Choe Hyon met Kim Il Sung for the first time in the autumn
of 1933. Immediately thereafter, Japanese attacks on the guerilla movement got
even harsher. Anti-Japanese
guerillas were chased throughout the autumn, until in December the Japanese implemented a major
anti-terrorist operation involving thousands of additional forces.
One Japanese unit was ordered to engage Sowangcheong base,
the one that Kim Il Sung occupied. In the memoirs of Choe Hyon, Kim
directly commanded the fight and forged a great victory in which over 500 of
the enemy lost their lives. However, Choe did not actually experience
this, so it is difficult to determine the facts. Maybe he distorted
or manufactured the outcome of the battle for the purpose of idolizing Kim Il
Sung. Plus he was in the midst of battle at the time, and even those events that he did experience got exaggerated.
According to Choe Hyon, his was a battle of 500 against five,
in which the enemy suffered 200 casualties and his side suffered not one, not
even an injury. This was the supposed result of the battle to defend the guerilla
base in the Uiran region. How many people would take these words as fact? This
was surely an exaggeration, and can be called a distortion.
A more probable version of events came with a battle that Choe Hyon commanded in May 1935, involving an attack on a military train. In this battle, it is said that Choe’s unit
killed 300 Japanese officers. At the time, the Gyongdo railway line that passed
through Halbaryong was propping up the Japanese occupation of Manchuria. Japan
transported troops and supplies via the line. Choe Hyon’s unit’s goals were to
attack the military train, kill enemy soldiers and seize
military supplies for the resistance movement.
[..] By 1934 I had already participated in two attacks on enemy
trains. Both had failed as the result of poor advance preparation. This time I
planned it in great detail as a result of these experiences. […] For the train
attack I led, one day in May 1935 we departed the resistance base. […] …as the train approached I gave the order to attack. Our
comrades gave the Japanese Imperialists hell. In an instant, the engine
locomotive lay scattered off the tracks. Burning embers poured from the
smokestack. Right there our comrades grabbed the opportunity and sprang out in unison
shooting and throwing grenades. In a brief instant we had annihilated more than
300 enemy officers.”
Choe Hyon, “On the Road to Revolution,” National
Publishing House, 1964, pp.150-152. Translation from original Korean.
Choe Hyon’s battle contains various factors. All the
essential actions of anti-Japanese resistance were accomplished: weapons
seizure, a surprise attack, even an attack on a train. In comparison, the
anti-Japanese battles fought by Kim Il Sung had no tangible bearing on events. Even
in the battle of September 1933, Kim Il Sung’s first battle of the
anti-Japanese resistance, he didn’t particularly distinguish himself.
The “Kangdara Battle” took place one year before the better known Pochonbo Battle. Up until that point, the Kangdara Battle had been the
largest in which Choe Hyon had fought. According to Choe, he directly led a
squadron that participated in numerous battles in one day, pushing the enemy
back to northern Jilin. Choe Hyon’s successful group is said to have inflicted
enormous losses on the enemy “Wollaeng Unit” comprised of 1000 men.
The
Sotangha Battle is also described as a large-scale battle, and one in which Choe Hyon
directly participated. It came three months prior to the Pochonbo
Battle. Choe’s unit, comprised of
approximately 400 people, purportedly defeated a unit of 1500 people, and
captured military equipment including rifles and light machine guns. However, the materials should give pause: when there is talk of annihilating
1500 Japanese soldiers in an instant and one reads phrases like “the corpses of
the enemy blanketed the mountain slopes,” one may judge it as an
exaggeration.
* Views expressed in Guest Columns do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Daily NK. This is an abridged version of a column that appeared in Korean on June 5th.
