“We Are the Happiest in the World”

All the Korean people like to sing “We Are the Happiest in the World.”

The famous song was created at the then Haeju School for Bereaved Children who lost their parents in the war.

In January Juche 40 (1951) when the Fatherland Liberation War was at its height, the Cabinet of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea made public a decree on establishing schools for the bereaved children of patriotic martyrs and larger numbers of orphanages, and the Political Committee of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea discussed and decided a measure for bringing up the bereaved children of patriotic martyrs and war orphans at the state’s expense, with the result that orphanages and primary schools for orphans were built in different parts of the country.

Saying that he can hardly sleep when he thinks of children who lost their parents by the enemies, President Kim Il Sung stressed: We should take good care of them in place of their parents and bring them up to be excellent persons. We should be the first to raise war orphans.

Upon receiving the news that he personally brought them to the Supreme Headquarters, many people vied to adopt orphans and take warm care of them.

The orphans cherished deep in their mind Kim Il Sung’s remarks that he is their father and that the Party’s embrace is their home as the warm voice of their benevolent father.

In the run-up to the Fourth Congress of the WPK in Juche 50 (1961), Haeju School for Bereaved Children bustled with the preparations for an art performance to take part in the national art festival of schools for bereaved children and primary schools for orphans.

In the course of making efforts to create a song dedicated to the benevolent Party, members of the production unit were moved at the sight of the orphans who said that their father is Marshal Kim Il Sung and their home is the Party’s bosom.

The music of the song was completed by composer Kim Hyok (April 1921-July 1991). The words of its first stanza are as follows:

Blue is the sky and happy is my heart

The stand of an accordion rings out far and wide

What a wonderful homeland we have

A land filled with harmony and hope

Our father is Marshal Kim Il Sung

Our home is the Party’s bosom

We are all blood brothers and sisters

We are the happiest in the world.

Hence the famous song was born.

The orphans of Haeju school sang the song in chorus on the stage of the performance given by art groups from schools for bereaved children and primary schools for orphans across the country. It was held in the presence of Kim Il Sung.

The song of ardent love, the purest and most beautiful song of happiness, which no one had ever heard, reverberated throughout the stage.

The audience gave a standing ovation to them, looking up at Kim Il Sung in the auditorium.

It represented the boundless gratitude of the Korean people to Kim Il Sung who saved the destiny of the nation by waging a bloody war against the Japanese imperialists and provided them with the greatest honour and happiness unprecedented in the nation’s history spanning 5 000 years, as being the father of the country in the days when it was faced with the most difficult trials to follow an untrodden path of building a new Korea and fight the three-year-long war.

Since then, the Korean people, be they young and old, men and women, began to call him “Fatherly Marshal” with a feeling of intimacy.

All the Koreans are enjoying worthwhile life, singing the song which truthfully reflects their sentiments.

2023-05-03