were very serious, Cao Ya-fan told me that, after the uprising, Koreans were nowhere to be seen\and that there was no knowing\where they were hiding. He said that the people in prison were likely to be released soon\and asked me to meet them.

Several days later Chae Su Hang came to see me after having been informed of my arrival. Formerly he had attended Tonghung Middle School in Longjing. When I was attending Yuwen Middle School he came to Jilin\and enrolled at the normal school. At that time he started to work for the revolution under our influence. Chae Su Hang was a popular football player among the young people\and students of Jilin. In those days many young peoplerom Helong were studying in Jilin. Kim Jun conducted propaganda about us in the areas of Longjing\and Onsong,\whereas Chae Su Hang gave publicity to our revolutionary idea going around Helong\and Jongsong. Afterwards, together with Comrade Kim Il Hwan who, while working as secretary of a county party committee, was later killed on a false charge of being involved in the “Minsaengdan,” he formed the Young Communist League\and such revolutionary\organizations as the Anti-Imperialist Youth League, the Peasants Association\and the Anti-Japanese Women’s Association, rallying many people to them. Comrade Pak Yong Sun who was famous as a master at making the Yanji bomb, was working as a member of the AIYL in the Badaogou Mine in Yanji County.

However, the\organizations which had been built up with such trouble had been scattered in all directions because of the two uprisings. Many hardcore elements had either been arrested\or gone into hiding,\and the few remaining members of the\organizations were at a loss what to do\and trembling with apprehension, not being fully seasoned.

This made me think a great deal about the faith of a revolutionary. On my way to Helong via Jilin, Hailong, Qingyuan, Jiaohe, Harbin\and Dunhua after leaving Kalun, I saw many people who were wavering either frightened by the counterrevolutionary attack\or having lost conviction in the victory of the revolution. A firm belief in the victory of the revolution comes into being when one realizes in theory that one has a correct revolutionary line\and strategy\and tactics that are capable of winning the sympathy of all the people\and rousing them, as well as one’s own revolutionary force. This belief becomes firmer through the struggle.

However, those who had instigated the uprising failed to put forward any programme\or strategy\and tactics which could serve as a banner for the masses. The revolutionary line we adopted in Kalun was not being propagated widely among the people. I held a conference with Chae Su Hang\and some other cadres of the YCLK\and AIYL\and gave them a detailed explanation of the revolutionary line adopted at the Kalun Meeting.

Furthermore, I emphasized the need to build up leading hardcore elements with those who had been tested through the struggle\and were popular with the masses, restore the destroyed mass\organizations as soon as possible\and build up their ranks. It was also at that time that I gave the task of forming a district revolutionary\organization in each county along the River Tuman.

Although all the\organizers of the uprising had fled, leaving the masses to the mercy of the bayonet\and afraid of the prisons\and gallows, we emphasized the need to contain the consequences of the uprising as soon as possible. Because I was wearing Shandong clothes, my comrades in Helong called me the “Shandong youth.”

The second place I visited was Wangqing. I went there in\order to meet O Jung Hwa.

It was Kim Jun\and Chae Su Hang who had told me about O Jung Hwa. Whenever they met me in those days on a visit to Jilin, they told me about many people. They told me that a certain man was in a certain place, that if I went to a certain place there was a certain man there who was doing a certain job, what a certain man was like\and how clever a certain man was. Therefore, even when I was in Jilin I was comparatively well aware of the situation in Jiandao.

I listened to them attentively\and bore in mind all those whom they regarded as clever.

When he was told about a good man, my father covered any distance, however long, no matter\where he might be, joined hands with him at any cost\and won him over as a like-minded man. He taught me that talented people decided everything\and that the victory of revolutionary work depended on how many genuine comrades were won over.

In those days I did not mind going hungry for three days,\or even ten days, if only I could win over a like-minded man. It was with this feeling that I went to Wangqing. Chae Su Hang accompanied merom Helong to Shixian in Wangqing.

In Shixian I met O Jung Hwa, O Jung Hup\and also old man O Thae Hui.

Old man O Thae Hui’s family was a very large one. The four brothers of the old man had lived in Kojak village, Onsong County, North Hamgyong Province before moving to Wangqing around 1914. They had dozens of children\and grandchildren. They were conducting revolutionary work in wide areas of Wangqing\and Onsong with the River Tuman separating them. In those days O Jung Hwa was working as the party secretary of the fifth Wangqing district\and O Jung Hup was doing YCLK work in Wenjiadian in Chunhuaxiang, Wangqing County. O Jung Song, O Jung Hwa’s younger brother, had conducted YCLK activities in Shixian, Wangqing County, before moving to Phungri-dong, Onsong County, at the beginning of 1929\and was now conducting revolutionary activities while working as a teacher at Pomun School.

After leaving secondary school O Jung Hwa taught at the private Hwasong School in Helong.

When I met him in Shixian I told O Jung Hwa repeatedly that, in\order to make the masses revolutionary, he must first become a revolutionary, then make his family revolutionary\and then the villagers.

Later O Jung Hwa made his family revolutionary. More than ten of his brothers\and near relatives were killed while working as faithful revolutionaries. It was not by chance that such fine communists as O Jung Hwa, O Jung Song\and O Jung Hup were producedrom among them.

When I finished my work in Shixian I made up my mind to cross to the Onsong area at once. Having been born in a western province\and lived in a foreign land at a young age, I had no good understanding of the six towns14 south of the River Tuman.

The area covering the six towns was\where, during the Ri dynasty, noblemen who had been dismissedrom their official posts were exiled. In this area there was a shortage of grain\and the climate was harsh. Moreover, because of the unbearable maltreatment\and cruelty of their leaders, those soldiers who had been mobilized to defend the frontier here used to flee very quickly. Even those who were in government service regarded it as terrible to be appointed as a public official in this area. Even after receiving notice of their appointment, they idled away their time in the streets of Seoul under various pretexts because they were reluctant to go there. It is said that the feudal rulers worried about this for 500 years.

Whenever Kim Jun told me about the six towns I said to him, “Although our ancestors did not take good care of this land, regarding it as barren, let us turn this area into a revolutionary fortress by making strenuous efforts.” According to this far-reaching plan I started dispatching people there.

Onsong was a place\where such people as Kim Jun, Chae Su Hang\and O Jung Song began to work on a wide scale under our influencerom the end of the 1920s. We had already grasped the importance of the area of Mt. Paektu\and that of the six towns along the River Tuman, including Onsong, in the development of the Korean revolution\and intended to make this area a strategic base for the anti-Japanese revolutionary war. We also planned to open the way for a fresh upsurge in the revolution in the homeland there. In those days some 100 to 150 young peoplerom Onsong were studying in Longjing. When they came back home during their holidays they exerted the influence comingrom Jilin in this area under the guidance of such far-sighted people as Kim Jun\and O Jung Song who were in close contact with us. Branches of the Young Communist League of Korea\and the Anti -Imperialist Youth League were formed in Onsong. It was a promising foothold for us to extend our influence into the homeland. Thanks to this foothold our idea spread to the area of Onsong.

I went to the area of Onsong with the aim of expanding\and developing the Korean revolution as a whole by forming a party\organization in the homeland\and adopting the measures needed for implementing the policy set at the Kalun Meeting.

O Jung Hwa’s cousin who had accompanied usrom Shixian, crossed first to Phungri-dong\where O Jung Song was in\order to inform him that we were coming.

At the approach to a valley of Huimudong, on the far bankrom Namyang, Onsong County, we met O Jung Song\and other members of the\organizations who had come there on receiving the summons. That was my first meeting with O Jung Song. He was taller than his elder brother O Jung Hwa\and had a magnanimous disposition. O Jung Hwa had said that his younger brother was a good dancer\and singer as well as a fine poetry reader.

We quietly crossed the River Tuman by boat at night. O Jung Song rowed the boat quickly\and well. As I looked at the fields\and mountains veiled in darkness, I could not repress my beating heart at my deep emotions at returning to my homeland after five years.

Having left the boat at Namyang Sangtan, I told O Jung Hwa how good it would be if we were crossing the river after winning the independence of the country.

In a positive response to what I had said, O Jung Hwa said that he felt the same each time he crossed the River Tuman.

Having passed Namyang Sangtan village we took the uphill path leading to Mt. Namyang. There we went into a straw-thatched cottage prepared by O Jung Song\and examined the work of the revolutionary\organizations in the Onsong area as well as the trend of the masses.

The people of Onsong had achieved many successes in establishing mass\organizations.

I spent a week guiding the work of the underground revolutionary\organizations at home. In the course of this I discovered that although the revolutionaries in the Onsong area had formed many\organizations throughout the country, they were lapsing into extreme passivism in expanding\and developing them.

In this area it was a universal practice to form an\organization with a few reliable core elements\and then shut the door\and neglect the expansion of its ranks. For this reason the organizations had failed to take deep root among the broad sections of the masses.

The Onsong Young Communist League which was formed in the spring of 1929 as an\organization under the YCLK, also built a high fence around a few members\and did not go among the masses. In those days various\organizations\and factions such as the Local Association, the Promotion Association, the Singan Association\and the Group for Rebuilding the Party were competing to win young people over to their side. Under these circumstances the mass\organizations were merely maintaining the status quo while trembling with fear, in an effort to prevent the slightest bad influencerom being exerted on them.

An official of the YCLK whom I met in Phungri said that people were extremely unwilling to open their hearts to him because the enemy was resorting to severe machinations. Another YCLK official said that he had no idea of how to deal with those young people who were associated with the youth league\or the Singan Association. Jon Jang Won, who was working as the head of the Peasants Association in Phungin-dong, would not speak his mind even to those of his close relations who were working in the enemy’s government\organs. This was because he was nervous, fearing that the enemy’s tentacles might extend to the revolutionary ranks through the many of his relatives who were working as village heads, sub-county heads\and policemen.

All this was an expression of distrust in the masses.

Without putting an end to these wrong practices it would be impossible to develop the revolution in the Onsong area in depth to meet the requirements of the new situation.

The life of a revolutionary can be said to begin with his going among the masses\and the failure of the revolution with a failure to believe in the strength of the popular masses\and a neglect of mixing with them.

I said earnestly to O Jung Song:

“It is impossible to make the revolution with only a few peoplerom a good class\origin. You should boldly believe in the masses\and keep the door to the\organization wide open for them. Now that youth\organizations with every kind of name are each trying to win the young people over, the\organization of the YCLK should not become passive but win over many young people through a positive campaign. You must politically awaken\and lead the young people who were once involved in the\organizations of the youth league\or the Singan Association, as well as those who are either following peoplerom the Group for Rebuilding the Party\or are being unconsciously used by them, so as to win them over to our side.”

I also told Jon Jang Won about the tactics that must be employed in the work with those who were serving in the enemy’s establishments. I said:

“A man who is making the revolution must not be frightened\or discredit himself because his family contains a village head, sub-county head\or policeman. On the contrary, you must resolve to paralyse the lowest government machinery of the Japanese by going into the enemy establishments, taking advantage of family relations\and working on a big scale. If you are to make the area of the six towns a strategic base for the armed struggle, you must be bold\and win over those who are serving within the enemy’s government\organs at the same time as making the masses revolutionary. Try it\and acquire experience in this work.”

The most unforgettable eventrom my stay in Onsong was how I, together with Kim Jun, O Jung Hwa\and O Jung Song, met men working on the railway project in Wolpha-dong, Mipho sub-county.

From the beginning of 1929 the Japanese imperialists had been pressing ahead with the project to lay a railway along the River Tuman. Over 1,000 labourersrom all parts of the country, including the three southern provinces, as well asrom Jiandao gathered there\and formed in the Wolpha village a congested residential district called Kaephung Street. Those labourers who had been working on the Jilin-Hoeryong railway project also crowded into this street\where they had a hard time of it making a living.

On hearing of this when I was in Jilin I met Kim Jun\and told him to go among the workers\and try to form an\organization when the railway project got under way in Wolpha-dong.

Kim Jun could not conceal his eagerness, saying that it was something worth trying. He went to Onsong as he had promised\and formed in Wolpha -dong a working youth association\and an Anti-Imperialist Youth League\organization.

When I expressed my intention to visit the railway project my comrades in Onsong asked me to abandon the idea because the enemy was keeping a strict watch.

In those days they went to extremes to protect me, telling their comrades, “A representative of the Comintern has come.”

They\organized a guard for me, even giving me the official title of “representative of the Comintern” because, in the homeland, the Japanese police maintained close surveillance against revolutionaries.

Needless to say, I also knew that, if I went to Korea, I must be careful in everything I did\and sharpen my vigilance. However, I felt an urge to grasp the hands of the workers\and tell them something that might be of some help to them, although I might not achieve much among them immediately. All the work I had conducted with the young people\and students until then was aimed at building a bridge for going among the working class. Our ultimate goal was to carve out\and complete the Korean revolution by giving prominence to the working class. How ardently had we been yearning for the working class of Korearom the day when we set out its liberation as our programme\and pledged to devote even our lives to this end!

I joined the workers at the construction site unloading gravel, carrying sand\and taking the meals they offered me at their quarters for a day\and a half.

Kim Jun introduced me as a man who had been studying in Yanji\and had come there to earn money to pay his school fees.

Even now I think that it was very good for me to go among the workers at that time. At their quarters\and at the construction site I witnessed not only the sad plight of the workers who were toiling with might\and main for a few pennies, but also workers who were eager for a struggle, workers who were seeking the correct way for them to shape their future.

This had a strong impact on me. My heart was burning with an eager desire to devote my whole life for the happiness of the working class.

At the railway project I got acquainted for the first time with Choe Chun Guk\and Choe Pong Song, anti-Japanese fightersrom Onsong.

While guiding me to his quarters, Choe Chun Guk told me that he had secretly stored up some powder while he had been working as a dynamiter\and that he intended to blow up a tunnel with it when the project was completed.

I told him that under the prevailing circumstances building up the\organization\and politically awakening\and\organizing the workers was more urgent than running such a risk as blowing up a tunnel\and advised him to keep the powder\and use it when it would be needed during our future armed struggle.

At that time I talked a great deal with the workers.

I told them about the matters of launching an armed struggle, founding a party\and forming an anti-Japanese national united front. It would be a great gain if we could clearly implant at least the spirit of the Kalun Meeting in the minds of the workers in the homeland. Then, if we told something to one man it would be conveyed immediately to ten people,\and would reach the ears of 10,000 people through the mouths of 100\and 1,000 people. Our idea would ultimately be the faith\and banner of the people at home. All this was certain.

When the workers at the railway project learned about our line, they expressed full support for it.

If they gained confidencerom our line, I gained confidencerom their looks full of delight at being told of the line.

The greatest success achieved in Onsong was the formation of a party\organization on Turu Hill on October 1, 1930.

In the course of visiting the revolutionary\organization in Onsong I realized that the fighting will\and preparedness of the revolutionaries in this area were far stronger than I had expected, although they committed some mistakes in their understanding of the strategic problem\and were timid in their work with the masses. I also reached the conclusion that the foundation existed for establishing a party\organization in this area.

All those revolutionaries of the Onsong area who were to take part in the meeting gathered on Turu Hill dressed like firewood gatherers. Jon Jang Won had asked the man in charge of the\organization in Wolpha-dong to bring an ox-pulled sleigh up to the meeting place.

We held the meeting to set up a homeland party\organization on a quiet, vacant spot on the top of Turu Hill with the River Wolpha flowing nearby.

Firstly I told those attending the meeting about the line adopted at Kalun\and made clear that the primary task for implementing that line was to build a revolutionary party. Then I explained the aim of forming a new type of party\organization in the Onsong area. I also set the task for the party\organization in the Onsong area of continually increasing\and strengthening the party ranks with fine progressive elements who had been tested through an\organizational life\and practical struggle,\and of\organizing\and mobilizing the masses for the anti-Japanese struggle.

On my recommendation O Jung Song, Jon Jang Won, Jon Chang Ryong, Choe Chun Guk, Choe Pong Song\and Choe Kun Ju were admitted to the Onsong party\organization. O Jung Song was elected to head the party\organization.

Those who had the honour of being party members stood up in succession to relate their past life\and briefly state their determination.

I have forgotten the determination of all the others, but that made by Jon Jang Won is still fresh in my memory. Jon Jang Won said that he would never forget the fact that we had admitted to the party even such a man as he who had a problematic family background,\and pledged to saw off his bones, slice away his flesh\and even offer his life if it was needed for the revolution. He said that if he was ever so silly as to break his pledge, he would not mind even if his body was cut to pieces\and thrown into a river. Although his words were violent\and plain, they expressed his feelings frankly.

Afterwards Jon Jang Won, true to his resolve, performed great exploits in making Onsong a semi-guerrilla zone\and aiding the Korean People’s Revolutionary Army.

In\order to keep it secret, there was no record of what was discussed at the meeting. The meeting adopted no inaugural declaration\or manifesto.

Those attending the meeting said to the following effect:

“We feel something is lacking because this meeting, a historic meeting held to establish a party\organization, is so simple\and informal. Even such an\organization of the lowest class as the equity society makes public a manifesto\and circulates it to the world, so we feel our meeting will fall flat if it is concluded merely by a brief pledge.”

I encouraged them as follows:

“The pledge you have just made is far more substantial than a statement\or a manifesto amounting to hundreds of pages. What is the use of continually drawing up documents? You must not think of a party\organization as something which only makes a fuss\and wins a name for itself. Party members do a lot of work without making a fuss. Therefore, display your party spirit\and patriotism through a practical struggle.”

The formation of a party\organization in the Onsong area was the start of the laying of the foundation for party building in the homeland\and an important turning point in promoting the anti-Japanese struggle of the people there. Thanks to the activities of the party\organization in the Onsong area, the process of the political awakening\and\organization of the masses was stepped up rapidly\and the anti-Japanese struggle gained momentum in the area of the six towns.

As the masses started to follow us\and the revolution gained momentum, Choe Chang Ik, who was hanging about in this area, his native place, in\order to expand the influence of his own faction, fled to Seoul. After liberation he told us frankly what had happened at the time. He said: “I thought the M-L group had gone to Onsong because that is my native place. However, when I reached there, our force was not to be seen\and instead the influence of Jilin had reached there. That influence was so powerful that everywhere I could see only your people, Comrade Kim Il Sung. I thought you must be quite old. However, people told me that it was not true\and that you were a youth in your twenties\and very strong. So I resolved to visit you, but gave up the idea.”

The reason that Choe Chang Ik left Onsong for Seoul was that he knew that we disliked factions\and did not compromise with factionalists like him.

Following the formation of the party\organization, I guided the meeting of the political workers\and those in charge of the underground revolutionary\organizationsrom various areas including the six towns before starting on my way back. We crossed the river by ferryrom the Ojong ferry. My heart was much lighter than on my way to the homeland. I felt like soaring high up into the sky now that everything had turned out as I had wished. My visit to the homeland at the risk of my life was something worthwhile.

The week we spent in the homeland was an important period which proved that the revolutionary line we had put forward in Kalun was a correct one acceptable to all. It was as if we had had our line judged by the people at home.

From that time the people of Onsong remained always faithful to us.

Having crossed the River Tuman in safety I, guided by O Jung Hwa, reached Chaoyangcun, Yanji County, going via Liangshuiquanzi\and Changgou. Together with Longjing, Chaoyangcun was a place\where we were exerting the greatest influence in the Yanji area.

Ma Tuk Han\and Ra Il, members of the secretariat of the party\and YCLK in the Jiandao area, were working in Chaoyangcun. Rim Chun Chu, who later worked as a member of the party committee of the Korean People’s Revolutionary Army, also conducted revolutionary work here as “Rim Chun Bong— Physician of the Pongchun Dispensary.” Before coming to Yanji, he had been arrested for being involved in a student incident\and was sent to prison. Working as a doctor of traditional Korean medicine, he carried out the duty of liaising between the party\and YCLK secretariat in the Jiandao area\and various counties.

At that time I met Rim Chun Chu for the first time, in Chaoyangcun. He, who had managed to acquire skill in traditional Korean medicine at a young age, quite impressed me. Thanks to his skill in traditional Korean medicine, our guerrillas got a lot of help throughout the anti-Japanese armed struggle.

The May 30 Uprising\and the August 1 Uprising had caused a big loss to the revolutionary\organizations in Yanji. Here the enemy’s terror had been more overpowering than in Dunhua. Many who had been making the revolution lost heart\and hesitated,\and those people who were not sufficiently awakened, clamoured that “they were being brought to ruin because of the communist party.”

I met leading cadres of the party\and YCLK such as Ma Tuk Han, Ra Il\and Rim Chun Chu\and discussed the problem of eliminating the consequence of the Left adventurist machinations as soon as possible\and further expanding\and strengthening the revolutionary struggle.

After leaving Onsong I did not go straight to Wujiazi but went as far as Chaoyangcun via Liangshuiquanzi. This was because I foresaw that this area would be the field of our future armed struggle. I had done some preparatory work for laying the mass foundation in Onsong, Wangqing\and Yanji of an armed struggle in the future.

Afterwards this area became the most reliable base of the anti-Japanese war, as we had foreseen.