On April 6, the 83rd Anniversary of the Irim Jell (Memorial Day of Entering Japan) was held at a venue in Shimonoseki City, Yamaguchi Prefecture, where leaders and church members from the Yamaguchi area gathered. In his message, President Tomihiro Tanaka testified of True Parents who loved their enemies and lived their lives for the sake of others, and he encouraged the participants to “stand firm with Rev. and Mrs. Sun Myung Moon’s philosophies of peace and convey these ideals of peace and its basic teachings with substance.”
Editorial Department
Rev. Sun Myung Moon prayed to heaven in anguish over the unreasonable conditions that abound in his homeland
Greetings everyone.
It is said that you can tell the future of a country by looking at its youth, and after seeing the performance by the youth in the first part of the event, I can assure you this: The future of Yamaguchi is bright! (Applause, cheers.) There is nothing but hope! (Applause) Thank you very much.
Japan is an island nation in the Pacific Ocean, and wherever people enter the country, they use the word “landing.” When Saint Xavier entered the country in 1549 as a missionary, the word “landing” was used, as well as for the Korean envoys who communicated with the Edo Shogunate, the arrival of Perry, and other delegations.
I am here today with you to commemorate the “landing” of one person in Japan. That person is Rev. Sun Myung Moon.
Xavier’s arrival in Japan opened the door to Christian missionaries in Japan, and Perry’s arrival in Japan shook the government of the time and propelled it forward directly to the Meiji Restoration. Today, I would like to take a serious look at how Rev. Moon has influenced each of us, as well as Japan.
Here is a book. It is Rev. Moon’s autobiography As a Peace-Loving Global Citizen. Rev. Moon arrived in Japan on April 1, 1941 to study at the Department of Electrical Engineering of Waseda High School of Engineering affiliated with Waseda University, but we know very well that this wasn’t just to merely study abroad.
We are told that since his youth, Rev. Moon often prayed to heaven, anguished by the unreasonable conditions he saw while his country was being ruled by Japan. Some of the questions he asked were: Why was he born? What was the purpose of life? Did God exist? Was there an afterlife? Will the suffering of the Korean Peninsula and the Korean people continue forever? Was this suffering inflicted by God? If God gave it, for what purpose? And will the peace longed by everyone really come? If so, how could it be built?…I believe that the more he looked at his fellow compatriots who were suffering, the stronger his prayers had become.
When he was fifteen years old, he was praying to the heavens with tears in his eyes, and then, he had a dramatic encounter with Jesus “as sudden as the wind” as described in his autobiography. At that moment, he knew that there was a God who was the Parent who looked down on humanity’s suffering and sorrows. Jesus told him that He wanted him to take on a mission to fulfill God’s desire and made an appeal to him to accomplish what He could not.
With such an encounter, the path was paved for Rev. Moon’s “landing” in Japan.
There should be no enemies in the world of peace desired by God
In the foreword to his autobiography, he writes:
I am a controversial person. The mere mention of my name causes trouble in the world. I never sought money or fame but have spent my life speaking only of peace. The world, though, has associated many different phrases with my name, rejected me, and thrown stones at me. Many are not interested in knowing what I say or what I do. They only oppose me.
I have been unjustly imprisoned six times in my life—by imperial Japan, in Kim Il Sung’s North Korea, by South Korea’s Syngman Rhee government, and even in the United States—and at times I was beaten so hard that the flesh was torn from my body. Today, though, not even the slightest wound remains in my heart. Wounds easily disappear in the presence of true love. Even enemies melt away without a trace in the presence of true love.
(Washington Times Foundation, xi)
“There should be no enemies in the world of peace desired by God.” I was exposed to this teaching forty-nine years ago, and it sank into my heart as truly deep words.
The Bible says, “If anyone wants to sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak also.” (Matthew 5:40). You can do that if you try hard enough. All you have to do is just say, “Here, take it!” and it’ll be done.
The Bible also says, “But whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also.” (Matt. 5:39) This, too, is bearable. All you have to say is, “If you want to slap me, slap me!”
But there is one more thing. Love your enemies. This is not easy. Looking back on our past, there are people we really dislike and hold grudges against. We don’t have the capacity in our hearts to put those negative feelings away with one word, “love.” However, as we think about God’s peace, we must not have the concept of grudges and resentments.
For the people of the Korean Peninsula, the greatest grudge and enmity they had was against Japan. With this in mind, Rev. Moon arrived in Japan, believing that it would be difficult to love Japan unless one knew it well. He took his first step here in Shimonoseki.
Happiness is something to be discovered and built up in one’s own family
Rev. Moon’s challenge to overcome the enmity against Japan was a challenge that God had to overcome as well. The great goal of building peace was preceded by great obstacles that had to be faced, not only on the Japanese level, but also on the global level.
The first obstacle was inter-religious conflict and corruption. Religions that preached happiness and advocated for peace were fighting each other and going to war in the name of God, killing many people.
The second was the rise of communism claiming God was dead. We had to confront the communist ideology, which denied the existence of God and denied the value of life and family.
The third was young people. As we saw in the first part of today’s event, young people represent the future. The youth were so riddled with free sex and decadent sexual ethics that God couldn’t find anybody where he could say, “I trust them with my future.”
During his stay in Japan, Rev. Moon faced all kinds of challenges and overcame various trials. He pursued the truth, lining up the Bible in Korean, Japanese, and English, in order to reveal the fundamental principles of the universe that can solve all of the world’s problems.
The core of Rev. Moon’s teaching is very simple. The foundation of peace lies in the family. Without peace in the family, the nation will collapse. Even if such families gather together, the nation will be nothing more than a house built on sand. What God seeks is a true family, and only a true family can protect the nation.
That family is the root of happiness. Happiness is not found beyond the mountains, beyond the sky, or brought to us by the blue bird of happiness. It is something we find and accumulate in our own homes.
The fundamental principle of the universe that Rev. Moon preached is the Exposition of the Divine Principle, and in the introduction it states, “Everyone is struggling to attain happiness and avoid misfortune. From the commonplace affairs of individuals to the great events that shape the course of history, each is at root an expression of the human aspiration for ever greater happiness” (p. 1).
The first time I heard this teaching, I thought it was nonsense. (Laughter) I remember enduring it for forty minutes, wondering if it was worth my time.
Since the Unification Principle is the fundamental principle of the universe, and since the introduction talked about happiness, it would not be true if it didn’t give us a plan to achieve the happiness that all humankind desired, regardless of religion, race, or age. Therefore, the Unification Principle provides a way for everyone to achieve absolute happiness. And it can be summarized in one saying. That is: Live for the sake of others. You must have heard this phrase to the point it made you sick. Live for the sake of others. Those of us who have been exposed to this teaching have the responsibility to prove that this is where true happiness lies.
I feel happy when people love me and care about me. However, humans naturally discover happiness when they live for others.
There was a psychiatrist and psychologist named Victor Frankl. He was imprisoned by the Nazis. His experience is written and published in Japan under the title Night and Mist. After spending about three years in the concentration camps, he said he felt and realized the following:
We struggle for the meaning of life and death. Those who live only for the sake of someone irreplaceable can endure all things.
(Translated from Japanese)
Happiness is not something that we pursue by thinking, “It must be somewhere out there.” When you live your life with all your might for the sake of others or for the greater good, you will suddenly find yourself surrounded by happiness.
The enemy cannot be overcome unless we stand in God the Parent’s heart and yearnings
The family is the foundation of peace and the base of happiness. True happiness is found where the husband is devoted to his wife, the wife is devoted to her husband, the parents are fully invested in their children, and the children want to make their parents proud. And when we live by the values of living for the community, the nation, and the world, going beyond the family, greater happiness will come to us, just as Rev. Moon and his wife, Dr. Hak Ja Han, have taught us over the course of their lives.
There is no other way to overcome enemies than to live for them, no matter how high the barriers may be. We have learned this through Rev. Moon’s every move in Japan and through his life.
I was once deeply involved with Shimonoseki for seven years. At the time, I was responsible for a project to invite Christian students from Korea to interact with Christian students in Japan. The theme of the project was to unite Christian students from Japan and Korea to overcome the history of the two countries. Of course, I was working under the guidance of Rev. Moon.
It was really hard to gather Christian students in Japan. There were not a lot of Christians that I knew, so I stood on street corners and kept asking, “Are you a Christian?” And if I was lucky enough to meet them, I would invite them to the project saying, “There are Christian students coming from Korea.” At first, everyone said, “That sounds great.” However, as they learned more about the history of Japan-Korea relations and the world of the Korean mind through the training, people left one by one. In the end, I think nine of the ten people who said, “That’s nice,” left. They said, “I can’t bear such a heavy history.”
Nevertheless, we faced the Korean Christian students with the remaining students. We spent a week traveling from Tokyo to Shimonoseki, sleeping and eating together. The places we visited would be in response to the requests from the Korean side. Each place we visited, we discussed many different issues. There was one place they really wanted to visit: Hiroshima. They said, “There is a memorial for Korean victims of the atomic bombs in Hiroshima, so please take us there.”
The memorial is now located in the Peace Memorial Park, but at that time it stood alone across the river from the park. It was a lonely place, with cars coming and going, covered in exhaust fumes. When I was asked to go there, I had mixed feelings.
It was during an exchange program with a group of about 70 Korean Christian students and five Japanese Christian students.
The mood that had been friendly and convivial as we slept and ate together changed drastically when we got off the bus in front of the memorial. All the Korean students began to cry, “Aigoh, Aigoh!” The area around the memorial was paved with pebbles. They were banging the stones with their fists and crying loudly. The five Japanese students were bewildered.
Furthermore, Korean students would ask. “What do you think of this? Why are the Koreans here when they were made citizens of Japan, were exposed to the same radiation, and suffered the same pain? Why are the Japanese (victims) in that big park?” I knew they would say that, but it was hard to accept.
We arrived in Shimonoseki after such a shock in Hiroshima. While spending the night there, a university professor, who was in charge of the students from Korea, gave a deep and profound message.
He was an elderly man and could speak Japanese. Even though he was able to speak fluently, he did not use Japanese at all throughout the whole time until we arrived in Shimonoseki. Therefore, I had assumed he did not speak Japanese. However, at the farewell dinner he suddenly started speaking in Japanese. The Korean students listened through an interpreter. He said:
I am a Christian. All my life I have lived according to God’s command. He tells us to forgive our enemies, and I have done so at all times. He says, ‘If anyone wants to sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak also (Matthew 5:40),’ and I have done more than that. But I thought that God would understand the feelings I had toward Japan. I have always thought that God would never ask me to forgive Japan. However, as I came in contact with the Japanese people and saw the five students whom I ate with and spent time with, I sincerely repented. God was here, too. I came to know that God also loves the Japanese. How much pain have I caused God?
Tears welled up in the eyes of those present. The world of heart that Japanese people can never pass through was revealed, and I realized that enemies cannot be overcome unless we take God as our Parent and stand in His heart and yearnings. The parental heart is the root of love and the source of peace. Without returning to this place, I once again feel that it is not easy to overcome our enemies.
Rev. Sun Myung Moon and Dr. Hak Ja Han have loved Japan more than anyone else
Rev. Moon has truly loved Japan. However, the Japanese mainstream media has labeled him as “anti-Japanese” and has reported the same about Dr. Han.
Rev. Moon sent a missionary to Japan as a pioneer for world missions. He chose Japan as the first missionary country. Since there were no diplomatic relations at that time, it was not easy to enter the country. The missionary who was sent to Japan at the risk of his life was Choi Bong-chun, or Masaru Nishikawa as he was known in Japan. In spite of the poor situation of the Korean church members, they borrowed money to pay for his mission and sent him to Japan. If Rev. Moon were anti-Japanese, would he do this?
He also founded the International Federation of Victory over Communism (IFVOC) in Japan. As the communist revolution spread like wildfire throughout the world, he founded IFVOC in 1968, which was thought to be on the start of the revolution in Japan, and instructed people to confront communism head-on. He instructed us saying, “Defend your country at the cost of your life.”
Many Korean women who are believers of the Family Federation have come to Japan after being married to a Japanese. Needless to say, there are difficulties associated with international marriages. For Koreans in particular, it is not easy to marry a Japanese who has come from their enemy nation. However, they have to go this far in order to truly overcome this enmity.
Women who have received the calling from heaven have come to Japan after receiving the blessing. In a country where they do not speak the language and feel prejudice against Korea, these women love their husbands and children, are devoted to their husbands’ relatives, and are making efforts to love Japan. They are still putting in the same effort, even now, at this very moment. If you were anti-Japanese, would you send your beloved daughters to the enemy nation of Japan?
He also sent Korean pastors to Japan. He did so even if it meant leaving the Korean church members devoid of leadership. Korean pastors sowed the seeds of the word day and night to connect as many Japanese as possible to heaven.
It has already been twelve years since Rev. Moon passed away. His surviving wife, Dr. Han, welcomed spouses for their eldest son’s children—in other words their grandsons’ wives—from a Korean-Japanese family and a Japanese-Japanese family. They welcomed Japanese blood into the direct lineage of the first-born son. Unless they love Japan, they would never do such a thing.
The media’s cry of Rev. and Mrs. Moon being anti-Japan is so far removed from reality. The two of them have never ceased their love for Japan, not even for a moment.
Peace cannot be built without parental heart
This book is Dr. Han’s autobiography Mother of Peace: And God Shall Wipe Away All Tears from Their Eyes. The common theme shared here as well as in Rev. Moon’s biography is of peace. They revealed that the foundation of peace is the family, and the root of peace found in the family is the parental heart. Throughout their lives, they have taught that this is where peace comes from.
Many people call Rev. Sun Myung Moon and Dr. Hak Ja Han the True Parents. Of course, the brothers and sisters of the Family Federation also refer to them as such. When I think back on their lives, it is impossible to describe them with any other word than “parents.”
Rev. Moon once said, “If you look at my life, you will see that I am a parent.”
Why did they go to North Korea, ready to die? There is only one reason why they dared to go to Pyongyang even though they might not have been able to come back: because they are the parents. It is because they had children there whom they loved. You may hate the ideology that rules North Korea, but you should not hate the people. From God’s eyes they are also children that must be saved.
Why did they enter the Soviet Union, a stronghold of communism, at the risk of their lives? It was because they had to go as parents to the land where their beloved children were. We must understand this very well. If we look at the life paths of Rev. and Mrs. Moon from the perspective of parents, we will see them differently. And I share it with you again in the hope that you be able to reach a certain level of truth.
“How can peace be built?” Peace cannot be built without the parental heart. There is no doubt about this.
There is one story that I often share when speaking in front of the younger generation.
There used to be a radio program called Midnight Party. It was more than 30 years ago. It was a nighttime program, but it was rebroadcast during the day, so I used to listen to it while I drove.
A part of the program was dedicated to reading postcards they received from the listeners as music played in the background. One of the postcards was written by a child whose parents had divorced. I shed tears of empathy when I listened to it. It went something like this.
My father gave me a “one” (“一” is one in Chinese characters) and my mother gave me a “one.” No matter how much I received “one” and “one”, I couldn’t put them together to make “two’” on my own (“二” is two in Chinese characters). Unless I receive a “two” in it’s original form, I will never know what a “two” is. I am sure there are many such children in the world.
This was written by a 16 year-old girl. This child was not happy even though she was receiving love from her father and mother after they had divorced.
“No matter how much I received a ‘one’ and another ‘one’, I couldn’t put them together to make ‘two’ on my own.” Our lives come from our parents. Not just from your father, not just from your mother. The place where parents come together, the place where children can truly feel good where they came from is the foundation of peace, the origin of peace. Children exposed to parental heart are truly happy.
We of the generation of parents, must realize that it is the husband and wife who determine the value of a family. Through a world in which husband and wife are united, we must create the foundation for a family where children can truly say, “I am glad that I was born to these parents.” I am studying Rev. Moon’s message every day, and I am taking my own precautions.
Cherish Rev. Moon and his wife, who have lived a life of living for the sake of others
Today, I may have sounded a little arrogant saying things like, “Communism denies God,” or “Communism denies the spirit world.” In fact, when I was in college, I found myself in a state of communism and shouted things like, “The country is corrupt! Universities are corrupt!” In the summer of my second year of university, I was introduced to the Unification Principle and began to study Christianity. I lived in communism during the day and Christianity at night.
As a person who stood up for communism, I look back and think that no matter how righteous one may be, a communist’s motive is hatred and resentment. Unless we can overcome that, no matter how much we talk about justice, we cannot create peace. Therefore, as a result, the student movement headed toward destruction. You have probably seen images of university auditoriums being burned down.
True peace can only come from forgiving and loving the enemy. In layman’s terms, it means to live for the sake of others. Once again, we must live each and every day with the teachings of Rev. and Mrs. Moon in mind, as they have lived this their whole lives.
Shimonoseki was the first place in Japan where Rev. Moon set foot. It is Shimonoseki that heaven will remember and will never be erased from the memory of the Family Federation’s history, even after 100, 200 or 300 years. I hope that the people of Yamaguchi will be able to convey the ideal of peace and its basic teachings with substance based on the philosophy of peace of Rev. and Mrs. Moon, and let this be my message. Thank you very much.
Prayer
I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to the noble Heavenly Parent (God) and the victorious True Parents of Heaven, Earth, and Humankind.
I would like to express my sincere gratitude to you for taking this time today and leading us to this land of Shimonoseki, which will be remembered by heaven forever and above all; a place where Japan should be grateful of and always remember.
This morning, I spent time in front of the memorial of Konron Maru. Konron Maru is the ferry Rev. Sun Myung Moon was set to board on his return trip to Korea after having unraveled the truth in Japan. Rev. Moon felt some kind of heavenly warning and did not board the vessel, but when it left the port, Konron Maru was sunk by the American navy, and 583 lives were lost at sea.
Although they may be regarded as mere victims of the war between Japan and the United States, we know that God will remember them forever and that the story of the Konron Maru will always be recounted in the life course of Rev. and Mrs. Moon. Seeing that these brothers and sisters of Shimonoseki never lost their feelings of remembrance and continue to keep the memorial time every year, I think their precious and valuable lives and will be remembered forever.
Please let the heavens remember Yamaguchi. I sincerely ask that you bless and guide us so that the seeds of life and words sown here will spread evermore and create a new wave that can substantially demonstrate what true peace and true happiness are.
The seed of Rev. and Mrs. Moon’s words have now spread throughout the whole world. Also, many lives are being reborn and guided before Heaven. The words True Parents of Humankind are now commonly spoken by people. I once again feel that the life of True Parents, who walked with the heart of God as the True Parents of Humankind, is the bosom of parents that we need to return to, as well as the world of heart that we should base ourselves on when he need correcting in our hearts.
Japan has been protected by Rev. Sun Myung Moon and Dr. Hak Ja Han’s hearts, who were put in place to love Japan more than anyone else. I am truly grateful that they are pouring out their thoughts and feelings even at this moment today.
I sincerely ask that we can show true happiness and true peace to all people substantially through our lives, while reaffirming the happiness of being in the bosom of the Parents and in the hearts of the Parents.
We cannot twist the truth wherever we may find ourselves. If there is a trial, a great blessing will await if we overcome. There is no religion in history that has perished under persecution. The more they were persecuted, the more they developed, the more they expanded. Today, as a group that has learned the truth, we are proud and bold. As we take steps on this path unashamedly as sons and daughter before parents with future generations, we will realize the family ideal where three generations are one. I pray that this can be accomplished in your blessings.
Today, I have taken the time to remember True Parents together with many brothers and sisters. Please continue to be with us and guide us no matter what kind of situation we are in. And if you receive a prayer (from any of these people), whether it be a small voice or a small whisper, I sincerely ask You listen to it and deal with it.
