I Became Stalin?! - Chapter 181:

Chapter 181

The ports in every region were filled with panicked Japanese.

Upon hearing the news of the ferocious Soviet army’s arrival, countless civilians abandoned their lives and rushed to the ports with their valuables.

“Here! Over here! I’m buying tickets!”

“I’ll buy them! Double! No, triple the price!”

Most of the transport ships had been sunk by the American bombing and mines, so there was a severe shortage of passenger ships.

That’s why the Japanese were even more desperate to grab the last chance to return to their homeland.

There were scenes everywhere of people carrying large bundles and children crying on their backs, pleading with the scalpers who were selling tickets for the passenger ships.

Of course, it wasn’t only the Japanese who wanted to escape from Korea. Rather, the most desperate ones were the Koreans.

“How can you do this to me!”

“I’m sorry, but… Joseon… I mean, Koreans are not eligible for ticket sales.”

“I’m a loyal subject of the empire! I’ve been more loyal to the emperor and the Japanese empire than anyone else… How can this happen to me!”

I’m sorry, but it’s an order.

The short-tempered shipping company employee quickly disappeared to attend to other customers who were screaming.

A wealthy Korean wrapped in silk clothes collapsed on the dirt floor, kneeling.

The huge amount of money in his briefcase was useless here.

“How loyal I was!”

The pro-Japanese collaborators were completely abandoned by Japan.

There was no room for the colonized people, rich or poor, on the passenger ships that were barely enough to evacuate the high-ranking officials and soldiers of the Japanese empire, or the Japanese tycoons.

One body, one body. Japan and Korea are one.

They had been saying that all along, but now they had been hit hard in the back of the head by the pro-Japanese collaborators, who looked stunned.

The rich, especially those who had betrayed their country, would not be spared by the Soviets.

And the independence activists, including the Korean Communist Party, were grinding their teeth at the pro-Japanese tycoons.

There had been some attempts to make peace between the two sides, but…

“What? They won’t let us in at the port?”

“That’s right! There’s no way to escape! We’re trapped!”

The city was swarming with angry crowds, and the Soviet army, like a pack of hyenas, was approaching from afar.

The pro-Japanese collaborators, who knew the price they had paid for what they had done, tried various ways to survive.

“Isn’t that President Choi Pandeuk? Hahaha, what are you doing in such a shabby place?”

“Oh, sir. You’ve been working hard day and night for the nation. I have something to ask you… Please accept this…”

A man named President Choi Pandeuk, who had a fat belly and a thick chin, bowed and scraped in the office crowded with young men.

Next to him, a pale-faced servant carried a heavy bag that was as big as his body and dropped it on the floor with a thud.

“Hey! You, that precious thing…”

“Huh, what did you bring that for?”

“Yes! Hehehe, I thought you might need some funds for your activities… It’s just a small… a very small token of appreciation.”

It was a lot of money in the bag, for a small token of appreciation.

But the young men in the office didn’t seem to be impressed by the huge amount of money, and they just snickered.

The president, who had taken out all the cash deposited in front of him at the bank and ran over with it, blushed his bald head and sweated profusely at the unexpected reaction.

The middle-aged man who seemed to be the head of the office laughed and patted the back of the pale-faced servant.

“Our brother, you should have some snacks over there. The world has changed so suddenly, and people are coming with all kinds of sweets and pastries. You’ll rot your teeth.”

“Yes?”

“Hahaha, have a drink over there. Come on, come on, don’t be shy.”

The servant was led away by the hands of the young men to the next room, with a bewildered expression on his face. The president swallowed his saliva as he watched him.

“Have you ever read the Bible?”

“Ha, haha, I’m not very well-read…”

The Communist Party, which denies God, and the Bible?

What kind of nonsense is that? He thought so, but he kept rubbing his palms together and bowing.

Of course, there were quite a few of them who followed the Yeounhyeong line and were Christians, and there were also some who were deeply influenced by Christian socialism, but there was no way that a wealthy man like the president would pay attention to such ‘minor’ differences among the reds.

“Whatever you did to the least of these, the very least of these, you did to the Lord…”

“…”

“Mr. President, do you know what good this is now?”

The middle-aged man took out a bundle of money from the bag and swept it away. He tore the bundle apart. The president’s face turned pale and then blue.

“No, I, that…”

“What good is the Japanese yen in Korea, which will be liberated? Hahahahaha!!!”

That’s right. The yen in the bag was only useful in Japan. Now that it was no longer Japanese land, it was nothing but worthless paper.

“I’ll give you anything. I have land deeds! I have gold! I have jewels and valuables! I’ll give you whatever you want! Please, just spare my life…”

“What good is that? Mr. President, Mr. President. A new world has come! It’s not about those things, but about how well you lived. Those things are useless! They are dirty… dirty things that squeezed the blood and sweat of the workers, the Korean people.”

The wicked capitalists, the evil presidents, could never survive.

They had been skimming off the wages of the female workers, and they had brutally suppressed the workers who went on strike to demand their wages on time, with the help of the Japanese managers.

“And you should have done good deeds. How long did you think the Japanese would last?”

“…Save, save me, please, just save me…”

“How can I save you? There are more than one or two of our party members and union members who want to kill Dongyang Heungup’s Choi Pandeuk with their own hands…”

“Ugh!”

“You’re too late. You’re way too late. Hahahaha…”

Those who prided themselves on being quick-witted came to the Korean Communist Party, the new rulers of the era, and begged for their lives by offering their wealth and all kinds of treasures they had gathered.

But the Communist Party knew well that all those things were less than a sandcastle in front of a gust of wind.

“You’ll be confiscated anyway, no matter what you have. Do you think they’ll say it’s your land just because you have the land deeds in your safe? Or do you think they’ll say it’s the land of the people who cultivate it? Hahaha, this is funny…”

“Ah… ah…”

“Well, you should have done better.”

A faint song was heard from outside. A song of anger and joy.

A new world had come. A world where the unjust and cowardly ones were punished and those who had groaned under their oppression became the masters of the world.

***

The Korean Corps crossed the Yalu River and entered Pyongyang. The troops that crossed the Tumen River liberated Hamhung and took over the Heungnam Industrial Complex.

The vanguard of the corps, the 101st Medium Tank Battalion ‘Beast Battalion’, advanced south at a speed like a storm.

They would reach Gaeseong in no time after crossing the Daedong River.

There was nothing to stop the Korean Corps, led by the tank battalion, as there were no geographical features or rivers.

The Japanese police forces, armed with only a few pistols or rifles, were no match for them.

Most of them either ran away somewhere, surrendered after seeing the tank cannon blow up the police station building, or were torn apart by the machine gun while attempting a suicide attack.

Even if not, thousands of people acted as infantry for the tank unit.

The Communist Party members, wearing white clothes and red bands on their arms, cheered enthusiastically for the Korean Corps and led them to capture the key points.

“Waaaaah! Waaaaah! Long live the independence army!!”

“Hooray! Hooray! Hahaha!”

“Look at those bastards with wooden shoes! Euhahahaha!”

The treatment of the surrendered Japanese was merciless.

The Korean Corps was a combat-oriented formation, so they had no proper way to manage the numerous prisoners.

So the local auxiliary forces, that is, the members of the Provisional Government Committee, took charge of them.

Thousands of people, from the Japanese empire’s police and bureaucrats, to the Koreans who cooperated with them, to the Japanese civilians, were dragged in line in every city.

They were terrified as they were dragged into the hands of the Koreans, whom they had always despised and looked down on.

“Mother…”

“Oh, Amaterasu Omikami…”

“Shut up, all of you!”

A middle-aged man with a grim face and an old-fashioned machine gun shouted in Korean. It didn’t take long for those who knew Korean from living in Korea for a long time, or those who only knew Japanese, to understand what he was saying.

“W-what will happen to us?”

“You? You…”

Gulp, the hall became silent as if cold water had been poured over it. Someone’s swallowing sound was audible.

The middle-aged man laughed as if he found it funny that the people were so scared, and then threw it out.

“You’ll be sent back to the Japanese islands. What use do you have for the Provisional Government Committee? I don’t know if you’ll be able to go home or not, but anyway, we’ll send you across the strait.”

“Thank you! Thank you!”

The people bowed their heads and clasped their hands together in a servile manner, shedding tears.

There were ominous rumors that they might be torn apart by the Koreans for what they had done to them, but at least it seemed that the Korean interim government had no intention of massacring the Japanese.

A young wife wiped her tears and kissed her child’s face as she hugged him.

The middle-aged man’s expression was not comfortable as he watched her.

‘Even if it’s to bring out our compatriots…’

He had a keen ear and had a vague idea of what was happening in Japan.

Geonjun was preparing to bring out the compatriots in Japan through negotiations with the Governor-General’s Office, and the ones who would be used as bargaining chips were the Japanese who were gathered here.

Home, or a motherland they had never set foot on.

The Japanese who had escaped from the hellish Korean land and returned to their homeland were happy, but they didn’t know if their future would be peaceful.

Just as there were evil pro-Japanese collaborators among the Koreans, there were also good and kind Japanese.

A businessman who helped young orphans out of charity, a teacher who taught Korean students without discrimination, or a lawyer who helped the powerless Koreans in front of the law…

Some of them were individually contacted by Geonjun and Jogeon and persuaded to stay in Korea, but realistically, they couldn’t reach out to everyone.

‘I’d rather send those pro-Japanese bastards there…’

They had a principle of never sending the pro-Japanese traitors to Japan for punishment. He wondered what expression they would have when they went there and realized it was hell.

That was the only thing he regretted.