Cham Bumo Gyeong: Episode 175

Cham Bumo Gyeong
Book 7: True Parents’ Course of Suffering and Victory
Chapter 1: Suffering and Victory during the Japanese Occupation and in Communist North Korea
Section 1: The Movement for Korean Independence, Imprisonment for underground activities
Section 1: The Movement for Korean Independence, Paragraph 11

CHAPTER 1. SUFFERING AND VICTORY DURING THE JAPANESE OCCUPATION AND IN COMMUNIST NORTH KOREA

Section 1. The Movement for Korean Independence

Imprisonment for underground activities

From April 1941 until September 1943, True Father studied in Japan. During this period, he involved himself in the underground independence movement. He had the conviction that a person who does not love his country cannot love heaven. True Father returned to Korea in mid- October 1943. The following year, True Fathers independence movement activity in Japan was exposed, and in October 1944, he was arrested and confined at the Gyeonggi Province Police Station. There he underwent two months of interrogation and torture.

1  I was involved in underground activities during the Japanese occupation. During that time, I determined what path I would take. While studying in Japan I met wealthy people, and encountered temptations of all kinds. I was good at many things, so even though people really did not know who I was, they always sought me out. When I was with them, they were so comfortable with me that almost without realizing it, they would share the deepest secrets of their hearts.

2  While studying in Japan, I worked in the underground movement directed by the provisional government in Shanghai. Recently my name was discovered in the records of the Japanese Metropolitan Police Headquarters, and I obtained a copy of those records from Japan. The record at the Metropolitan Police Headquarters states that I was "part of the independence movement, traveling between Korea and two other nations." Now I have the evidence of my involvement that no one can deny.

3  When it was time for me to return to Korea from Japan after finishing my studies, I prayed, "Japan, I will see you again in 21 years." In fact, I did return to Japan 21 years later. While in Japan, I was involved with underground activities, working jointly with communists to carry out operations to liberate Korea. I carried out all kinds of covert activities, and police detectives were always following me. When I left for Korea, they notified the Japanese authorities in Korea that I was on my way to somewhere in Korea. When I arrived at the station, some people came up to me and said, "There you are!" giving me the feeling that I was being watched. There were many such incidents.

4  I was typical of those who carried on underground activities in Japan. I know Japan better than anyone else. Living near the Nijubashi Bridge, whenever I saw the Royal Palace, it made me so angry to think of what the Emperor was doing to my country. I studied all about Japan, beginning in the slums. I researched all aspects of Japanese life. Once I worked as a secretary doing paperwork in the office of a government official. At that time, I saw that the Japanese occupation would not last much longer. I engaged in underground activities as a student, but I never spoke about it, so no one knew about them. I traveled on the Bukwan Ferry from Busan to Shimonoseki to manage secret negotiations for independence. I also traveled on the Hikari line between Busan in southern Korea, Sinuiju in northern Korea and Dandong in China to connect various people behind the underground movement and serve as a liaison between their operatives.

5  I experienced prison life during the period when the Korean people were suffering under 40 years of Japanese rule. I was incarcerated. I went to prison for the sake of liberating the Korean people. The Japanese tempted me with all kinds of sweet words, saying, "If you cooperate with us, we will make you successful," or "You will be well taken care off but I chose the path of suffering. God was so displeased with Japan that He would not let me take any interest in that country. God drove me into prison as a strategy to sever me from any kind of relationship with Japan. When I look back now, that's how I see it. All those who supported the Japanese regime, from the top to the bottom, opposed me and pushed others to oppose me. Thus, God wanted me to take a path of suffering.

6  Our Unification family began in order to pioneer the path to become those who can take responsibility on behalf of God and be recognized by Satan, by making a connection to God's heart. This path is something that no one knows; behind it are tragedies too numerous to count. During the time of Japanese rule, I was in and out of prison. Even while vomiting blood, and even when they pulled out my fingernails and blood drained from my ten fingers, I affirmed in prayer, "It is an honor to offer this blood as a sacrificial offering to represent the blood of ten tribes and the blood of ten nations." More than receiving my own salvation, I thought about how good it would be if my one death could free the whole country from its resentment and liberate it.

7  The universal and supreme hope of humanity is to find their original parents. It is to find the original world, the hometown that the original nature desires. This is the original goal that all people seek to achieve, whether in the past, the present or the future. If a nation cannot obtain it, true happiness will not dwell there. This is heaven's fundamental law, for the sake of which I abandoned everything. For that hope, I gave up all attachments, even to my parents. I was imprisoned during the period of the Japanese occupation, but I was grateful that I could go to prison rather than betray my country. Since I was pursuing the sovereignty of heaven's nation, I would not bend to the sovereignty of the Emperor of Japan. This was unforgivable to the followers of the Emperor and those under his sovereignty. Yet I did not pursue worldly things. I spurned those pro- Japanese people who offered me a successful and comfortable life. Instead, I left my parents and my family behind and took the path to recover my country's independence.

8 When I was a young man in my twenties, my head was filled with dreams. Others thought them to be fantasies, and they ridiculed and mocked me. My mother said, "My goodness! I made such a huge effort to send you to study, and yet you have come to this?" I had the reputation of being very smart, so although I was born as a second son, the Moon clan had great expectations for me. My mother invested all her efforts to support me. She did not have much money; still she scraped together enough money to send me to study abroad. Yet when I came home, I ended up being taken off to prison.

When I thought of my mother shedding tears as she visited me in the prison run by the Japanese authorities, I wished I did not have to do what I was doing for my country. Nonetheless, I had to; it was my destiny. Knowing my situation, my mother could not say anything against me.

I said to her, "As your son, I have done nothing wrong. As a son of the Moon clan, I have done nothing to taint the family name. Even from the standpoint of the traditional perspective of Korea, my conscience is clean. While I am here in prison, I do not want you to be the kind of mother who sheds tears over my hardships. I need you to be the kind of mother who will encourage and strengthen me. I need you to be the kind of mother who will advise and encourage me to be bold and courageous for the sake of the future as I pioneer the road that can lead Asia and liberate the Korean people. That is how I want to see you. I would rather not see you just weeping for me. After all, I consider myself to be God's Son."

9 By the work of my own hands, I bought houses and clothes for numerous people, but I did not buy even one handkerchief for my parents. Indeed, I was not a filial son, but it was not for selfish reasons. During the time of Japanese rule, after I came back from Japan and was taken to prison, my mother visited me and shed tears. Like a thunderbolt from a clear sky, I shouted, "Your son is not a small-minded man from the Moon clan. What I see through my eyes is more than just you, my mother, weeping for me; it is the sorrow of God and the sorrow of the world. That is why I am here. I am taking this road for the sake of resolving that sorrow."

The path of loving your enemy

The Gyeonggi Province Police Department of the Japanese regime, which had jurisdiction over four police stations in Seoul and Gyeonggi Province, had a notorious reputation. During the time of Father's imprisonment, he was subjected to cruel tortures of various kinds and was beaten to the point where he vomited blood. The detectives demanded that he confess the names of his comrades in the underground independence movement, but ultimately he did not disclose them. Despite the agony racking his body, he kept his commitment and maintained his loyalty to his comrades.

Even on the verge of death, he did not pray seeking sympathy from God. Even while he was beaten severely, he forgave his torturers and prayed for them to be blessed. His life in prison at the Gyeonggi Province Police Station until his release in February 1945 was a period of internal preparation, during which True Father communicated with God about future public activities.

10  I was often brought into the police station in shackles for questioning. I was well known at the police station. On the day when I finally entered prison, word went around, "That Moon fellow is here again." The next day, some Japanese came to greet me, not to show respect but just to see whether the rumor that I had been imprisoned was true. Even when I was a student, it was common for me to go in and out of the police station. 

I am a person who possesses a great deal of courage on the torture rack. This was my ongoing history. I was tortured severely by the Japanese police. If you seize young people and tell them that you will torture them with a scorching hot iron, they will say they did something even if they didn't.

11 Among the tortures I received from the Japanese imperial police was men wearing combat boots kicking me in the stomach. Then, two men on the left and right grabbed my wrists while two other men trampled me. When that was finished, what do you think happened to the skin on my stomach? How painful do you think it was to go to the toilet, to sit down and then stand up? However, I was not discouraged. While they were kicking me I said, "Hey! This is great!" No one in the world talks like that, but I was enduring the pain for the sake of God. Even after that treatment, when I was released I was very courteous to my torturers and spoke to them kindly as I was leaving.

After five or six hours of continuous torture, when I was about to faint and topple backward, I felt compassion for them. That was my attitude at that time. I sometimes think, "I wonder where that person who tortured me is now?" Someone who pursues only physical pleasures will never be able to understand my attitude, no matter how much I explain it.