Cham Bumo Gyeong: Episode 237

Cham Bumo Gyeong
Book 8: North-South Unification and World Peace
Chapter 4: The Era Of The Pacific Rim Civilization And The Korean Peninsula
Section 1: Advent of a New Era, Paragraph 22
Section 2: The International Peace Highway, Paragraph 09

22  Island nations situated in the middle of the Pacific Ocean face the world's most complicated situation. Any powerful nation can land on one of their shores, dock its warship, turn the country into a battleground and completely occupy it. Therefore, these small nations should unite in order to combine their strength. This would require that they adopt common cultural traditions, a common lifestyle, and a common spoken and written language.

23  We have arranged to have each island nation send ten delegates to Japan for a two-week workshop starting July 1, 1996. With the support of its president or prime minister, each country will initiate an educational campaign through its national broadcasting system. Forty countries will participate. These are important countries. The delegates will utilize their national broadcasting systems to educate everyone, including the president and cabinet. This is not a dream. They envy our technological resources and capabilities. To save these people, we are investing the economic strength of developed island nations such as Japan and Britain.

24  I am preparing to empower the Pacific island nations. My specific plan is to provide university-level education in Hawaii with the cooperation of the Japanese and US governments. Based on many solid national relationships, I am making the foundation whereby all peoples can make rapid progress toward freedom and liberation, from the national to the worldwide level. That foothold of True Parents' aspiration is being created.

25  The ocean is an unlimited repository. It is like a rich man. What environment is richer than the ocean? Even the treasury of the United States pales in comparison. Inexhaustible resources are buried in the ocean. God created the ocean as a gift to humankind. Is there anything that cannot be found in the depths of the Pacific Ocean? We have selected the Pacific to be a base for settlement and are urging the island nations to build schools. If we assemble representatives from 60 island nations, they can form a confederation. With the support of Japan or the United States, we can build a system to implement a world federation of island nations. Many of these nations that were colonized in the past are fettered by the concept of slavery, but if we apply the concept of siblings and create something resembling the British Commonwealth, this will be more than enough to connect the five oceans and six continents as a unified world on which the sun never sets.

26  I have taken the path of indemnity. I am treading it because of God. Because I do so, no matter where I go, be it South America or anywhere else, God is compelled to take responsibility. Recently, I have been working to unite island nations centered on Hawaii. This is not a path I chose for my own benefit. It is for the purpose of indemnity. I walk this path while ready to lose my life. I never need to discuss with anyone which path I will take. I am a man who creates his own path.

Section 2. The International Peace Highway

Proposals

True Parents advocated the construction of the International Peace Highway at the 10th International Conference on the Unity of the Sciences (ICUS) held in Seoul in 1981. The International Peace Highway should be constructed as a neutral zone with one kilometer of space on each side of four lanes going in each direction. This will be a zone without borders through which travelers can freely pass. As it is intended to be a highway of peace, the proposal included immigration offices at interchanges to allow visa-free entry and exit, the prohibition of vehicles carrying weapons and limitations on the movement of troops. As part of True Father's presentation on the International Peace Highway, he also proposed a Korea-Japan Undersea Tunnel. He predicted that when the construction of the Korea-Japan Undersea Tunnel is completed, automobiles and high-speed trains could run from Tokyo to London, and that this would expedite world peace. To realize this plan, he founded the International Highway Construction Corporation (IHCC) in Japan in April 1982, which in July 1983 began conducting research on the land and sea areas of Tsushima Island in the Tsushima Strait, Iki Island in Nagasaki Prefecture and the city of Karatsu on the island of Kyushu, Japan. In October 1986, the IHCC began excavation of a pilot tunnel in Chinzei, Saga Prefecture.

1  As this bloody and painful century draws to a close and we usher in the 21st century, we have reached a time when in order to create a truly new culture, every country must stop emphasizing its own national interests, which results in extreme struggle and enmity. Nations must establish a new value system of a worldwide dimension. In addition, when we reflect upon whether it is possible for true peace to be maintained in one's own country alone without a shared interest in the happiness and peace of neighboring countries, we realize that it is impossible to conceive of world peace without love for humanity that transcends nationalism. From this perspective, I think now is the time to formulate a new social and economic theory. The world needs a new international economic structure that prevents the vast economic waste and losses of the past, and to implement a new plan for land improvement on a worldwide scale, so that all people can fulfill their right to pursue peace and happiness. With the advent of an ideal world of everlasting peace, all people can realize a happy and prosperous life. Under the all-encompassing vision that "human beings are siblings of one family," and as a way to substantiate this ideal, I would like to submit this proposal for the construction of the International Peace Highway that connects East and West.

2  The first step is to go through Japan, South Korea and mainland China. The road will then pass through South and Central Asia, the Middle East, Europe and Russia, connecting all the countries of the world in a straight line. A pneumatic tube system in the center of the international highway will transport cargo, and immigration offices at interchanges and airports in large cities will facilitate simple, quick visa-free entry and exit procedures. A one-kilometer neutral buffer zone, an international area on both sides of the highway, should be set up to make space for recreational facilities for the passengers of the cars and tourist buses using the highway. I am proposing this plan in order to create heaven on earth, by binding all people of the world together through a high speed thoroughfare. This draft is part of a concrete plan to hasten the process of realizing the ideal world. Through this, scientists will contribute to the realization of happiness and peace for humankind. The significance and purpose of this project is to build a new world of higher culture, by tying the entire world into a "one-day world," meaning we can travel anywhere in the world and come back home on the same day.

3  Looking at the situation in Asia from a global perspective, China is an issue. How can I involve China? In Asia, Korea's survival is an important matter. That is why I proclaimed the construction of an International Peace Highway at the 10th ICUS back in 1981. I also prepared the Korea-Japan Undersea Tunnel excavation project. It will take only one more year to complete the design. From then we can start building a highway linking North Korea and China. If Japan takes the lead, we can open this new way to connect Asia.

4  I proposed the construction of the International Peace Highway in 1981. It is a well-known fact in the academic world, because I declared it to planners, educators, and administrative officials of many countries decades ago. I was the first to propose building a global highway, starting with the Korea-Japan Undersea Tunnel. I can say that I exerted an influence on the Channel Tunnel in the Strait of Dover, too. I also bought land near the exit of that tunnel. The piece of land I purchased has become part of the site where the Dover Strait undersea tunnel was dug. Digging in Japan has been suspended now, but I had been supporting continuous excavation work for ten years. That is why neither the Japanese nor the South Korean governments can ignore it. God's Will is to achieve one world and one cultural sphere. If a world under God's sovereignty is to be established, the construction of an international highway is inevitable. That day will surely come. National barriers must be abolished for the sake of world peace. If every country cooperates, peace will lead to equilibrium. We can move the world by upholding the vertical ideal.

5  The Japanese are good at digging tunnels. They connected the four islands of Japan and dug the Channel Tunnel under the Dover Strait. Now Koreans have become the fastest excavators. I did not know that Koreans were so good at tunnel construction. No country in the world works as hard as Korea. Korean people are engaged in construction projects such as bridge building, tunneling, and erecting buildings in the Middle East. Korea does not lag behind Japan in terms of technology either.

6  When the Korea-Japan Undersea Tunnel is completed, goods imported from the East or the West can be shipped to Japan overland via Korea. The highway will stretch to northern Russia, southern China, into the heart of China and pass through the Middle East before reaching London. All big shipments go through Korea. Expanding the market for trade and linking Japan to the United States and Europe will strengthen the global economy, focusing on the six nations that fought in World War II, namely the United Kingdom, the United States, France, Japan, Germany and Italy. The Korean Peninsula will be the commercial center through which people and cargo from the world's developed nations come and go. In addition, if we build convenience areas along the traffic routes, Korea will become a global transport hub.

7  We have to build railroad bridges connecting the United States to Russia by way of Canada and Anchorage, Alaska, so that goods can be transported by train rather than by water across the Pacific Ocean. We will be able to go anywhere by train if the continents are linked by rail bridges. If you think about this, an undersea tunnel between Korea and Japan would not be a problem. Digging a tunnel of that length is quite simple in the modern age, so an undersea tunnel can be bored in the near future. With high tech equipment this is not a difficult task.

8  It was my idea to build the International Peace Highway from Beijing through Myanmar, traversing Shinuiju, North Korea and Dandong, China. I directed that the proposal be sent to the presidents of nations throughout the world. By one means or another, I need to pull China in. That was what I announced at the time. Almost three million Koreans live in Manchuria. The Korean residents of Japan, the United States and Germany whom I have assembled have agreed to undertake the task. They are capable of making use of the most modern technology. Utilizing the state-of-the-art technology of Germany, I intend to support China.

9  South Korea's geopolitical location is exceptional. No country can establish a line of defense for Asia that excludes the Korean Peninsula. The island nations are already within the defensive circle. It will be a big issue if there is not a connection between Japan and the mainland. Maritime transportation is complicated. Because the closest connecting point for Japan with the mainland is the Korean Peninsula, a connecting bridge or tunnel is needed in order to rectify all the problems related to the export of goods from China, Russia and Asia to Japan. The Korean Peninsula links the Pacific Ocean and the continent. It has sufficient means to distribute Asian goods to nearby countries. Because it is less convenient for China or Russia to transport raw materials by sea, they will want to ship them to Japan overland through the Korean Peninsula. Since Japan lives on imports and exports, it is convenient to move commodities to the continent through the Korean Peninsula. All that is necessary to connect to the continent is a tunnel between the Korean Peninsula and Japan, and it will also connect everything to Russia.