207. Women Will Play a Leading Role in the Ideal World III

Book 2: A Model for the Family Ideal and World Peace
Part 1: The True Love Movement and the Role of Women
Chapter 8: Women Will Play a Leading Role in the Ideal World III

This speech was given at the founding rally of the Women's Federation for World Peace in Japan and at rallies between September 24 and October 6, 1992 for Koreans residing in Japan.

Respected guests, members of the Women's Federation for Peace in Asia, ladies and gentlemen: On this occasion, as we approach the Women's Federation for World Peace seven-city speaking tour, I wish to express my heartfelt gratitude to all of you who have helped make this evening a success.

On September 17 of last year I came to Tokyo as the principal speaker at the national rally held by the Women's Federation for Peace in Asia. Since that rally, this organization has received tremendous support in Japan and around the world and has accomplished remarkable growth. On November 20, the first Women's Federation for Peace in Asia rally was held in Seoul, with 15,000 representative Korean women in attendance.

Then, on April 10 of this year, more than one hundred fifty thousand women from 72 countries filled the Seoul Olympic Stadium beyond capacity to express their strong desire for world peace. That rally, the largest women's rally ever held, inaugurated the Women's Federation for World Peace. I have nothing except the highest words of praise for your strong dedication and hard work in bringing about such remarkable growth in this movement.

Following that international rally, I toured 81 cities in Korea and continued my lectures on the topic of Women's Role in the Ideal World. Everywhere I went, people gathered in numbers so large as to resemble the clouds of heaven. In all, I received the welcome and support of more than a million Korean women. The enthusiasm of these women clearly illustrated that women possess an unlimited capacity to contribute to future world peace.

In only eight years we will enter the twenty-first century. We are witnessing the passing of the era of brute force, in which men have held almost exclusive sway. This era has been tainted by war, violence, exploitation and destruction. In the new era we are about to enter, women will have the central role in leading humanity into love, forgiveness, harmony and cooperation. My tour was an opportunity to bring this important realization to the people of Korea.

The original role of women

Women need to come to a new realization of their original, God-given role and become cornerstones for peace, happiness and freedom. The only way for us to build peace in each of our nations and in the world is to build true families, that is, families confirmed in true love.

The International Marriage Blessing Ceremony of 30,000 couples in Seoul on August 25 of this year validated the fact that world peace can be brought into reality through ideal families. This ceremony, held as a part of the first World Culture and Sports Festival, was a historic declaration opening the gate to world peace. It was a giant panorama of love testifying that humankind is one family, and that a kindred tie centering on God's love unites the world as one.

On that day, my husband and I, in our capacity as the True Parents, gave the Blessing of eternal love to some 60,000 brides and grooms from 131 countries. At this magnificent festival of love held under the bright sunshine and azure sky, each bride and groom made his or her pledge to establish true families and a world of true peace before God, True Parents and all humanity. The covenants of love formed that day centering on God's true love are eternal and absolute. Such marriage bonds can never be seen as conditional or limited, because true love seeks to give perpetually. When two people come together in such love, they form an eternal association that no force can sunder. Thus, for these brides and grooms there can never be even the slightest thought of divorce or the corruption of sexual morality—two problems that have become so widespread in today's society.

Because these people come together in an environment of God's true love, differences of nationality, race, language and customs do not become obstacles. God's true love melts down all obstacles, and these husbands and wives will discover in His bosom a common language of true love. They will come together in the common arena of true love. Their unions transcend nations, race and religion. They will grow to become citizens of the future world who will serve and embrace the world. When these people set down their roots of sacrificial true love around the world, the world will be swept clean of all the philosophies of hatred and conflict. There will be an end to the tragedies of war and genocide. There will be only true, ideal families and a true world.

World peace through international marriage

Already, in 1988, my husband and I had built a bridge of eternal peace between Korea and Japan by joining in the Blessing of marriage more than 6,000 Korean-Japanese couples. As husbands and wives centered on God's true love, they formed families that, by virtue of their connection by lineage, have a greater love than anyone for the peoples, traditions and cultures of both countries. Peace in northeast Asia, at least, is now guaranteed forever through these Korean-Japanese couples.

Traditionally, the task of protecting and nurturing the family has been the special right and mission given to women. In our society today, however, there are innumerable fundamental problems that threaten to undermine our families. Certainly the problems faced by the world today cannot be resolved by developing military might or economic power. In contemporary society the amplification of problems of an internal nature, such as the collapse of traditional values and the breakdown of social order, is undermining our external growth and development.

Even now, tens of millions of people on this earth are dying of starvation. Underlying the challenges of adequate production and distribution of food is the more fundamental problem of the dearth of the love by which we would see these suffering people as our own sons and daughters, our own brothers and sisters, our own mothers and fathers. Societies today are increasingly afflicted with crime and drug abuse. It is said that humanity has escaped the threat of nuclear war. Yet, our future appears more shrouded by the clouds of despair than lit up by the sunshine of hope.

Such crises faced by the world today reflect deeper, more fundamental problems, which will not be resolved by fragmentary or superficial means. Any effort to pursue the solutions to such problems solely through human means, while excluding God who has been working His providence in the background of human history, is certain to end in failure.

This is the reason that Reverend Moon teaches Godism, which is also referred to as head-wing thought. Despite having had to undergo every imaginable form of suffering, he has opened a new horizon of victory, one that enables humanity to find solutions to the problems of the world. His message is that the gates to a peaceful world will be opened only when humanity recovers its relationship with God and re-establishes original, ideal families. I'm not talking only about the United States; I'm also talking about Russia, which has been controlled by atheistic communism. There, large numbers of young people and intellectuals are studying head-wing thought, which is opening their eyes to the existence of God and the ideal of a true family.

Whether we are concerned with racial discord, violence, conflict between the rich and the poor, destruction of the environment, or even the selfishness exhibited by countries and peoples, we can begin to work out the solutions to the world's problems only after we have been trained within the environment of the ideal family in the practice of true love—that is, the love that seeks to sacrifice oneself for the sake of others.

Practical steps to build peace

To bring Godism into reality, Reverend Moon has made efforts in a wide variety of fields. Using the Unification Church as a foundation, he has established the International Conference on the Unity of the Sciences, the Professors World Peace Academy, the World Media Conference, the Summit Council for World Peace, the Global Congress of Religions, the Federation for World Peace, the Interreligious Federation for World Peace, the World Collegiate Association for the Research of Principles (W-CARP), the World University Federation, various international performing arts groups and many other organizations. Each of these organizations holds as its ideal and purpose the building of a world of peace centered on God.

Reverend Moon, who has devoted his heart and soul to the realization of world peace through the establishment of ideal families, was also the central figure in the establishment of the Women's Federation for Peace in Asia and the Women's Federation for World Peace. In addition, he has founded the House of Unification for World Peace in order to bring together the efforts that are already in existence in each country around the world.

No one can deny that Reverend Moon has established an extensive foundation for activities in a wide range of fields, connecting to top figures in religion, philosophy, academia, media, education, science and culture. When all these different fields join forces and begin to step forward as one, the world of peace that has been the object of our desires surely will appear before our eyes.

True love, by its nature, perpetually seeks to give and to sacrifice for the sake of others. True love allows no concept of an enemy. In his practice of Godism centered on true love, Reverend Moon has received all sorts of misunderstanding, persecution, slander and innumerable hardships. Reverend Moon, however, would never even think of considering anyone his enemy. In keeping with this spirit, even though for almost a century the Soviet Union had been considered the enemy of the free world, Reverend Moon visited Mikhail Gorbachev when he was president of the Soviet Union. He also went to North Korea and met with President Kim Il-sung. There he expounded on head-wing thought, which is the principle of peace centered on God's true love. Reverend Moon has shown that he is willing to go to the ends of the earth for the purpose of practicing the true love that perpetually gives to others.

Even at this moment, he is working harder than anyone to lay the foundation for Japan to become a nation most respected in Asia and the world. He is also working day and night to ensure that his teachings reach the young people of Japan so that they can follow a properly moral path. Look at those young people working in a pure and healthy manner! Already many Japanese young people have gone out across the world. As a result of their activities, they are experiencing overflowing love, esteem and respect from the people of the world.

Reverend Moon would have had much to say to each one of you regarding the true way to save Japan. I know very well how much love my husband holds for this country and for its people. Unfortunately, however, I must appear on this stage alone tonight, even though I am not really qualified to give to you the full message of his deep love. Certain persons who are ignorant and caught up in their own prejudices continue to persecute and oppose our work. I hope that they will come as quickly as possible to a true understanding of Reverend Moon's love and his true will.

Ladies and gentlemen, in order for Japan to strengthen its relations with other Asian countries, it needs to establish a position of unity with Korea. This will give Japan more friends and a larger foundation. Koreans and Japanese each refer to the others' country as “the country that is so close and yet so distant.” Now it is time for our two countries to become close to each other in every meaning of that word and to stand side by side in shouldering the future of Asia. More than anything else, I believe that Japan has to devote its full energies to the unification of Korea.

Japan's rule over Korea culminated in a division of the peninsula. The deep pain that comes from this division can be relieved completely by efforts on your part for Korean reunification. A first step would be to unite the two organizations of Korean residents in Japan, one of which is pro-Seoul and the other pro-Pyongyang. These two organizations can be brought together by means of head-wing thought, centered on true love. If Korea and Japan oppose each other, they will both lose all that they have. If these two countries combine their strengths, they will provide the strongest energy to build Asia's future and accomplish world peace.

Historically Asia has been the leader in developing the spiritual aspect of world civilization. It is inevitable that a new movement of women, a new movement of families, and a new movement for peace begin here in Asia.

Rights and responsibilities

The women's movement that I have been directing has a character that is fundamentally different from the women's rights movements that challenge male authority and assert our rights exclusively. The women's rights movements that have developed in western societies until now reflect the antagonism and animosity that have been an integral part of western civilization's culture of struggle. Ours, by contrast, is a movement based on the East Asian principles of harmony that stress mutual accord and complementarity. Our movement's ideal is to seek out tasks that men cannot perform, that is, tasks that can be performed only by women, so that we can join men in complementarity in order to establish true families.

The destruction of families is becoming the most serious problem in our societies, and yet no one is able to propose an effective solution. The very foundation of human existence is being shaken. Thus, in the United States, family values and issues of social morality are becoming major issues in the ongoing presidential election campaign. Such issues are not the concern of America and Western Europe alone, however. They represent a serious crisis for all humankind.

Japan and Korea are also affected by such problems. We are at a stage in which we must seriously concern ourselves with the moral crisis that supersedes our economic development. The only way to resolve this crisis is to teach Godism and head-wing thought, which approach the problem from the perspective of providential history.

We have a particularly urgent need for the moral education of our young people. In this regard, I was surprised to hear that many Japanese people responded positively to the recent series of rallies upholding the spirit of Yu Gwan-sun. Certainly Yu Gwan-sun, who is known as the Joan of Arc of Asia, is a most appropriate role model for instilling patriotism in young people. What surprised and moved me, though, was the progressive and broad-minded attitude of the Japanese people in their search to transcend the historically unpleasant relations between Korea and Japan and open a new avenue of understanding.

World peace through ideal families

I would like to ask the women of Japan, in particular, to take your stand at the forefront of the effort to resolve the serious issues in our world related to the family. You possess the most admirable tradition of women in the world because, through your country's long history, you have protected your families and nation in a spirit of love and sacrifice. Also, I know that you women were the hidden force behind your country's recovery after the total destruction of World War II. You enabled Japan to become one of the strongest economic powers in the world. You need to take the foremost position in our movement, because the virtues of sacrifice and service that you have cherished through your tradition now must be applied on the worldwide level in the form of true love and perpetual giving for all of humankind.

Men have tried for the past twenty centuries to build a world of peace, and now the task has been entrusted to us women. It is the decree of Heaven that we take up the task of building world peace through ideal families. In general, men tend to center on themselves, whereas women tend to be more willing to sacrifice themselves. With the coming of the age of women, we are entering a new history in which, instead of sacrificing the whole for the benefit of each individual, we are to sacrifice ourselves for the benefit of the whole and, in this way, exercise true love.

Let us strengthen our spirits with head-wing thought and become leading figures in building a world of peace. We need to correct deteriorating family morals. We must stand up against drug abuse and the spread of AIDS. We need to give proper guidance to our young people, who are wandering aimlessly along self-destructive paths.

We are in a new age of transition in which women have to take a firm stand and contribute to world peace. I hope all of you will stand proudly at the frontline of peace. Once again, I thank you for your support for this upcoming nationwide speaking tour.

I pray that God's blessing will be upon you and your families.

Thank you.