Introduction
On May 31, the 84th Anniversary Memorial Rally of Nichirinsetsu (The day when True Father first came to Japan) was held at Shimonoseki Family Church (Yamaguchi area), and about 500 members and blessed families participated in the conference, including via the internet. In his message, President Tomihiro Tanaka testified of True Parents who went the way of loving the enemy, and called on the participants to “make this a day to go with determination to firmly establish the tradition of love.”
Editorial Department
Greetings to all of you in the Yamaguchi area.
The entertainment performed by the youth was very impressive, with the band, dance, and choir all showing the diligence and practice that went into it.
The testimonies of the members of N.A.B.I., the second generation missionary group, also touched my heart. Why is our religious organization so persecuted? As True Father said, “If there were no trials, I will give you trials,” faith is cultivated through overcoming trials.
We are seriously trying to create heaven on earth. Therefore, we clash with secular values, and conflicts arise in all areas. The greater the heavenly values are directed toward the earthly values, the more intensely they clash. It is inevitable that we go through these struggles. That is our fate, so we must embrace these trials.
God cannot leave behind the word “enemy”
We are celebrating the 84th anniversary of Nichirinsetsu. I would like to take a moment to reflect on what this day commemorates.
On April 1, 1941, True Father took his first step in the land of Japan from Shimonoseki. The Second Coming of the Messiah—who would become the True Parents of humankind, whom God had been asking and seeking for six thousand years—set foot on this land.
If True Father’s entry into Japan was heaven’s providence, there must have been a reason. We need to understand that reason correctly. God cannot leave the word “enemy” on this earth. This word is not in God’s dictionary. As long as that one word exists, heaven will never come. In a sense, how to eliminate the word “enemy” is the key to understanding God’s providence of restoration. God sent His beloved son to Japan in order to eliminate hatred and vengeance from the earth. With this in mind, I hope that as we celebrate this commemorative day, we also remember the sinking of the Konron Maru (October 5, 1943).
The following is from True Father’s words:
“While in prison I was whipped, beaten, tortured and bloodied, yet I never resented those who beat me. The true God is the God who sacrificed His beloved son to save His enemies. Not only that, He gave away all His treasures to His enemy. That is the love of God. God’s way is to pray with tears for the one who holds the whip.”
Cheon Seong Gyeong, The Holy Scripture of Cheon Il Guk, p. 357
To Heaven, the Korean people are the chosen people that was prepared in order to establish the True Parents of humankind. Unfortunately, some of the behaviors of the Japanese people toward the Korean people still linger as historical vengeance. Furthermore, they have driven the True Parents, the Messiah of humankind, into prison. This fact will be engraved in the history of humankind forever. In heaven’s providence, however, we cannot leave the word “enemy” attached to Japan. Therefore, True Father entered Japan and took the path of loving the enemy, just like what the Heavenly Parent (God) did.
“I have loved God, I have loved the world, and I have loved humankind. Right after the liberation of Korea from Japan, I loved even the enemies who had tried to have me executed as a criminal. I even sold my suit, even my undergarments, and gave the money to one of these men when his son was starving. Then I lived for two weeks with nothing. I could not even go outside because I had nothing proper to wear. I did not do this from a calculating motivation; I did it from my genuine heart.”
Cheon Seong Gyeong, The Holy Scripture of Cheon Il Guk, p360
True Mother, like True Father, has lived a life of loving her enemies to liberate God.
The True Mother addresses me as the representative of Japan. In a loud voice, she calls out, “Tanaka!” And she speaks about the history between Japan and Korea, sometimes for over half an hour. I steer myself and listen carefully to every word she says, but I never get the sense that she hates the Japanese.
Now, we are being asked whether we can view things from the perspective of True Mother’s heart and values. If we view historical issues from the perspective of Japanese people rather than from the perspective of the Heavenly Parent, as True Mother does, then True Mother’s words will be distorted. If we accept historical issues at the level of, “Well, True Mother is Korean and I am Japanese, so it’s only natural that she would say that,” then we will never be able to fulfill Heaven’s providence.
This is the message True Mother delivered to the Japanese people shortly after True Father’s seonghwa.
“A calm ocean may look peaceful on the surface. But deep beneath, vast currents, such as the Kuroshio Current [Black Tide], surge. In this way, the oceans are constantly in motion. When a huge wave breaks, it can swallow everything. Moreover, people cannot see the whirlpool forming deep beneath the ocean. These phenomena resemble Heaven’s providence and, at the same time, symbolize the dynamics of the life I have lived. Standing at the center of God’s providence, which raged like a storm, I have experienced so many deep and diverse situations. And yet, I cannot speak of these matters at this time. Suffice to say that, despite all the difficulties, I did not get sucked down into the whirlpools. Instead, by riding on and overcoming them, I was victorious and fulfilled the providence of restoration through indemnity, always standing alongside my husband, the Reverend Sun Myung Moon.”
Global Youth Festival 2014, September 23, 2014
Just as a massive ocean current remains invisible beneath the surface of the sea, True Mother has lived her life in such a way that people are unaware of the turbulent waves she has navigated. I believe that the depths of True Mother’s heart have been etched with countless struggles.
True Father undoubtedly sowed the seeds of love beyond all resentment. These seeds were sown here in Shimonoseki and in the land of Yamaguchi. You have the responsibility to nurture those seeds so they fully bloom. I believe your conscience understands this well, for it is the closest thing you have to Heaven’s providence and can hear God’s voice.
Unless one understands the God’s feelings of loving his enemies, it is difficult to love your enemies
The only way to overcome resentment is through love. So where does the desire and strength to love come from? Love does not arise from a sense of “duty” to love.
I used to visit Yamaguchi twice a year for seven years. We would bring groups of Christian students from South Korea. About 50 to 80 people participated.
At that time, I stood on street corners every day from morning till night, asking Japanese students, “Are you a Christian?” There were very few Japanese Christian students, and some days I didn’t meet a single one. When I finally did, I would invite them to join in welcoming these groups from South Korea. For students who were enthusiastic about participating, I had them attend a seminar on the history of Japan and Korea. Many students dropped out because they couldn’t bear the weight of the difficult history between the two countries.
Each time, about five Japanese students spent seven nights and eight days with the Koreans. We held a seminar each time in Tokyo and then traveled west to Shimonoseki.
During the trip, there was a place where the Korean students wanted to visit. It was the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park, but that was the place I wanted to avoid the most. Currently, the memorial for Korean atomic bomb victims is located inside the park, but at that time, it was built on the side of the road surrounding the moat, exposed to automobile exhaust fumes.
As soon as the Korean students gathered around the memorial, they would burst into tears. They prostrated themselves on the ground, pounding the stones and crying out, “Aigo!” Then they turned to the Japanese students and asked, “What do you think of this?”
Koreans who were in Japan due to forced relocation, or other circumstances, suffered from the atomic bomb. They felt anger, thinking, “We were supposed to be treated as Japanese, so why are we being treated like this?” Japanese students could only accept their raw emotions and cry with them.
One time when we arrived in Yamaguchi, we were discussing our thoughts and feelings at the hotel, when I had a memorable experience. The Korean professor who was leading the group suddenly started speaking in Japanese. He was about 60 years old and had not used Japanese at all during the trip. This is what he said:
“I was taught to ‘love your enemies,’ so I have tried to do so. I believed that I would never have anything to be ashamed of in my life if I lived for others in the name of God. However, I could not forgive the Japanese. I thought God would never say, ‘Love the Japanese,’ and if anyone were to force me to love the Japanese, I would have considered that God was not parent.
“However, by observing the five Japanese students I spent time with, I realized that God loves them. Through them, I came to understand that God loves the Japanese. I now feel ashamed before heaven. God has transformed me from the core.”
Listening to the professor’s talk, I realized that it is difficult to love your enemies unless one touches the heart of God, who loves His enemies. The professor must have gone through great conflict before he was able to testify in Japanese. It is easy to say, “Love your enemies,” but in reality, it is not easy. There are areas that only those who have fought this battle can understand.
The thing needed to realize peace
Unless we stand in the heart of the Heavenly Parent, we cannot find true peace. True Mother has pointed out four things that are necessary to achieve peace.
First is gratitude. Satan cannot enter those who live each day with gratitude. If we accept any trial with gratitude, Satan cannot invade any further.
True Father once said, “I was separated from God for one week.” One time, he couldn’t suppress his inner struggles toward Christians, who had overturned heaven’s providential plan, and when he entered prison with that conflict still within him, he could no longer hear God’s voice.
Even so, True Father continued to pray and seek. He realized that if it weren’t for the Christians who continued to love God even after being martyred during two thousand years of persecution, God would have been erased from history. When he felt gratitude that the new providence could begin because Christians had preserved God, he heard God’s voice saying, “Do you understand?”
The second is forgiveness. Parents cannot judge their children. The only thing parents can do is forgive them. No matter how much their children fail, parents must forgive them and bear the burden themselves. This is the tradition of God as a parent.
When you are able to see from the parents’ perspective, I think you will feel compassion for the person (you hate). Even if you close your eyes and see someone who is unforgivable, you should be able to forgive them if you think from the parents’ perspective.
Third is to love. The Bible says, “But whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also. If anyone wants to sue you and take away your tunic, let him have your cloak also.” (Matthew 5:39-40). If you know this verse, you might be able to turn the other cheek when someone slaps you. If your undergarments are taken, you might be able to give your outer garment as well. However, can you practice “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you?” (Matthew 5:44)
These are the words of the True Father:
“Why did Jesus teach that we should love our enemies, even as he did by carrying the cross? It is because there is no way to subjugate Satan other than by love. God-centered love is love that seeks to save the world. It seeks to reclaim the realm of love from Satan’s world. God’s love has a purpose: it is to liberate Satan’s world.”
Cheon Seong Gyeong, The Holy Scripture of Cheon Il Guk, p. 342
Loving your enemies is necessary in order to subdue Satan, who stands behind them. If we truly want to create a peaceful world and a heavenly kingdom on earth, we have no choice but to make continuous efforts to love our enemies.
Fourth, we must become one. True Mother emphasizes, “Become one with me,” “Become one with the Heavenly Missionary Headquarters,” and “Those in positions of responsibility must become one.” Unity of mind and body, unity between parents and children, unity among brothers and sisters…Becoming one is not easy.
Recently, I have been strongly drawn to the love of the third object partner as taught in the Principle. The eternal creative purpose of God, the four-position foundation, created by God, the subject, the object, and the harmonious body. You have probably heard this so many times that it has become a cliché.
This happened when I visited the home of a young family. There was a piece of paper with the word “God” on the wall. When I asked what it was, they replied, “We often fight, so in order to become one, we pray together before ‘God.’” I thought, “They’ve been listening to too many lectures,” but it was a heartwarming sight.
The subject loves the object with God at the center, and the object returns beauty to the subject. This is from the subject’s perspective. From the object’s perspective, it is not beauty but love that is directed toward the subject. A wife does not become beautiful in order to return beauty because she has received love from her husband. She becomes beautiful in order to love her husband. Each person’s responsibility is not to return beauty, but to love.
What is the purpose of the subject and object becoming one through the giving and receiving of love and beauty? It is to create God’s third object partner. Only when this is accomplished can God’s love for the third object partner descend. If we consider a married couple, the love of God directed toward the husband is the love of the first object. The love directed toward the wife is the love of the second object. For the husband, there is a love of God that can only be understood through the wife. And when the couple becomes one, they can share the love of the third object partner of God, that is, the ultimate love of God.
Husbands and wives, parents and children, humans and all things… Unless the subject and object become one and form a harmonious whole, and unless we encounter the ultimate love of God, peace will never come. We live in order to encounter that love. This is why True Mother urges us to become one. It is not simply a matter of obeying and doing as we are told. We must pursue this love of God every day. If we remain vague, we will never understand what heaven is like.
The responsibility of Blessed Families is to testify to all people that God is the parent
The entrance ceremony of Cheon Won Gung and Cheon Il Sanctum heralded a major turning point in history. The Heavenly Mother, who had been hidden until now, was revealed through Holy Mother Han, and an era has arrived in which God will rule as parent and master of the earth. From now on, all problems on earth will be directly resolved by God.
So, how can we make God, the Heavenly Parent, visible to all people? We must reveal them through our own lives as their children. “If you look at us, you will understand what kind of being the Heavenly Parent is.” Unless we can make this ultimate statement, we cannot say that God has truly descended to earth. True Mother has clearly stated that the responsibility of the parents has ended, and that it is now the responsibility of the blessed families of the chosen people to testify to God in this new era.
Second-generation members who have chosen their own path of faith and live with pride based on religious values have begun to engage in activities as “second-generation believers.” Those who oppose this are the ones who dislike it the most. They constantly claim, “They are being forced to do this by the church.” The opposition is troubled by the fact that the second-generation members are choosing their faith on their own. This is because their logic would collapse. Their claim is that “including President Tanaka, everyone is a victim of mind control.”
It is precisely because the second-generation members are acting on their own volition that the spiritual realm and society are moving. Their actions undoubtedly inspire the compassionate people of Japan.
Those who live purely according to their parents’ feelings and wishes take action
True Mother often uses the term “pure water.” I feel that the meaning of this term has gradually changed over time.
In 2013, True Mother held a 21-day workshop for her grandchildren in Hawaii. The following year, thirteen second-generation members from Japan participated in a 21-day workshop in Hawaii. The core message of True Mother at that time was “pure water.” She said, “Become water that spreads true love, resembling Heavenly Parents. Become pure water…we must purify the world.” (Today’s World Japan, September 2014, pp. 10-11)
When approximately 6,000 second-generation members visited Korea from Japan in 2023, True Mother was truly moved. She was moved that so many Pure Water of the second generation had crossed the sea to become one with her. From that moment on, Mother became even more convinced and began to use the term Pure Water.
Last year, when Japanese leaders underwent training in South Korea, True Mother said, “The second generation, the Heavenly Top Gun, are standing as one with me, united as a single needle. You should unite with them.”
I sincerely thank the forty-day workshop participants who made True Mother say, “You are the needle we have been seeking.” When they shouted, “Mother, please do not worry,” and “Heaven is what we will create, so please rest,” Mother listened with tears in her eyes. I can only hope that they will receive spiritual training and fulfill their declaration in the future.
True Mother says that heaven cannot be built through faith alone. Although the first generation devoted their lives to walking the path of faith, what is ultimately required is the world of heart. We must sincerely confront True Parents and pursue the question of whether True Mother is truly our parent.
The number of applicants hoping to become staff members of the Family Federation next year has increased compared to this year, despite the ongoing court proceedings regarding the dissolution order. When I reported this to True Mother, she rejoiced with tears in her eyes. Here lies heaven. The second generation is prioritizing their hearts above all else, acting with the pure desire to live according to the hearts and wishes of their parents.
We, the first generation, tend to come to rational conclusions too quickly. We often say things like, “Even though True Mother says that, in reality, that is too difficult. Let’s have a meeting first.” True Father pointed out that “Japanese people are quick to hold meetings.”
The new era is with our parents. Unless we sincerely strive to welcome our parents into our lives as parents, we cannot pass on this path to the second and third generations. Even if the second and third generations are currently in the spotlight, the future depends on the choices we, the first generation, make. This is because the worldview we establish and the way of life that aligns with it will be inherited by the second and third generations. Let us strive to become a chosen blessed family that can stand before Heaven without shame.
To eliminate enmity from the earth, let us express gratitude to the Heavenly Parent for sending their beloved son to Japan on April 1, 1941, and resolve to establish a tradition of love as we set out from this day.