In this installment, Father describes the accusations he received and his resultant incarceration in Seodaemun Prison in Seoul in 1955.
In 1955, through the incident at Ewha University and other incidents as well, all of Korea rose furious to get rid of me.
One day, the Dong-Ah Ilbo was supporting me, and the next it was opposing me. Thus, the five main government ministers drew up a plan to catch and destroy Rev. Moon. They planned this with the Rhee regime, but no matter how deep they delved, I had done nothing wrong.
Though they were looking for all kinds of heinous crimes to charge me with, do you think they could find anything I was guilty of?
The university authorities had accused me of being a patriot and that I practiced sexual immorality, but the prosecutors could not find any evidence to support those charges. Therefore, they arrested me on the charge that I evaded military service.
Did I evade military service?
I had short hair during the Korean War, so they thought I belonged to the North Korean People’s Army. I had come down from North Korea and had served time in prison, meanwhile, so I was past the age of eligibility for conscription.
Yet, they were accusing me of evading military service. Then they found that, even in that, I had kept within the law.
Even though I was willing to join the South Korean army, I was classified as “third class,” which exempted me from military service. Hence, I was unable to join the army.
Overall, no matter how much the prosecutors tried to make a case against me, they could not find me guilty of the charges. That is why I was acquitted after three months.
However, most people did not learn that I was declared innocent. Christian ministers did not inform their members that the court had acquitted me. The newspaper reports about it were very brief.
Our church leaders suggested, “Let’s make a statement about the Seodaemun incident and the groundless allegations against the Unification Church.”
Yet to me, the allegations were not the issue, and my imprisonment was not the issue. The issue to me was that the Republic of Korea had betrayed me. It would do no good to regard Korea as my enemy and fight back.
Rather, to restore Korea, we would have to move on to the world level and then return to Korea. This was the path of restoration through indemnity that lay before us.
Interrogation
What is my responsibility? When I am chased and cornered and imprisoned, what is it that I must do then? I need to accept blows on behalf of all humanity; I must draw together and annihilate all the suffering in the world.
I even regard hardships as a matter of course, thinking, “Can I expect to avoid such hardships when I am pioneering the path of suffering, for the sake of the world?”
I have endured all kinds of things, but I say to myself, “My direction is as unchangeable as rock. Until I can realize the longed-for nation, I have to fight and survive, not die, even if I have to experience continual sacrifice.”
In serving and following God, I have never once thought about myself. I have always thought I should feel sympathy for Him. I felt like that even when I was dragged to the Seodaemun Police Station and found myself a prisoner behind bars.
From the first step I took in following the path of the providence, I comforted God, saying, “I am still alive, and for this, I’m grateful.”
I have traveled along such a path to establish the historic standard of indemnity that characterizes the original ideology of the Unification Church of today. This is something no one can invade, no matter how much they try.
When I was in Seodaemun Prison, I did not wish for Korea to perish. I did not wish for the Christian churches to perish. Instead, in my heart, I thought, “Please forgive them their sin of ignorance.
Please allow me to shoulder all the sins committed by Korea, this poor nation, that I may indemnify them. How good it would be if the nation could receive blessings just by my being mistreated.”
I would say in my heart, “Heavenly Father, please love these beloved people more than I love them. Heavenly Father, please love this world more than I love it. You need not pity me. Even if I am to die, I will not die an insignificant person.”
Though it was this insignificant man who was responsible for leading all the people in the world, I asked God not to see their faults as faults but instead to spur me on and allow me to pay indemnity for and complement all of them if that were possible. Thus, have I fought my way through.
That was what pleased God, and that served as the condition to bring fire to His empty heart, and so I was given the guarantee, “You, Moon, you will never perish wherever you go, even if you are somewhere where you should perish.”
Even when I was being interrogated in a police station, when the people filing the complaint began to speak with me, I would eventually swallow them up. I would point out to them, “You are writing the statement, so why aren’t you writing the proper content?
This is where you should write such and such.” But what I asked them to write would completely contradict what was already in the statement. They would write it down and then tear up the whole thing.
Entering Seodaemun Prison
I was manacled when I was taken to Seodaemun Prison, but I was not ashamed. In front of heaven and earth, I felt no shame. I had dignity. Even though I was going to be constrained behind bars, I was not even a little sad. I felt ashamed in front of neither God nor man.
I had done nothing wrong. I was pouring my whole life into teaching young people who would otherwise have ended up as criminals or prostitutes. I was teaching them to become innocent people, devoted children, patriots, and the young people the nation needs.
Though I was without sin, I was put in chains and sent to prison. I am not ashamed of that. Everyone, including my friends, scorned me and pointed their fingers at me, saying, “Look at that, look at that!”
However, my response was, “Let’s wait; wait ten years and see.” During my journey, along this miserable path, I said to those who shot arrows of accusation at me, “You’ll see; I will be victorious.”
You should be aware that those lessons I learned from these difficult experiences remain with ashamed of me today.
Bad things go to ruin, and good things thrive. No matter how dirty a place I had to enter, there was no way I could be brought to ruin when the truth of the situation attested to the pure deeds I was carrying out under Heaven.
When I was manacled and on my way to prison, I was belittled and scolded by people on the street, even the women. But I told them, “You may walk with a dignified air, and I may look like a miserable person, but you cannot see clearly because you have no standard of comparison. When the standard is revealed, everything will be made clear.”
Disciples who suffered together
Kim Won-pil, Eu Hyo-won, Eu Hyo-yeong, and Eu Hyo-min were in prison and faced trial together.
Despite all my strenuous labor, I don’t have any possessions, even now. Hardships are all that’s left for me, privations for my own sake and privations for the sake of God’s will. Everything can be stolen, but nobody can take away the sympathy God had for me in His heart. That’s my treasure.
When I look at you, you may be good-looking and bright, but the primary condition is how hard you have worked for God’s will. I know clearly what I have gone through, so until I die, I won’t forget people who shed tears with me along the way, who sympathized with me, and who sincerely did their best to fulfill God’s will and to dissolve His sorrow.
Now, when I think about those older church members who suffered with me, who went to prison with me. They did not have any particular achievements, but looking back at those times from the viewpoint of the heart, they reached the summit.
They were on the front line, so with one word of consolation, they brought a millennium of solace. When we were in the jaws of death, one helpful word was like an original stream of strength, newly bubbling up like a fountain. That’s why I think I should first help the people who were with me at that time.
Trial and Imprisonment in South Korea
Public Trial – July 29, 1955
None of you should forget that I went to prison as a result of opposition from the Christian churches and the nation. You should remember the scene of me appearing before the judge, manacled and in prison garb. I will never forget the ridicule and mockery I endured when I emerged from the courtroom on my way to jail.
As the persecution from this land of 30 million people became stronger, I suffered very much. Since I knew I was loved and would never be abandoned by God, my face when I was taken to prison wasn’t sad.
Any opposition or persecution I encountered on the way did not weaken me. Instead, I became stronger. Opposition and persecution are sources of encouragement for me.
My indignation stimulated and motivated me. Nothing can frustrate me. I think of my experiences joyfully. I can reap good fortune from them. From such things, we can understand God’s heart better. We can better understand that God is always with us.
Derision from a woman from Pyongyang
In 1955, while in Seodaemun Prison, I was visited by someone who had been my follower a long time before that. She said, “Mr. Moon, are you still doing this?”
That was a harsh blow. At one time, she called me Teacher and followed me, but later she left me, saying, “If you’re God’s beloved son, why would you have to go to prison?” This woman went to another church and became an active opponent of our church. She came to me and said, “Mr. Moon, are you still out of your senses?”
I only told her, “I wouldn’t be doing this if I were the kind of man who needed advice from someone like you.”
When I was in Pyongyang in the early days, she was zealous, fervently making all kinds of spiritual conditions. I bumped against her in a corridor as I was walking out of the prosecutor’s room wearing handcuffs. She had come after hearing the rumors. She said, “Are you still doing this?”
There were rumors that I was going to court from Seodaemun Prison in handcuffs, so she went there as a spectator. Later, she gave a testimony about this in a church. There are people like that. They laughed at the Unification Church and said, “He should come to ruin; now he is sitting there.”
I am a man with a strong backbone. I always think, “Before I die, I’m going to see your children come to me in tears of repentance. When you sleep, I’ll be running. I’ll work several times harder than you.”
When I carry that heavier cross, I think instead that I am carrying a shield of victory. Even though I am tired, I yell at my legs, “Stand up!” I must go forward, and for that, I am ready to hit, push, and pull myself.
So, I told her, “I am not the kind of man who will just fade away in prison. I will leap forward to the world of liberation.” I can’t forget the impudent look on her face. I recently heard that she died in an unhappy situation, and I felt sorry for her. That’s how I live. There are many painful feelings deep in my heart.
Whenever difficulties came to my wa,y I thought, “I must resolve this before I die.” If I were to discuss such events in my history, so many of them make me feel like choking. But I would rather not leave such a tradition for my children to continue. That’s why I take a deep breath, shoulder everything myself, and go forward.
Life in Seodaemun Prison (July 13–Oct 4, 1955)
When I was sent to Seodaemun Prison, as soon as I set foot inside, the warden glared fiercely at me and said mockingly, “So, the founder of the Unification Church, Moon so-and-so, has come.”
At the time, I thought to myself, “Let’s see whether I can win you over or not.”
The warden was a Christian, and he said to me outright, “Aren’t you that man Moon? I’ll keep you here for a month.” I jokingly asked this rude man, “Who do you think you are? You’ve stolen money.” He was taken aback, perhaps because his conscience was pricked. I told him, “So you be quiet.” He was such an ill-mannered person; it was as if he’d hammered a nail into my heart.
The confinement director took the new prisoners to register. I could never forget that director. I have forgotten his name, but at that time, he laughed at me and repeated things being said about our church and added, “It has finally come to such an end.” I was deeply angered by that and told him to be quiet, to stop talking. I thought to myself that by the time I left, I would win over not only the investigators and the guards but even the warden himself.
One day, I will get to meet him again. Just as in olden times when Jesus was jeered at by his jailers after he’d been caught by the Roman soldiers and was about to be brought in front of Pilate’s court, I also had to suffer in that way. In that situation, I resolved that regardless of what they did to me, I would win the warden over before I left.
One day, I got a chance to return his reprimand. Some things had been sent to me from outside, but I felt as if they’d been tampered with,h, so I yelled at him. He must have thought I wouldn’t have realized it, but I had.
I cornered him and asked, “Why did you touch that package? Where did you put your hands? What did you touch?” Since then, whenever he encountered me, he was completely cowed.
Influence on the prisoners
When prisoners woke up early in the morning to go to the restroom, I was already up praying. Could anyone have stopped me from doing that, even by hitting me?
I took aside the person who was causing the most trouble of all the prisoners, the person everyone else wished dead, and gently admonished him in a few words.
People then said that he used to be a troublemaker, but that he entirely changed after Moon came in. When three or four months had passed like that, even though he didn’t say it, a rumor spread that everyone in the cell obeyed to the letter whatever Mr. Moon said.
That hadn’t come about through anything I’d said. They’d changed because, with a heart that not even the president himself could have harbored on behalf of Korea, I had cared for them, shed tears and prayed for them, centering on Korea’s fate at the time, Korea’s future fate and the national ideology the Korean people should follow. I had become the owner of heart.
I tried to love the prisoners as their mothers or fathers would have. How pitiable they were! They knew that if I had something to eat, rather than eat it, I would give it to them, and that I always found the hardest and the worst sleeping space.
Do you know how hungry one becomes at noon after having a meager meal for breakfast?
In that environment, I was also hungry, but I made up long stories that I told to my cellmates to console them. Under those circumstances, in less than a month, they’d changed so much that when someone came to visit them and brought them food, they’d set it in front of me and say, “Teacher, please take what you wish.” It was remarkable.
The Unification Church is basic. It’s about completely investing your heart for the sake of others. Since that is the root of the heavenly law, if I embraced that root, wherever I go, no one could destroy my heart. When I acted on that, what flowed out became stronger.
It reached the level where everyone in the cell wanted to greet me in the morning. Rumors spread, and my cellmates protested that the Republic of Korea, the prison, and everyone else involved were wicked for imprisoning such a good person.
There was one man there, a Christian minister, who glared fiercely at me at first and said I was a heretic and an enemy. He flew at me, shouting, “So, what is this doctrine you advocate?”
Afterward, he set a time to come to see me, and we became quite close. The members who’d been imprisoned with me also served me persistently.
Others, seeing this, said that even though the world abuses and opposes Rev. Moon of the Unification Church, he sticks to his guns; he is certainly a notable person.
Father’s heart for God and his mission
Although I was meant to be moving the providence of salvation in Korea forward with the Unification Church, I instead suffered imprisonment. I remained calm during my prison stay because I knew that difficulties were as inevitable as in the days written of in the Old Testament, as well as in the New Testament. Therefore, while in prison, I never thought about when I would be released.
I thought I would either have to spend ten years in prison or die there. I felt determined to the point that even if a road over a mountain were blocked, I would dig a tunnel through it and make an expressway. Even if I collapsed, I would fulfill my responsibilities to God. I did not want God to help me.
Although I was in prison, I stretched out my legs and slept deeply. If you can’t swallow me up, then a way will open up for me. If one is going to do such things as I do, sometimes one will be in rags, and sometimes one will have to accept others pointing their fingers at you.
In pioneering this path, I have been through a lot. Each time I thought, “God experienced even greater hardships than this. I can resolve this small one!” As more difficulties come while you are in a public position, more treasures than you can carry will be given to you.
Even though I was incarcerated, I ate well. I could eat all the food they gave me, regardless of whether it was just rice or whatever. Food was not a problem.
Wherever I was, my only concern was that if I made a mistake, the path of indemnity might become more difficult. That was what I worried about.
Despite being in prison, I never considered it to be a prison. I considered it to be a temple of love. Love becomes an artistic masterpiece of a high dimension.
Evidence and cooperation of the spirit world
When I stayed still with my lips sealed, angels from the spirit world appeared and yelled at other prisoners, “You, number 959, go greet Moon what’s-his-name! And when you have things sent to you from outside, give them all to him.”
A guard came to me and told me a story. He said he had made some rice cakes one morning, but when he tried to eat one, it got stuck in his throat and wouldn’t go down. Why do you suppose that was?
His ancestors were causing it to stick in his throat. They knew he would be in trouble if he mistreated me. And he suffered because he had made the rice cakes in secret, so he wouldn’t have to share them.
When I go to prison, I go with a serious heart. On my way to prison, I thought to myself, “I should go to a prison with that kind of heart, as Heaven is watching. I should live out my sentence there based on such a heart.” In such a situation, a result commensurate with such a heart will be produced under my governance.
The Principle holds that when there is a perfect subject partner, a perfect object partner will be created. That is why even when I remained silent, the ancestors of other prisoners appeared and scolded them based on the laws of the spirit world: “Hey, you, do you know who that person next to you is?” Their ancestors would tell them that if they ate their meals with me, they should not sit in front of me and look me in the face, but should keep their heads down.
From all outward appearances, I don’t look like much. Don’t I look the same as you? But I have a motivation that greatly outdistances yours. I have a motivation that you could never comprehend, no matter how much you studied it.
That motivation is something that you won’t understand even when you die. Because I have that, even when I go on to the next world and say to everyone there, “Hey, everyone!” I will hear “Yes” for an answer, since I have that subject nature already within me.
That is why if you desire to receive true love and wish to have true happiness, you should stand alone in the position of unhappiness that represents the unhappiness of all others.
If you are in such a position, then God will care for you, and when you are struck ten times, He will open the way to your future. He will disregard hundreds or thousands of hardships that may come His way, and fight your fights for you. Such will be the experience you come to have.
Change in the attitude of the warden and prison guards
Within a month, the warden came to see me to apologize, and something seemed to move within the other prison officials to the point that they all invited me to have lunch with them.
In less than a month, with my own eyes, I saw them come to ask forgiveness, saying, “The Mr. Moon of the Unification Church that we had heard about in the past and the Mr. Moon we have come to know are entirely different.”
I have noticed that righteousness always triumphs, even while bound with chains of the most severe persecution. That is why, even though the path of righteousness is difficult, I cannot be disheartened because I am taking responsibility to open the path for those people for whom God is searching.
I am not disheartened over this task. Even though my body still bears many scars from beatings, the wounds I received in my heart at that time don’t hurt at all now.
After promising to bestow blessings on someone, God sends him to prison. He contrarily places that person in the lowest place and makes him stay there. Gold gives out a golden light wherever it is. When I was in prison, I even touched the warden’s heart.
Even though the investigators who questioned me hated me, in prison, I won the heart of the warden. That didn’t require many words. When you remain steadfast under such circumstances, God takes pity on you. Then it is as if spring has come.
For example, the prisoners would dream about me, wake up, and suddenly consider me to be the man in the prison cell with a particular number. They would come to me in the morning and say, “Good morning!”
Even the prison guards came to greet me, and brought me an ice cake when the weather was hot. Why did they do that when I hadn’t even asked for it? It’s because God is with me on my path, and no one could ever take that away from me.
Guards asked me, Teacher, are you uncomfortable in any way? If you need anything, just tell us and we’ll get it for you.
Sympathy naturally arises
Even though others cursed me, wishing me dead, I did not perish. The more some people abused me and the lonelier I became, the more others shed tears for me and consoled me.
I am truly grateful that while I was in Seodaemun Prison, every one of the Unification Church members tried to visit me. They fought among themselves over who would visit me first.
When I went to prison, everyone insisted they would come to visit me. They were lined up from one o’clock in the morning, sitting there waiting for me. That is a record I set in Seodaemun Prison.
People wondered, “What did he do to make them go stark raving mad?” [Laughter] That’s how it is. When a father scolds his wife at home, their sons and daughters feel sympathy for and console her. They say she is the best mother in the world. That’s how it works out. Why? Because of the power of love.
It got so that some people had to wait three days before they could visit me. As a result, everyone wondered, “If it were their son, or their wife, or their husband who had been imprisoned, we would understand, but how can they be so devoted to a man they do not know and are not related to?”
This was bound to be a problem. Those people said, “He brainwashed them and forcibly indoctrinated our sons and daughters,” and so on. But, had I forced them, and they had not liked anything about it, would they have appeared there at the prison like that?
All the people in the prison came to know and say, “People say Rev. Moon is a dictator and an exploiter, but that is all nonsense, complete nonsense.”
I did not compliment those who finally got to see; instead, I scolded them, saying such things as “You good-for-nothings, why did you come? You should have just stayed put, but you are here starting rumors!” They wept loudly and said, “We love you so much, what else could we do?”
I have not forgotten that when I was brought to trial in chains, Unification Church members were being pushed around there. Even now, I remember their faces and who they were.
They all stood there with tears streaming down their faces, watching and saying, “They shouldn’t do that to our teacher.” That scene is etched into my memory and will remain with me until the moment I die.
If you came to see me in prison, that will be recorded in history. Those who kept their visitor’s pass will probably receive an award someday, but I suppose many of you have lost them. If you still have one, keep it with you when you get married and preserve it as a family treasure.
I have not forgotten that when I was brought to trial in chains, Unification Church members were being pushed around there. Even now, remember their faces and who they were.
They all stood there with tears streaming down their faces, watching and saying, “They shouldn’t do that to our teacher.” That scene is etched into my memory and will remain with me until the moment I die.
Sun Myung Moon