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Condolence message for An Dosan
On this 10th day of March in the 30th year of the Republic of Korea, Kim Gu pays his last respects to the memory of his comrade An Changho, who passed away.
Sir! Fifteen years ago, on April 29, when Dr. Yoon Bonggil created a glorious page of world history by smashing the enemy's army in Shanghai and you were taken by the enemy. We felt the pleasure and glory of being the owners of a victory worthy of boasting to the world, but we did our best to recover the misfortune of your arrestment. We thus tried hard to squeeze our brain to produce ideas of rescuing you from the consulate of Japs nearby. It is one of the facts that we can never forget that in this movement we owe a great deal to the efforts of our American friends, Mr. and Mrs. Fitch, who are now in our country, Seoul. However, our movement came to naught, and you became the enemy¡¯s prisoner, returning to your homeland to live the life of a prisoner. Nevertheless, we prayed to God for your health day and night, hoping to overthrow the enemy with our own hands and greet you on the free soil of our homeland, but whether it was due to the disadvantages of the heavens or our bad luck, you finally passed away in prison, having been killed by the enemy. It was the seventh year after your death that we entered the country. Since our arrival, we have joined hands with our compatriots and endeavored to complete your unfinished work, but we have accomplished nothing, and now, with our comrades, we only commemorate the tenth anniversary of your death. Sir! If we count the liberation of our country in tenth, seven-tenths must be attributed to the blood of our patriotic forefathers, and it is needless to say that among these seven-tenths, your effort occupies an important part. Unfortunately, however, because the last third is not in our power, our liberation has a bizarre content that will not be without a new interpretation in the dictionary. We are grateful that our liberation has defeated the Japs, but from another angle, instead of unity, freedom, and happiness, it has become division, restraint, and misery. For us, the jubilation of liberation has become a dream that has already passed. Even when we look at the situation in the South, where you are lying and my body is attached, it is grim. The number of unemployed is increasing day by day. In the city of Seoul alone, during this winter, 61 people are frozen to death, almost all of whom are said to be war-torn compatriots. In the month of January alone, there are 111 people who died on the street, an increase of 41 over the 70 in January of last year, and already an astonishing increase of one-fifth of 599 in the whole of last year. The poor rural compatriots are groaning at the excessive collection, but the shortage of food is threatening everywhere as usual, and to make matters worse, the various collections from various organizations in various names are making the poor compatriots even poorer in the villages and cities. The workers labor all day in the factories, but their earning is direly short. The schools are open, but the teachers are scarce and the fees are excessive, making the hearts of the naive and eager young students nervous. The power stations are numerous, but for want of coal they are unable to work to their full capacity, and are dependent on the scanty supply from North Korea, so that the lights and power go out more often. It is said that there is a large deposit of coal underground, but it is not being mined to its full potential. There are factories, but not in operation. We don¡¯t have enough railroad tracks, and we can¡¯t even get trains to run. We can¡¯t manage currency circulation, but only continue to print bank notes. The profiteers are in cahoots with corrupt officials and are sabotaging the economy and sucking the lifeblood out of the poor common people. The cost of living is rising at an exponential rate. The greatest defect of all is the appointment of unusual classes, such as the-pro-Japanese factions and the pro-wealth advocates, who in the past were most loyal to the Japs. They have, in recent years, already rooted down deeply in the military government, so that they now control the military authorities rather than the other way around, and if the military authorities wish to deal decisively with them, they will have to take into account the security of the society. As long as the military authorities and some of our leaders insist that the execution of pro-Japanese national traitors will take place after the establishment of the independent government of the Korean people, it is only natural that they will use any pretense to prevent the establishment of a unified, independent, and patriotically organized government. I don¡®t think that this is the policy of the United States, and the true intention of General Hodge, but this is the reality that we can see with our own eyes. Therefore, it is not strange that in Germany and in Japan, which are occupied by American troops, there is progress and development, but only in Korea, where there has been no improvement for many years. And in North Korea, which we are not allowed to visit, there might be good and bad things but we can imagine that it is even more disastrous than in South Korea when we see a large number of our countrymen coming down south. Sir! We had hoped that the U.S.-Soviet Commission would resolve this contradiction. Instead, the Commission tried to impose the trusteeship on us but failed to do so, because our brilliant countrymen filled with indignation opposed it. Disappointed, we looked to the United Nations for a just settlement by the exercise of its justice. Indeed, the UN passed a resolution on the Korean question and sent a temporary commission to Korea as a result. Mr. Menon, the chairman of the commission, made a firm promise to us on behalf of the commission, either at the reception or on the air. He said, "What God has joined together, man cannot divide," "There is no independence without reunification," and "We will eventually abolish the 38th parallel line and establish a unified government. A month later, however, he acted as if he had forgotten it. He sent only a letter to the North Koreans offering to enter the country, but after the refusal, he made no more than a half-hearted effort. If he made any effort, it was to visit New York and if he succeeded, it was to inflict on us the pain he had tasted in the division of Pakistan. He even frankly confessed that the American rumor that ¡®The People¡¯s Republic has been established in North Korea¡± had a considerable effect on the success of this division. I never dreamed that a representative of China, with whom we have shared the longest tribulations, would advocate the separate election of the South, and thus seek to legitimize the division of Korea internationally. While the civil war in China is preventing the reunification of China and destroying China¡¯s prestige internationally, why do they plant the same type of trouble in Korea? What is surprising is that the Philippine delegate insisted on the establishment of U.S. army and naval bases in Korea, and what is even more surprising is that, according to the UP news agency in Washington on the 7th said that ¡®even after the establishment of the South Korean government, the country will continue to be protected by the United States for a certain period of time.¡¯ The future of South Korea is clearly visible, and while it's predictable what the UN Temporary Committee will do, it's hard for us to comprehend the casting of representatives of weak states as important actors in this play, especially when they are in the same pain as us. If they cannot be gracious to us, what is the harm of a grudge that cannot be forgotten forever, to all generations of our descendants? Sir! Should I take this phenomenon granted because I am living surrounded by so many shameless people who pleasantly express their gratitude for such utterances? If it is a patriot to oppose the U.S.-Soviet commission because he disliked the four-nation trusteeship, then it must be a patriot to oppose the one-nation trusteeship that is to be implemented with the cooperation of the United Nations. If someone calls one a traitor for dividing the country by establishing a people's republic that depends solely on the Soviet Union, but tries to establish a separate government of South Korea at the same time, then what should he be called? If it is a national traitor to support the protectorate treaty of the past, then it must be a patriot to prevent a protectorate treaty of the future. Sir! You shouted at the top of your lungs to defend your country. You exerted all your energy to complete the independence of your country. To revive the doomed nation, you wandered east and west of the foreign land and unfortunately became a prisoner of the enemy and was deprived of your life in prison. Every Korean knows how you lived. But how many of us know your great spirit and your honorable deeds? How many of us who are here today to honor you will follow in your footsteps? May each of the 30 million compatriots be infused with your great spirit, so that they may continue the eternal struggle until the reunification and independence of our country is accomplished. Sir! In the old days, when the misfortune of the nation was at hand, the national spirit was expressed in various ways, such as wailing, mourning, martyrdom, and struggle, now there are not only a few who meet the crisis of our country with discussion, rejoicing, and adulation. Whenever I saw these unbearable phenomena, there were several times when I was tempted to follow you to death to remind people of your spirit, but I thought that it would be more effective to struggle a little longer until my last breath, rather than to die at once, so I am just prolonging my life. There are many times when I am happy, but there are many more times when I feel sorry and suffer. Sir! It is said that in times of national crisis we should remember our good officials, and the more dire the crisis of our country becomes, the more urgent is the need to mourn the passing of a great leader. Therefore, on this day, instead of mourning the passing of you through expressing our sad mind, we would like to plead you to guide us by telling you of our present circumstances. Sir! If your soul is here today, you would not be able to rest in peace. I, Kim Gu, on behalf of the 30 million compatriots who are in distress, and especially on behalf of the poor compatriots who are in our nostalgic homeland beyond the 38th parallel, ask you to show us the way. We will know that you are calling us when we hear the cuckoo in the mountains in front of us, and we will know that you are coming when we hear the sound of rain at the window behind us, so please appear to us in our dreams and show us our way. Sir! How can I calm my sorrowful heart, for I cannot find your brilliant spirit, though the mountains remain the same and your footprints are clear. How can there be an end to eternal sorrow even if the rushing water of Han River dries up! |