Siberia looking for new members

Gen. Yi Dong Whi

My presumption that Father had been to Siberia looking for new members for the Korean People's

Association is not unfounded. Father told us about the demonstrations by the people in northern border

regions and we told Father about the heroic activities of the villagers during the March First uprising. I

still remember my father saying: "An armed robber in your house will not spare your life, just because

you plead for your life. Other armed robbers standing outside will not rush inside to help you no matter

how loud you scream. If you want to live, you must fight off the armed robber yourself. Armed robbers

must be fought with arms."

I could see that Father's mind was set on a new course for Korean independence activities. I learned later

that during the March First uprising, Father observed the events unfolding in Korea from various

locations in the northern border regions and southern Manchuria. His thoughts were on changes in the

class structure in Korea. The March First Movement taught us that you cannot free your country by

merely shouting and marching around. The March turned Korea into a gigantic Japanese prison, buried

under forests of Japanese guns and bayonets and it would take superhuman efforts to fight the Japanese.

We must learn from the Russian revolution and mobilize and arm the people of Korea, in order to free

our nation and build a new Korea of equality, freedom and justice for all. This is the gist of Father's new

way of thinking - proletarian revolution.

Father saw that the Korean independence movement was not going anywhere; all it had done was to

leave bloody tracks of meaningless sacrifices; he realized that a new strategy was called for. Father saw hope in communism in light of the Bolshevik revolution in Russia. The March First fiasco convinced him

that we must change our nationalist movement into communist revolution. Father argued for toilers'

revolution at the Chung-su Conference in July 1919. He convened a conference of the Korean People's

Association cadres, liaison officers and leaders of other nationalist organization in August at Hongtong-

gu, China. At the conference, Father expounded his belief in transforming our nationalist movement into

communist movement. He emphasized that the movement must defeat the Japanese imperialists by our

own power, adapting to the prevailing world situations and work to build a society that protect the

proletariat