Authors
Background
True Parents proclaimed that the era of the Pacific Rim civilization would arrive, focusing on the Korean Peninsula. They foresaw that a world of peace could take root using Eastern and Western civilizations bearing fruit on the Korean Peninsula.
Accordingly, they said that countries located on the Pacific Rim have to fulfill their pioneering missions to conclude and complete the providence of restoration.
1. If we look at history, we see that Egypt, one of the first human civilizations, was a river civilization that grew from the fertile surroundings of the Nile. How did it develop? The Egyptians would wonder, “What is over there, across the river?” They always desired to investigate what was on the other side of the river.
This was the psychological impetus that allowed the Egyptian civilization to flourish.
After the age of river civilization had passed, the Mediterranean civilization was established. Human society developed because of the earnest, heartfelt desire to explore the other shore. That deep desire to investigate the other shore gave rise to the evolution of civilization. (005-043, 1958/12/14)
2. Civilization progressed from the river-stage civilization through the Mediterranean civilization, then the Atlantic civilization, to the current Pacific civilization, and onward to the budding of the era in which civilization expanded into space.
The era of the Atlantic civilization was characterized by Caucasians securing their foothold centering on islands, while the Mediterranean civilization had been based on governance from the city of Rome.
India, Egypt, and Mesopotamia were the bases of ancient civilizations. Ancient civilizations were all river-based civilizations, centering on the Indus River, the Nile River, the Yellow River, and so forth. Now is the era of the Pacific civilization, after which we will enter upon the civilization of space. (207-046, 1990/10/28)
3. Originally, Christianity was a religion of the East, but because after the passing of Jesus, it developed with the West as the center, people began to think of Christianity as Western. It is now returning to the East. It migrated from Roe to England and the Americas, and now it has circled to the Far East.
As for restoration through indemnity, it is the Principle that you re-create the historical environment and indemnify it. You might think, “If we pay the indemnity amid the history of restoration, then the Lord will return to the people of Israel, right?”
But this is not possible. What is needed is an Asian country that can connect to the United States and Western civilization. It must be a homogeneous country with a long history of its own.
Christianity must go through an island nation in reverse fashion to return full circle. As a nation of islands, Great Britain is comparable to Japan; likewise, the peninsula of Italy is comparable to Korea.
Thus, Korea is the focal point where the civilizations of East and West connect, like the meeting of body and spirit. Peninsulas have the advantage of connecting with both land and sea.
They naturally are the centers of cultural exchange. Greece and Italy are peninsulas. Spain and Portugal constitute the Iberian Peninsula. The movement of culture passes through peninsulas. (091-253, 1977/02/23)
4. Since Jesus' body was lost, the foundation of his original stage disappeared, and the foundation for Asia was lost. Because of this, instead of moving to Asia, God's work moved in the opposite direction and was pulled to Rome. It went from Asia to the West and then continued going around until it came back to Asia.
As a path of indemnity, blood was shed and sacrifices were made along the way. In that manner, with Rome at the center, Jesus' influence passed through Britain, then across the United States, and finally manifested in the Pacific civilization. This is because Jesus' body was lost in Asia on the world level.
This is where the body and spirit were broken apart. Therefore, civilization became materialistic and went around backward to the West until it connected finally to Asia. (249-132, 1993/10/08)
5. Regularly, the Kuroshio Current, or Black Tide, moves water 4,000 miles through the Pacific Ocean. This is the Pacific's main, massive current. Heavenly fortune is fashioned in the same way.
Just like the Kuroshio Current moving the waters of the Pacific Ocean, there is an ideological main current leading human beings to the ideal world.
The current centered on the United States in the democratic world cannot become the Kuroshio Current. Nor can the current centered on the Soviet Union in the communist world become the Black Tide.
Why not? It is because these currents are based on ideologies created by human beings. Then what can become this Kuroshio Current? Is it a new religion that transcends all the world's ideologies?
Would it be a movement that binds together all the ideologies, as the Kuroshio Current does with the oceans? Should the answer not be a new philosophical movement, a new philosophical system, or a new expression of truth centered on God?
Would this new expression of truth not create a new historic beginning point? It must usher all humanity into an ocean of happiness, the ideal world. No law waves passing through the Indian Ocean off the coast of Africa cannot make it to the Pacific Ocean.
All waters mix. The oceans are one. (228-043, 1992/03/03)
6. Many civilizations began on peninsulas, where the land, shaped like a phallus, extends into the water.
Based on the principle of harmony, peninsulas are ideal to serve as the origin of life. Because peninsulas are placed in the center, they complete a process of mathematical progression, and cultures have developed centering on them. The Balkan Peninsula and the Iberian Peninsula each had such ideal conditions.
The Mediterranean Sea is like a woman's body about the Italian Peninsula; together they are like a man and woman becoming one through love. Italian civilization led history at one time because it was geographically located where these yin and yang elements were balanced.
Korea is the only country on the Pacific Ocean that has this geographical characteristic of Italy. Japan is protecting Korea geographically.
Korea, which is equivalent to the Italian Peninsula, is the only place in Asia where we can build a civilization of global harmony, where the wave of love can move the oceans and continents and everything under heaven. The parallel is striking.
(179-122, 1988/08/01)
7. The Mediterranean Sea is like a woman's womb. Located in the deepest place within this woman's womb is the nation of Israel, where the Lord was born. Problems arose there where the original life emerged.
Then, a peninsular civilization, Italy, subdued a worldwide territory. After passing through the Mediterranean Sea, the Atlantic Ocean, and the Pacific Ocean, the center of civilization must be achieved with a peninsular civilization at the center.
Originally, unification should have been realized with Italy at the center. Why couldn't Italy achieve lasting unification? After erecting the Holy See as the center of Christian civilization, Rome did not understand that the Holy Roman Empire's power to rule the world was not for its glory.
If Italy had embraced the world with love, even at the sacrifice of itself, it would have been able to rule the whole world during the Middle Ages. The whole world could have been united at that time. When they could not accomplish this, that mission moved to the United Kingdom. So the center of the providence shifted from a peninsular nation to an island nation.
Centering on the Iberian Peninsula, the movement to take possession of the ocean regions arose at the beginning of the 16th century. The Spanish competed with England to develop ocean routes. England's Anglican Church took the baton of Christian thought and opposed the Vatican. All these historical facts fit logically.
Puritanism was like a son of England, but England expelled this son. This banished Protestantism represented Abel. Puritanism, in the position of the second son, came to a new continent, which was capable of inheriting the Protestant cultural sphere, and established the United States, an independent nation based on Protestantism. (191-107, 1989/06/24)
The Pacific civilization
From the Mediterranean civilizations centered on Greece and Italy, civilization advanced, traversing the North Atlantic from Great Britain to the United States.
Now, it is coming to fruition in a civilization of the Pacific realm, the countries of which are home to more than half the world's population.
The Korean Peninsula, in the context of the Pacific Rim civilization, stands in the same position as the Italian Peninsula in Jesus' time. Thus, continental and oceanic civilizations, Eastern and Western civilizations, and spiritual and material civilizations should converge there to achieve a grand unity and harmony.
There are more than 60 countries on the shores of the Pacific. Just as the sea conceives and nurtures life, these countries need to fulfill the mother's role and contribute to world peace.
For, this reason, True Parents paid close attention to the founding of the Federation of Island Nations for World Peace, which they carried out on June 16, 1996, in Tokyo.
8. The current world situation points to the fact that humanity is approaching the Pacific era. Just as the cultural spheres surrounding rivers shifted to the Mediterranean cultural sphere, the Atlantic cultural sphere is shifting to the Pacific cultural sphere.
The Soviet Union and the United States should lead the transition from the Atlantic cultural sphere to the Pacific cultural sphere. To lead, they need to embrace the people of Asia. Asia's population exceeds three-fifths of the world's population. If an ideology cannot assimilate Asian culture, it will not be able to lead the world. (173-219, 1988/02/18)
9. Eastern and Western civilizations are wrestling for dominance over the Pacific cultural sphere, and Eastern civilization is winning out. The civilization of the East contains religions of love based on the truth of love.
This is why God sent True Parents there. They initiated a movement rooted in God's true love. This movement will create a new heavenly world that embraces all people and that will allow heaven to embrace all people. (163-059, 1987/04/01)
10. Western people advanced material civilization. The West expanded its territory through knowledge, while people in the East placed less emphasis on material development. Unification entails the harmony of spiritual and physical orientations.
A materially developed civilization is coming to Asia. Western and Asian civilizations will combine in the Pacific realm and usher humankind into an era of true civilization, a new world. Such is the era of the Pacific civilization.
(212-139, 1991/01/02)
11. Asian civilization is a masculine civilization and Western civilization is a feminine one. Asia is the birthplace of religions. Therefore, Western civilization is coming to Asia. Why is Western civilization the object-partner civilization and Asian civilization the subject-partner civilization?
It is because the mainstream religions originated in Asia. Adam, whom God created first, is the subject partner, and Eve, who was created later as Adam's helper, is the object partner. Therefore, Asian civilization is focused on the realm of Adam and is the primary, representative civilization. The Messiah, Jesus, came to Asia.
Therefore, through Christian civilization, we must unite the territory of Asia, which represents Jesus' new body, for the sake of recovering Jesus' lost body, and connecting it with the realm of spiritual victory. For this reason, the era of the Pacific civilization will come. (229-299, 1992/04/13)
12. Based on God's providence, civilization has progressed gradually on a path around the world, crossing over from the American continent to create the era of the Pacific civilization.
In other words, it began with the Mediterranean civilization, continued through Britain to the Atlantic civilization, then moved through America to the Pacific civilization, and arrived at Japan, which is in the same position as Britain once was.
It is not because the Japanese are smarter that they have been able to modernize their country and engage in development over the last 120 years. Japan has developed as much as it has because God's providence needs to blossom in Asia.
Because God needed to develop an island nation in the same position as Britain, Japan inherited Western advances and played a central role.
This is why Japanese culture is like British culture. In both countries, for example, people drive on the left side of the road. Japan has taken on many aspects of British civilization. Japan established a basis for absorbing all the modern aspects of civilization that started in Europe and eventually came to the United States.
It was God's Will that Japan act as the agent to connect Asia to the civilization represented primarily by the United States. God caused civilization to develop to realize the ideal world.
Therefore, European civilization and Asian civilization must join hands. (078-311, 1975/06/10)
13. What path will God tread when humankind confronts its miserable destiny, falling into hell amid confusion, despair, and distress? It will be a path of unification. That unification can be achieved through the formation of a cultural sphere on God's side.
When we look from this perspective, we understand that a united European realm and a united North and South American realm will arise within Christian civilization.
We must harmonize Europe and the Americas now after assimilating Christian civilization using the truth. The Christian cultural sphere of the West is the only thing that can unite all of these, and it is crossing over to East Asia.
So if God has been trying to harmonize everything in this world based on the Christian thought system, where in East Asia would this likely occur? The Japanese worship many gods.
China and Russia were taken by communism. The only country where this could happen is Korea, a land that has embraced Christianity. In other words, as we are at the doorstep of the era of the Pacific civilization, the only Asian nation possessing a Christian cultural background and ready to accept the Christian thought system is Korea.
It cannot be Japan, China, or Russia. Only Korea qualifies. (222-036, 1991/10/27)
14. Taken together, the continents of Asia and Africa are like one person. Likewise, North and South America together are like one person. The Asian continent is in the subject partner position. From here, the continents broke apart.
North America and South America broke away from Asia. They must be united. The link between Japan and the United States is through the Pacific Ocean that lies between them, with Hawaii in the center.
I asked True Mother to win over the United States. On the day Japan and the United States become one, centering on the Pacific Ocean through True Mother, America, which has slipped over into the West, will once again become one with Asia.
Jesus lost his body in Asia, and the oneness of True Mother and True Father will bring Western civilization into oneness with Asia through the era of the Pacific civilization.
The body that was lost will be reconstituted. Once the age of mother-son cooperation passes, the era of the Pacific Rim will come, based on the model of the era of father-son cooperation. (356-013, 2001/10/07)
15. As we welcome an age in which Eastern and Western civilizations can exchange elements, we must create a cultural sphere in Asia that can embrace Western civilization and ensure healthy exchange between Western and Eastern civilizations.
Between Eastern and Western civilizations, one of them is male and the other female. We can also say that one is a spiritual culture and the other a material culture.
The people from both cultures must harmonize the rhythms of their daily lives internally and externally because a global, new, united cultural realm is coming.
Western civilization, representing material progress, and Asian civilization, representing spirituality, must come together. I will be the one to provide the foundation for them to unite.
The Unification Church in all of its activities and businesses has constantly striven to realize this overarching purpose of creating a world civilization.
(035-145, 1970/10/11)
16. Korea is the only place where the Asian religious and cultural spheres have integrated. If Jesus had not died on the cross, the Indian, and Chinese cultures would have been united, with Israel as the center.
Today, however, Buddhism, representing Indian civilization, is connected to Korea. Furthermore, Confucianism, representing Chinese culture, landed there. Christianity, representing Western civilization, went to Rome, where it flourished under Roman imperial power and then grew into a worldwide religion, and reached Korea. Thus, Korea was able to receive God's blessings even beyond what the Israelites had received.
Buddhism from India, Confucianism from China, and Christianity all took root in Korea. The cultural unity that should have been established during Jesus' time has come about in Korea.
A united Western society centered on the Vatican ultimately fell short. The Vatican was unable to create unity within the Western world and between the West and Asia.
Therefore, the Unification Church, an institution with a mission parallel to that of the Vatican, must create a united cultural sphere that connects the West and Asia. A new worldwide cultural sphere must appear on the Korean Peninsula. (168-068, 1987/09/01)
17. Because of the Fall of Adam and Eve, humanity has gone through several hundred million years of indemnity, historic effort, and long-suffering. Humankind has paid flesh and blood indemnity.
Today, I am revealing a detailed theoretical interpretation of history. I have sewn what was torn, patched what was threadbare, and recreated the original form before the Fall. With God as the center, we must restore Adam, Eve, and the archangel.
This will all come to fruition in Korea. Through Korea and Japan, we need to restore through indemnity what went wrong in Italy and Britain, a peninsular nation and an island nation, respectively. The Vatican ruled the world from Italy, a peninsular civilization.
To indemnify this, we start focusing on the United States. Since Jesus died in Asia, we need to find his body in Asia, and together with the liberation of the nations we must trumpet throughout Asia the good tidings of the kingdom of heaven on earth.
When we try to do this, it is the realm of religion that poses a problem. The majority of religions are from Asia. The cultural spheres of Islam, Buddhism, Confucianism, and Christianity are all there.
Most religions have their origin in Asia. This is why the Returning Lord must hasten the unification of religions for the sake of uniting Asia.
(207-270, 1990/11/11)
18. The leader of the Pacific civilization is neither the United States nor Japan. If we realize the Pacific civilization by winning the United Nations, then the physical world and spiritual world, which were divided due to Jesus' untimely death, finally will become one, with God at the center.
This is why Japan and the United States must become one centering on Korea, which has taken the place of Rome. That is, the island nation and the continental nation must become one, with the peninsular nation at the center.
The island nation and the continental nation will be found and matched in the East. Then Korea, Japan, and America can become a trinity returning to the Pacific or Asian region, where Jesus' body was lost.
In this way, the unification of the spiritual world and the physical world, which were divided and are at war with each other, will form a standard for the unification of the world.
Therefore, the ocean sphere will be restored, the land will be restored, the ideal of creation will be restored, and the Fourth Adam will appear.
To build a foundation for this, North and South America must become one centering on Hawaii, and also Asia and Africa must become one. These pairs represent two sets of twins.
On the foundation of having formed twins, everything that has been divided into East and West and heaven and earth will come together, focused on the ocean. As Adam and Eve were born from the womb, which is like the ocean, they must emerge from a new ocean, with Hawaii as the center. (414-183, 2003/07/31)
19. Since we already proclaimed the era of the Pacific Rim civilization, what we must do now is proclaim the era of the kingship of the peaceful cosmic Rim civilization. That is, we need to proclaim the era of the kingdom of the peaceful cosmic rim civilization, as well as Cheon Il Guk.
An orbital path that connects to the vast universe will appear. Therefore, we proclaim the era of the empire of the peaceful Cheon Il Guk rim civilization. Many countries have been admitted to the United Nations, but they are now to become one nation. It is the era when our country will be called the peaceful Cheon Il Guk rim civilization. We must claim our country.
From now on, we are living in the era of the kingdom of the peaceful cosmic rim civilization. Cheon Il Guk means that two people become one. East and West will become one; North and South will become one.
This is the era where our country, the peaceful Cheon Il Guk civilization, will reign. Through this, God will be liberated, heaven and earth will be liberated, the entire cosmos will be liberated, and the era of the kingdom of peace will become a reality.
In True Parents' names, we now proclaim the era of the kingdom of the cosmic peaceful civilization and the era of my country, the peaceful Cheon Il Guk civilization.
We need to embrace heaven and earth and the oceans of the world in our hearts and then dedicate all of them to heaven. We resolve to exist as one, offering our country, our world, and our heaven and earth. (558-268, 2007/03/19)
20. The proclamation I made in Hawaii was that of the era of the kingdom of the peaceful cosmic rim civilization, and the title of that speech was “The Historical Perspective on the Pacific Rim Era as Seen from God's Will.”
The subtitle was “The Direction for the United Nations and the Free World Centering on the United States.” Because the Pacific Ocean and the continents are not united, I held a rally for the era of the Pacific Rim civilization.
This does not mean I have forsaken the land. On the contrary, now that I have established a providential foundation on the Pacific Ocean, we need to take that seed and plant it in the land. This was accomplished at the large rally we held on April 3, 2007.
The assembly was called “The Proclamation for the Opening of the New Civilization of Cosmic Peace.” Cultures are first formed near oceans. They then develop through a peninsula to arrive on the mainland. This is the process they go through. As a peninsular nation, we must embrace the Pacific Ocean. We must also embrace the mainland. This is our position. (558-300, 2007/03/26)
21. Since we currently dwell in the era of the Pacific cultural sphere, we must help the countries that are located on the Pacific Ocean. To gather these countries together, I held the World Cup Fishing Tournament on Jeju Island. The purpose of this event was to connect these countries.
I wanted to create an organization that the United Nations could administer. I very much hoped the United Nations would create a branch that focuses on the leisure industry and similar concerns. There are many obstacles to this kind of effort.
If we are keen to work with the executive members of the Security Council and the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations as they exist today, we must educate them.
For South Korea to embrace the North, we must educate the North Koreans. We need to let them know about God and the spirit world. We must help them understand with certainty about changing the blood lineage. When they understand this, all problems will be solved.
For this purpose, 52 countries, including the developing nations in the Pacific cultural sphere, have joined the Federation of Island Nations for World Peace. After integrating these countries into a state-like federation, we must connect them to the UN. (337-123, 2000/10/24)
22. Island nations in the middle of the Pacific Ocean face the world's most complicated situation.
Any powerful nation can land on one of its shores, dock its worship, turn the country into a battleground, and completely occupy it. Therefore, these small nations should unite to combine their strength.
This would require that they adopt common cultural traditions, a common lifestyle, and a common spoken and written language. (517-012, 2006/02/09)
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 in the economic strength of developed island nations such as Japan and Britain. (278-324, 1996/06/23)
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. (427-137, 2003/12/04)
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.
(356-146, 2001/10/12)
26. I have taken the path of indemnity. I am reading it because of God. Because I do so, regardless of 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 benefit. It is for 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 path. (383-089, 2002/06/26)
Sun Myung Moon