Being a Father of the War Orphans

As love for the younger generation is the most devoted and active one of human beings, the viewpoint and attitude towards them can be said to be symbolic of the human nature of each person. Therefore, the outlook on the younger generation that defines the traits of the great men is also expressed in relation to the children.

President Kim Il Sung took warm care of the children across the country in the whole period of his revolutionary leadership and trained them all to be reliable pillars of the country and successors to the revolutionary cause of Juche.

Even during the arduous Fatherland Liberation War, the President became the father of the war orphans and took warm care of them in the bosom of love.

President Kim Il Sung said:

"To educate and edify the war orphans well and bring them up as excellent pillars of socialist construction is a duty and moral obligation of us, communists."

One day in the early February, Juche 40 (1951), President Kim Il Sung gave the guards of the supreme command the task of preparing to leave in a hurry.

Thinking that the President would be on another tour of inspection at the front, the aide and other guards made full preparations and reported to him on it.

But he ordered them to bring a child whose father had died in the battle, saying that he would not sleep when he thought of the children whose parents were killed by enemies unexpectedly and that he would take good care of them on behalf of their parents.

The President was so worried about the war orphans that he couldn't even sleep at night and he, the supreme commander who shouldered the destiny of war, would bring up one of them in person.

With the feeling of excitement, the guards went to an orphanage and brought the four-year-old boy.

The President, who had been waiting for them to arrive, greeted the boy with great pleasure, saying that the boy was born to be a general, and asked if he had already learned how to greet.

However, the boy did not greet, but stared at him with hesitation.

After watching him for a while, the President said that he failed to be lively as he grew up without his parents and it was really heartbreaking that the children, who should be lively and cheerful, did so because of enemies. And he pointed out that the orphans should be encouraged to grow up to their hearts' content without worry.

And then the President knelt down beside the boy and gripped his tiny hands to breathe upon them, saying that his hands must have been frozen for a long journey.

But the boy, who was so shy during his journey, still didn't lift his head.

The President said it was all right and to make himself at home, and continued with his kind words.

At last, the boy, who seemed to be attracted by the President's kindly affection, nodded his head in response to the President's another question as to how his hands felt like.

When the President softly asked how old he was, then the boy showed his four fingers in silence.

The President patted the boy on the cheek, saying that the four-year-old should say his age.

And the President, saying that he had nothing to present, took out a pencil from his breast pocket and put it in the boy's hand.

Only after the boy hold it, he hugged the President.

The President was so pleased that the boy was familiar with him and walked around the room with a boy in his arms, saying that we would be their fathers to bring up the orphans as the pillars of the country.

Then he informed the guards of the important things in bringing up the boy one by one, including making a daily routine to let him sleep, play and eat on time, teaching him sports and songs.

The President visited the boy even several times a day to care about his bed, meals and clothes.

One day, at dawn, the President who had worked all night came to the boy's room and touched the forehead of the sleeping boy when he felt unhappy and asked if the boy had eaten up the dinner.

Hearing that boy had eaten a little less than usual and had been asleep on time, the President said that if he hadn't eaten up, he must have been ill and told them to get the first-aid medicine for his illness. And then he called officials of the Ministry of Education and the public health sector to deal with such problems in all orphanages and schools for bereaved children.

In those days, the boy, who had been so shy, came to follow the President as his father, hugging him in his arms and calling him "Dad!" whenever he visited him, even a few times a day.

Once President Kim Il Sung visited the boy with the members of the Political Committee at break while he was in the Political Committee Meeting of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea.

As the President asked him to sing a song before them, he sang the "Song of General Kim Il Sung" which he preferred all the time.

Everybody encouraged the boy with a clap and praise and he was so pleased to embrace the President.

The President with the boy in his arms said that he felt good as he could hear the laughter and the silvery song thanks to him, and we should bring up such orphans well although we could take more trouble with them during the arduous war, which was an important task to be done not only for the revolutionary obligation for our comrades-in-arms who fought the bloody battles, but also for the coming generation who would shoulder the future of the country.

He went on to say that we couldn't deal with orphans just using the newly-built schools for bereaved children and orphanages because the brutal atrocities of the enemies resulted in more and more orphans every day, so we should encourage the social movement to bring them up and our cadres should take the lead to do that.

That day, the cadres were deeply moved by the President's teachings and noble example and brought up the orphans.

Afterwards, the President called all the chairwomen of the Women's Union of the provinces and told them that we had already established the orphans' primary schools and orphanages in various places to bring up war orphans throughout the country, but we weren't taking care of all the war orphans yet. And he also said that the fraternal countries had promised that they would bring up our war orphans, but he didn't want to send any of them abroad if he thought of their parents killed by enemies, and he couldn't even sleep whenever he guessed that they were about to go abroad.

In compliance with the ardent request of the President, all the women across the country turned out to bring up the orphans.

Thus, in the period of the arduous Fatherland Liberation War, any orphans who wandered around helplessly could not be found anywhere in our country.

In general, the loss of life during the war is inevitable, thereby producing a large number of orphans.

Throughout the world, there is no country that has dealt with the orphan problem in a satisfactory way during the war, and it seemed to be natural that most of the war orphans wandered around.

Looking back upon the world history of war, nobody has ever heard that the Supreme Commander, who is in charge of the destiny of war, brought up the orphan. This is the immortal story only made by President Kim Il Sung who dearly treasured and loved the future of the country.

Today, the warm love of President Kim Il Sung is shining across the country thanks to the wise leadership of the respected Comrade Kim Jong Un and lots of orphanages, baby farms, orphans' primary schools and orphans' secondary schools have been built splendidly across the country so that all the orphans grow up to be successors to the revolutionary cause of Juche and genuine sons and daughters of the respected Comrade Kim Jong Un, singing the song "We Are the Happiest in the World" without the sorrow of orphans.