Student at Waseda systematizing the Principle

Student Days Waseda Technical High School

April 1941- September 1943

When I graduated from elementary school, I gave a speech in front of an audience that included the police chief, the district chief and other officials. I criticized the Japanese severely, shouting for them to pack up their bags and go home. I was like that from elementary school... I took hold of the police chief and criticized him. I said, "This and this is not right. How can you just do nothing?" Because I did this kind of thing, I was marked.

In order to go to Japan, I had to get a letter of recommendation from my headmaster. I also needed a passport for foreign travel from the police chief. When he saw me, he said, "We must keep an eye on this person. He is a troublemaker." This got us arguing. We have to be like this. There should be something special about us.

Hikari Ho Train to Busan

(March 31, 1941, 2:10 PM)

In 1941 when I left from Seoul Station for Busan Harbor in order to go to study in Japan, I shed many tears looking at the capital city, thinking about who would take responsibility for these wretched people. When I left for Japan, I caught the Hikari Ho Train at Seoul Station. As I boarded, 1 thought, "I will not spend my time as a wretched failure. God will protect the young man who goes forward with a firm, resolute heart to save the nation. When I return, God will be full of hope." This is why Korea was not bombed during World War II.

When I left for Busan from Seoul, I asked myself what I was going to learn in Japan. For this country to be liberated and for the young generation to have hope and get ahead in life, the nation needs to be free and independent. I was determined to prepare the way for the country. I can still remember leaving Yongsan Station, crossing over the old Han River Bridge, holding on to the train railing with tears flowing down my face.

I was leaving an orphan country. I pulled my overcoat up by the lapels to hide my face and cried all the way from Seoul to Busan. A Japanese lady who rode in the same coach asked me, "Have your mother and father just passed away, young fellow?" This pain and sadness comes to everyone, but my sadness arose out of love for my country.

Shokei Maru Ferry

(April 1, 1941)

I'll never forget what I prayed just before I left for Japan. I was standing on the Busan Harbor pier at about 2 AM and looking back at Korea. I prayed, "I will love you even more and shed even more tears for you, even though I am leaving now."

It seems like only yesterday that I boarded the ferry from Busan to Japan, shedding tears the whole journey. Japan occupied Korea then.

I wondered who would save and free our wretched nation. I stayed awake all night looking at the stars, praying. I told God, "I have prayed and shed so many tears for the liberation of this nation, which I am leaving now. Heavenly Father, please keep this nation safe until I return." The boat left at 2:40 in the morning. I can never forget my heart at that time.

Willingly treading such a tearful course demonstrates patriotism and filial piety. It is the same for loyal patriots and it is the same for saints. A tearful life is the path of a saint. If there is a history or tradition that can move the world, it is one of tears. A tradition of tears is capable of dominating the world.

Waseda Technical High School

(April 1, 1941- September 30, 1943)

[Waseda Technical High is affiliated with the Waseda University Electrical Engineering Department.]

Since I first set foot on what was then enemy land, I was determined to endure anything. I never visited famous places in Japan. A person without a nation would not visit such places. I didn't go to Mt. Fuji and I didn't go to Adami Beach, Hakone National Park or the gardens in Niko either. I would only go to places if God were to say, "I feel joy at seeing such a beautiful place. It's a good place. Why don't you go there?" Unless that had happened I absolutely would not go.

That's the kind of person I am.

I walked along Takadanobaba Street to Waseda University twice a day. I used to walk a lot. I hope you also have the opportunity to walk along Takadanobaba Street to the university with the same heart I had. You should know that in any place of significance along that road, at the bends and at the telegraph poles, my tears are hidden.

Majoring in electrical engineering

You have to know what work you want to do. The most important years are those from age eighteen to twenty-four. By the time you are twenty-four, you should have decided upon your purpose and goals in life. If you cultivate yourself and pray, you will realize what you should do.

I studied electrical engineering. I studied science and I knew the way I should go. Because I studied Father as science, I had already tried my hand in most things in Japan connected with electricity. In order to do great things, you need to be good at mathematical calculations. You need to be quick at evaluating things. Controlling things unseen is similar to religion. You can discover electrical phenomena in all phenomena of the physical world. It is present in every action. I studied this kind of thing because I knew that I would not be able to put forward a new religious ideology without first mastering the world of science. Studying electronics helped me a lot.

I have a head for mathematics. When I was a student, I went to a hat factory and ordered a hat twice, but it was still too small and I had to rip it to make it fit. I have a big head. That's because I have many brain cells! [Laughter] So if I concentrate on something, I can do in three years what others would take ten years to do.

I studied with that kind of mind-set. Why do you feel tired when you study? It is because you study for yourself. That is why you feel tired. Try thinking that the life or death of the whole human race depends on one phrase. Thirty million people will be able to live if you remember it and 30 million will be destroyed if you forget it. Try studying with that kind of heart. What do you mean you're not smart? If you go through life centered on yourself, only despair will result. If you go through life for the nation and the world, hope will result.

Persistently asking questions

I always gave the teachers a difficult time by the questions I asked. The teachers were always looking up to see whether I would stand up and ask a question during their lectures. Once I started asking questions, I continued doing so until their faces had turned red. In debates about theory, the school teachers were not a challenge for me. My friends also were no match for me.

I asked, "What do you think about this?" so many times that every time teachers saw me they would hide in a corner. They would sit in the front of the class if they thought I wasn't going to ask them a question but otherwise they would try not to come too close to me. They used to lecture like that. They tried their best not to look at me. Once I started digging up the roots, I had to finish the job. When we studied physics I asked, "Who devised this theory? How can I believe it if I haven't tried it first?" I used to be like that. You can imagine how much they suffered because of me.

Speaking Japanese quickly

I am not stupid. Even when I was in Japan, I used to compete with native speakers in speaking Japanese quickly. No Japanese could speak Japanese faster than I could. I used to train myself.

Speed is the most important thing when you speak Japanese. Even when I was arguing, I used to speak three Japanese words to everyone else's one. (Laughter) I practiced this. Becoming a leader is not easy.

I conducted research. I was determined to persuade Japanese young people also to follow me and work for the world. I used to train myself from the perspective that I wouldn't succeed unless I had common sense superior to that of the average Japanese person.

Athletic training

When I was a student, there was a Japanese wrestler called Futabayama. I wonder if he is still alive. If I had wrestled, I would have liked to wrestle him. [Laughter] I am good at Korean wrestling. In my middle and high school days, I was the best wrestler.

I was the champion wrestler in high school. I was good at running and jumping. I even boxed. I could hit a bad person – Pow! -- and he would go flying. Why did I do this? It was not in order to fight. In order to realize a great revolution, in order to put this world back on the right path according to heavenly law, in order to make a peaceful world, I needed a strong, healthy body.

Life in student lodgings

I was often treated badly when looking for lodgings in Japan. If I thought about that, when just listening to the Japanese language, I got a headache. But I had to love Satan's children more than I loved God's children. That's God's heart. To this day, I have lived like this, thinking about that point thousands and thousands of times. It is true.

Not so long ago, I visited one of the many lodging houses I'd lived in. I met the lady who ran the lodging house. At that time, 100 yen [today, $1] was a lot of money. Do you know how much the room rent was? It was 11 yen a month.

I had an experience in my lodging house that I cannot forget. The master of the lodging house used to come home drunk late at night and beat his wife, who was not one to stand still and take it. If he tried to hit her, she became angry and used to shout and scream so much that the whole neighborhood was in an uproar. [Laughter] The sound of them fighting woke me up on numerous occasions.

So I called on the lady and asked her, "Why do you stay and let yourself be beaten? Why don't you return to your hometown?" She said, "Unmarried people can't comprehend the pleasure of making up and of making love after a fight." [Laughter] That's how it is. After a fight you have no qualification to make love, so you have to beg for forgiveness and then... She may have been afraid of being hit once or twice, but she understood him and accepted his bad habit. It must have been interesting -- her husband trying to reconcile with her and express his love for her for a few days. Anyway, that's how they lived. I am not sure what to say about it. [Laughter]

Investigating and systematizing the Principle

You have no idea how much I suffered in trying to find the Principle. I prayed for ten to fourteen hours a day for many years. Do you understand how wretched I was? My blood, sweat and tears permeate Exposition of the Divine Principle. Each page is soaked in my blood and tears and is crying out to young people like you. It is the result of my having sacrificed and invested my youth. My blood and tears are crying out to you.

I did not discover the Principle only by looking in the Bible. If the chapter on the Fall represents the Book of Genesis, the chapter on restoration represents the Book of Revelation.

I told myself, "If the Tree of Life has become as it was in Genesis, the Tree of Life in Revelation has been restored. If that is not correct, the Bible is a lie. Why? Something that is born of a seed returns to a seed. Because I knew that Christianity had to be the central of all religions,

I decided to dig to its end, the root of Christianity. In doing so, I discovered how the Creation took place, what God was doing, and why God likes love.

Nobody taught me anything. I discovered it for myself and systematized it. I caught hold of it and put it in my pocket. It sounds like a dream. God was not a loving God toward me. He was cold-hearted, merciless. He never sympathized with me. If He had, Satan would have interfered. That is the difficult thing. I had to uncover everything and systematize it. I am no ordinary person, which is why I was able to systematize it. That world is so vast you don't even know where to start.

There have been countless philosophers, saints and sages, but they couldn't solve these problems. I came to clearly know the reality of the spirit world, and I met all the spiritual teachers and leaders and held discussions with them. I thoroughly studied the spirit world, and based on heavenly law, I had to set boundaries and sort out everything. Later, I had to take it to God to debate its veracity with Him. Without the approval of the spiritual world, you cannot unify the earth.

The father-son relationship is the core of the universe

There was a time when I entered a transcendent state to look for the origin of the universe. God told me that it is the parent-child relationship -- father and son. This is the conclusion. The universe originated out of the parent-child relationship. The creation is a garden created for the children. If you clearly understand God, the principles of creation are revealed naturally.

I invested the most energy in finding the answer to the question of the origin. After nine years of continuous struggle, I finally discovered the answer. After we realize this, it's quite simple, isn't it? I told myself, "Oh! I didn't realize it was so simple." I knew everything else but I didn't realize this point for such a long time.

The principle of reciprocal complementary action

Scholars say that the universe exists according to the principle of reciprocal repulsion, but this is not true. It exists according to the principle of reciprocal complementary action.

When storm clouds build up and rain falls, or when lightning flashes and thunder crashes, billions of volts of negatively charged electricity and positively charged electricity clash. Then billions of volts of electricity with a positive or negative charge appear in the lightning flash. How can you explain that? This is what I was planning to write about for my doctoral dissertation. The numerous positively charged particles and the many negatively charged ones cannot appear in one flash without plus first joining plus and the minus first joining minus. The positively charged particles come together and the negatively charged ones come together, and then they clash. There is no way to explain what happens in lightning without this kind of explanation.

It seems to contradict the basic theory of electricity but it doesn't. The conceptual framework is different. The plus and the minus receive protection when the object partner is decided. What conclusion can we draw from this? People say it is a universal law that when a subject and object become absolutely one, in order to protect that unity, a plus will repel another plus and a minus will repel another minus, but they don't repulse each other. They protect each other.

Developing my philosophy

I never told anyone what kind of system of thought I followed. My friends didn't know. I researched the Bible and various books about religion and brought home philosophy books that ordinary people don't read.

I had a friend who was studying politics and economics at Waseda. He was studying communism. I had heated arguments with him.

Once I gave a speech by a roadside. I even gave speeches where many people had come to see the cherry blossoms in bloom. I criticized the times. I shouted about how the youth of today have to act. The things I prophesied then are all being fulfilled now.

I understand communism well. I have fought against communism since I was twenty years old. Among the Communist leaders who returned to North Korea and were given government ministerial positions were some of my friends. I told them in our student days, during the Japanese occupation, "You and I have come together to fight, but in the future we will be on opposite sides." This was very real to me. They had no idea I would become the main person in bringing down communism, but I already knew then.

Regarding the question of where human beings originated, I can say that our emergence did not result from our self-awareness or some developmental action from within ourselves. There should first be something that recognizes the fact that there indeed was a fundamental action, direction and sense of purpose. From this point of view, human beings, like all other forms of creation, did not evolve and develop on their own; rather they began to exist as entities with an awareness already determined, with their own purpose, mandated to take certain actions towards a certain direction under that purpose. We must understand this fact, which cannot be logically refuted.

I'd argued, asking, "What is the theory of evolution? What is it that Charles Darwin says is the origin of species? You crazy people!"

People say that I am the love philosopher. My philosophy is love, and if you want to find out about the philosophy of love, you have to ask me. Do you think I made up the philosophy of love, or discovered it? (You discovered it.} That's right. I discovered the philosophy of love. I didn't create it.

I am the philosopher of love. I am the philosopher who loves heaven and earth. I (with those who are with me at this time) am solving, through love, the problems of the family, ethnic groups and the world for the first time. This is the only thing I know. No matter how much you search through the spirit world or through history, this is the only thing that is important. And if you pass the test of love, the devil will retreat and God will welcome you. Nobody has acknowledged my achievements in this area before. It has taken forty years for this to be acknowledged.

Underground Korean independence activities

While in my twenties, I swore to God that I'd save this nation. I believed I represented all 30 million Koreans at that time and that my love for God was stronger than the love the Japanese people had for their emperor. Based on that, I believed Japan would decline. They struck goodness first, so they had to decline. If falseness strikes goodness, it doesn't gain from it.

When I was studying in Tokyo, I went around a lot. Because I had a plan for the future, I went everywhere. I thought, "Some years in the future, Japanese young people will rise up again."

I went everywhere in order to find out what scholars and workers were doing. I went along numerous back streets. I sent out many secret messengers. I started my struggle from the moment I got off the train at Tokyo Station. I didn't say anything, but I spoke to the streets, "In the future, you will know what the Koreans have gone through." Yet I did not want to be merely patriotic. When I looked at the trees or I spoke to the creation I said, "Oh, you are a part of an enemy land, but you will belong to God."

God's son became a heavenly soldier, a guerilla to defeat the satanic world. That's why there is nothing I don't know. At school I met the person in charge of school business affairs and investigated all the school's secrets. I knew what Japan was like, and I predicted how much longer Japan would last.

I even did work for high-level people. I did jobs for the college president. This was possible because I was good at writing. I was fully aware of the corruption and knew about the people who pulled strings behind the scenes.

You have probably never experienced the anguished sorrow of losing your nation. I have. When Korea was groaning under Japanese rule, I took part in resistance activities against Japan. At that time, if any problem arose, all the Korean students in Japan called on me to solve it. They came to me. I was a district leader. So if things became extremely serious, they had me take care of things.

Compelled by righteousness, I risked my neck. I am not a chicken-hearted man. I crossed the sea from Japan to Korea and traveled in the undercarriage of a car for eight or nine hours from Busan to Andong as a representative of the provisional government. The troops who were under Kim Gu in Beijing are becoming famous today, even in China. I took part in underground resistance activities, as they did.

I worked in the underground movement and connected with the most capable people. I can remember that work as if it were only yesterday. I remember it so clearly because I invested my whole heart into it.

I was friendly with Communists in my student years. We had a common purpose in fighting to overturn the philosophy that presented the Japanese emperor as a unique being. These Communists were good friends and absolutely necessary comrades. Why did we go our separate ways? Their final goal and direction were completely opposite to ours.

Under constant surveillance

The police were always following me. If I went back to Korea, they would telephone to inform the authorities that I was headed there. When I passed through the ticket collectors exit, they would be there to greet me with "Oh, so you have returned..."

I was a student but I was a suspect under surveillance. Most people don't know this about me. I was detained by the police on numerous occasions in those days. While I was staying in Tokyo, they called me to the police station at Waseda University, on Takadanobaba Street, once a month.

I was also tortured by the Japanese police when I was in my twenties. I continued to fight even under those circumstances. I was beaten and tortured but remained resolute. I cannot forget it.

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