During the struggle, many legends praising Kim Il Sung were spread among Koreans.

A Japanese book "Pacific War History" said that Kim Il Sung was well-known and admired even among children in the southern part of Korea under the strict control of the Japanese gendarme and police, adding: For this reason, the Japanese imperialists' rule over Korea was already put on the verge of final collapse before Japan's defeat.

A platoon leader of Japan's Kwantung Army, at that time, confessed that punitive forces suffered the repeated defeats in any battles against the anti-Japanese guerrillas led by General Kim Il Sung.

He continued:

Later, I came to know that General Kim Il Sung was only twenty-three years old at that time, and I could not but admire him as a hero of the century for enjoying a fame as a political and military genius all over the continent at his young age.

The then vice-chief of the Hyesan police station, who was also the head of a special guard force, wrote in his memoirs about the battle on Mt. Kouyushui that he, flatting down on the ground in the thick of the battle, happened to see General Kim Il Sung through his telescope. Nobody but General Kim Il Sung, an outstanding brilliant commander, could fight and command the battle in the trench with his soldiers, he added.

Indeed, President Kim Il Sung was an outstanding military strategist and a legendary hero who defeated the strong Japanese imperialist aggression army and made a new history of national liberation struggle in colonial countries.