In the first half of the last century the great leader Comrade Kim Il Sung (April 15, 1912-July 8, 1994) organized and led an anti-Japanese revolutionary struggle. During the struggle he formed a company made up purely of women.

Looking upon those days, Kim Il Sung recalled as follows:

“When we talk about female social position nowadays, we say figuratively that women are ‘one wheel of the revolution.’ However, many people rejected this idea during the revolution against the Japanese. It is no exaggeration to say that scarcely anyone believed that women could engage in manual combat a long time shoulder to shoulder with men.

… …

The women had no other heritage than the chain of bondage and grievances. This was the worst crime committed by Korean feudal society; it had kept all women in the bondage of male supremacy, a state of inhumane existence. Women had been considered no better than house servants, who were destined to produce offspring, cook and serve food, weed crop fields and weave cloth, until their fingers were worn out. Even young widows were compelled to remain widows all their lives. Women were sold off to pay debts.

The Japanese imperialists, who occupied Korea, made the women even more miserable by turning them into instruments and commodities and labelled them as the women of a ruined nation.

The anti-Japanese revolution acted as a tempest, which would sweep off all these misfortunes and irrationalities, a historic event to lead the women of this country along a revolutionary path.”

As the anti-Japanese armed struggle intensified under the wise guidance of Kim Il Sung in the 1930s, guerrilla units were formed in many places and women voiced their strong desire to participate in the armed struggle to take up arms and take revenge on the Japanese imperialists by killing at least a few, as they had murdered their parents and brothers and sisters.

In the northern border area of Korea and different parts of Manchuria, China, many women joined the guerrilla units with the weapons they had seized from the enemy.

In view of their ardent desire Kim Il Sung decided to form a women’s company and discussed the matter with the commanding officers on several occasions.

As a result, a solemn ceremony was held in April 1936 to announce the birth of the women’s company of the KPRA in his presence in a forest near Manjiang. The company was comprised of the women who came from different places.

The birth of the company, the first of its kind in the history of building armed forces of the country, was a historic event that put women’s mental and social positions on a par with those of men in the contemporary situation where the convention of male supremacy and feudal customs were deeply rooted in the country for ages.

Pak Rok Gum (May 3, 1915-October 16, 1940) was appointed the first commander of the company.

She was an energetic, lively and strong woman officer who remained unexhausted even after she marched tens of kilometres with a machine gun on her shoulders. She successfully carried out her tasks in several battles including those in Fusong County’s Xinancha and Changbai County’s Dadesui.

Many of her comrades-in-arms characterized her by a single word “heroine,” and now her photo is on display at the Korean Revolution Museum.

During the arduous anti-Japanese revolutionary struggle, the company’s combatants dedicated their youth, homes and lives to the sacred war to liberate their country, without yielding to adversity on the path of revolution, despite untold physical stress and mental strain, overtaxing even the strength of the male sex. They contributed to achieving national liberation on August 15, 1945.

The fact that women were engaging in manual combat as courageously as men greatly inspired all Korean women and other people to join the sacred war against the Japanese imperialists.