Memories of the Great Man
Always among the People
President Kim Il Sung (1912-1994) is well known as an outstanding statesman in the 20th century and the founder of the Juche idea. What kind of person was he? This motivated Takagi Takeo, a prominent Japanese writer, to pay a visit to the DPRK in December 1971.
As he put it, Takagi did not come with goodwill. He sought to experience the DPRK first-hand, checking on the practical value as a guiding idea of the Juche idea spreading throughout the world, as well as its theoretical pragmatism and its gist, and delving into the personalities of Marshal Kim Il Sung who founded this idea.
Takagi travelled around the DPRK and he felt as if he found out a new oasis. Despite the fact that it sustained terrible destruction in the Korean war (1950-1953), the DPRK had risen in a short time making remarkable achievements across the economy and society, a success that would be unthinkable in the Western countries boasting of “modern civilization” and “high growth.”
Takagi was invited to a New Year performance of Korean children for greeting 1972. After seeing Kim Il Sung among the children, he said: “Already last evening I discovered what the Juche Idea is all about and what kind of person Kim Il Sung is, as I saw him floating on a stream of the children.”
The more he visited, the more he was surprised and excited. He could not resist his impulse to meet Kim Il Sung who initiated the Juche idea and translated it into reality, bringing about epochal changes.
Reading his mind, Kim Il Sung took time to receive Takagi and his party from Japanese newspaper Yomiuri Shimbun on January 10, 1972, though he was busy with his New Year schedule.
Takagi told him that what impressed him most during his tour of the DPRK was that the President always went among the people to guide them.
When he went to the countryside, Kim Il Sung unceremoniously sat knee to knee with farmers to discuss farming with them. During his visit to a factory, he dropped in at its workers’ hostel to learn about their dietary life. And he often visited dwelling houses and talked with the housewives about their livelihood.
Kim Il Sung said in a modest voice: I go among the masses to learn from them rather than guide them. At hard times in particular, we need to go deep among the people and discuss all matters with them and seek their advice. The masses of the people are teachers. We always learn from them.
President Kim Il Sung was such a man.
The Sun Gives Light to All
All state policies are based on warm human love. In addition to free medical service and free education, the government takes responsibility for the people’s clothing, food and housing. This is the government policy initiated and implemented by President Kim Il Sung who believes in people as in heaven. They revere him as their God. Such being the case, what is the use of the Bible in the country?
This is what American evangelist Billy Graham said after his visit to Pyongyang when he was asked by a journalist why he failed to distribute the Bible in the DPRK.
Noble humanity and virtues of President Kim Il Sung (1912-1994) were not confined to the Koreans.
In 1956, when he paid a visit to Bulgaria, Kim Il Sung found time to meet Georgi Anastasov, a man who had taken care of the Korean war orphans, and highly praised him for what he had done. Though he met the Bulgarian educator for the first time, he remembered him. Later, when Anastasov visited Pyongyang as a member of an educational delegation, Kim Il Sung was pleased to meet him again and posed with him for a photo.
Kim Il Sung travelled around East European socialist countries in 1984. Although his schedule was very tight, he called Anastasov and his wife and said to them that they were like a family though they were living in different countries. He drank a toast to them and presented them with gifts.
In April the following year he invited the Anastasovs to his country and met them twice and even arranged a luncheon and a farewell party for them. Moved by his warm hospitality, Anastasov told the President that he felt as if he met his own father.
Anastasov was not the only man who was overwhelmed by his warm humanity and virtues. Kim Il Sung took warm care of the family of Zhang Weihua, a Chinese martyr with whom he made friends during the anti-Japanese armed struggle, and Ya. T. Novichenko, a former Soviet Union army officer, and his family, not forgetting them even after several decades.
His magnanimity was so great and his humanity was so warm that he enthralled those foreigners unfriendly or even hostile towards the DPRK, as well.
Kanemaru Shin, former deputy prime minister of Japan who visited the DPRK in 1990 leading a delegation of the Liberal Democratic Party, said as follows: It was really a wonderful visit. I regret that my visit was too late. A journalist has just asked me if I were in tears to meet President Kim Il Sung. Yes, I was. I’d like not to conceal the fact that I was overwhelmed by his personality traits. It is because it is not shameful to be fascinated by a man you truly respect.