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Appendix L. Translation of a Korean Speech by Dr. Syngman Rhee
- University of Hawai'i Press
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332 Appendix L Translation of a Korean Speech by Dr. Syngman Rhee Short-waved to the Far East, June 13, 1942 my Fellow Koreans. I, Syngman rhee, am speaking from Washington to my 23 million fellow Koreans who are at home and abroad. Wherever you are, listen to my words carefully. What I am going to tell you is a glad tiding , because it is a message of liberty. You who hear me must be the messengers of Freedom. tell your friends. tell your neighbors. tell them to tell all the others. Oh, my fellow countrymen, it is the news of liberty, liberty! liberty! How sweet it sounds. How warming the flame to us. How terrifying to the enemy. men and women of Korea, I tell you that our day of Glory is at hand. the chains of bondage, shackled upon us by the island savages, soon will be broken. You have a Government, your own Government is working for you. Your Government is in strong hands. Heroic and patriotic Kim Ku, who has never stopped fighting the dastardly Japanese, is in charge of the Government now in Chungking, China. and other patriots, notably Yi Seeyoung [Yi Si-yŏng], Cho Sowang [Cho So-ang], Cho Wanku [Cho Wan-gu], Char Ye Suk [Ch’a I-sŏk] and others stand beside him. Your army, under the command of our great Commander-in-chief General li Chung Chun, is where an army should be—out fighting the enemy. Both your Government and your army have been given sanctuary by the great and gallant Chiang Kai-shek. Help is coming. more and more. already both the Generalissimo and madam Chiang Kai-shek have personally given large sums to your Government and your army. Patriotic Koreans in america, Hawaii, Cuba and mexico and every part of the world where they are beyond the reach of the Japanese, have contributed and continue to send money to Chungking, so our army, which is growing every day, may have arms, munitions and supplies, as the dawn follows the darkness, Korea’s day is here. For 37 years our patriotic Independence army, seeking for hiding places in foreign countries, suffering from cold and hunger, have fought our island enemies single-handed and unaided. all this is changed now. We are not fighting Appendix L 333 alone. We are fighting alongside the brave and unconquerable soldiers of China, with the mighty United States of america and Great Britain as our allies. this is the time when we can demonstrate to the world the characteristic bravery and patriotism of our race. You people in our homeland, you Koreans in Japan, manchuria and Siberia, you Koreans in the Japanese-occupied territories of China, you who hear my voice and who pass these words on to others—all of you have patriotic duties to perform. Hear me well! You must blow up Japanese ammunition plants. You must destroy railroads the Japanese use. You must mine highways over which Japanese troops pass. You must kill any armed Japanese you can by day and by night. You must commit every act of sabotage and violence which will hinder, disrupt or destroy any part of the Japanese war effort. all of these things you must do by stealth for I know how helpless you are, your homes stripped of weapons and even of knives by the hated dwarfs. Yet you must prepare in secrecy for the day when the waning strength of the Japanese allows you to rise up, attack and exterminate the enemy. the island savages long have said our country is “a dagger pointed at the heart of Japan.” I shall tell you when to be that dagger and stab to death the foul and evil monster. remember Yi Soonsin [Yi Sun-sin], Yim Kyungup [Im Kyŏng-ŏp], Kim Duk-yung [Kim tŏng-nyŏng] and others who made our history glorious . Never forget, men and women of Korea, that you have many times in our history defeated the despised dwarf. For centuries you have kept him from the mainland of asia. time after time you have beaten him back, destroyed their armies, shattered their navies. Better than any people in the world you know the evil that is in him. You know the falseness of his smile. You know the hiss he uses as politeness but which reveals the reptile that he is. You know the cruelty he has inflicted upon you. You know the degradation he has...