The impulse to believe the absurd when presented with the unknowable is called religion. Whether this is wise or unwise is the domain of doctrine. Once you understand someone's doctrine, you understand their rationale for believing the absurd. At that point, it may no longer seem absurd. You can get to both sides of this conondrum from here.
$1 million Moonie mystery by Rick Casey June 8, 2006, 10:36PM Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle
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IT was a dark night in a city that knows how to keep its secrets.
The phone rang on my desk, waking me from a reverie I don't remember.
"Casey," I said, hoping to sound like a private eye.
The guy on the other end really was a private eye. Not Garrison Keillor's "Guy Noir," but a Virginia electronic gumshoe named Larry Zilliox.
Maybe you have a hobby. Zilliox's is keeping tabs on the sprawling empire of the world's wealthiest self-described Messiah, the Rev. Sun Myung Moon.
In the course of his probing, Zilliox came across an odd entry in the most recent tax filing of the Washington Times Foundation, which is associated with the conservative newspaper founded in 1982 by Moon.
The document was dated mid-2004 and included a list of organizations to which grants had been made.
A million bucks to Houston?
Three received grants totaling $9,000.
The New York headquarters of Moon's Unification Church received $11,200.
Another of Moon's organizations, the American Family Coalition Inc., received a grant of $254,500.
Then came the grabber: a whopping $1 million to the Greater Houston Community Foundation.
Why would Moon's Washington Times Foundation give a million bucks to Houston?
Zilliox said he figured I'd have a better chance of finding out than he would.
Maybe he was right.
I decided to take the direct approach.
I called the Washington Times Foundation, but the number listed on its tax form was no longer working.
The Bush connection
I called the Washington Times and asked for the foundation. I reached the voice mail of a separate foundation, but my call was not returned.
I located two of the officers of the foundation at the Washington Times and another at UPI (also owned by the Moon organization), but my phone calls and e-mails went unanswered.
So I called Steve Maislin, president and CEO of the Greater Houston Community Foundation.
He wasn't in, but I left a message asking why the Washington Times Foundation would give $1 million to his foundation. He called and left a message in return.
He couldn't legally tell me, he said.
Later I reached Maislin and asked him if he could point me to the law that bound his lips. He said he misspoke.
"I meant that under the law it's not a public record," he said. "We're not required to disclose donations in or grants out in our tax returns. We don't as a matter of policy."
Actually, they do report the grants they give, as we will see below.
He said some people who give money want it kept private so they won't be badgered by fundraisers.
Zilliox had a theory. He figured Moon gave the money to the Houston foundation as a pass-through to the presidential library of the elder President Bush.
It wouldn't be the first connection between Moon and Bush. In 1995 Bush was handsomely paid to make six speeches to Moon-related groups in Japan.
The next year he would go to Buenos Aires, Argentina, to celebrate the opening of a new Moonie newspaper there.
Zilliox's notion turned out not to be an idle theory. The long list of grant recipients listed in the community foundation's tax return that year included the George Bush Presidential Library Foundation at Texas A&M.
The amount: $2,132,471.
So I called Rod Thornton at the Bush library foundation.
He hesitated for a moment, then explained that the donation from the Greater Houston Community Foundation came from proceeds from Bush's 80th birthday celebration in 2004, which included a huge party at Minute Maid Park and a fundraising extravaganza to benefit three of the former president's favorite causes: his library, the Points of Light Foundation he founded, and the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center.
M.D. Anderson received $4.4 million from the Greater Houston Community Foundation that year, and the Points of Light Foundation received $1.8 million.
One call remained, to Jim McGrath, a former speechwriter for the former president who still serves as a family spokesman.
He explained that the money raised through Bush's birthday bash was funneled through the Greater Houston Community Foundation because of its tax-exempt status.
And did $1 million come from the Washington Times Foundation?
"We're in an uncomfortable position," he said. "If a donor doesn't want to be identified we need to honor their privacy."
I asked him about another part of Zilliox's theory: that the donation was made to help persuade Bush's son, the current president, to grant Moon a pardon for a 1982 felony tax evasion conviction that had put him in prison for 13 months.
Moon had applied for a pardon from the elder president Bush, but withdrew the request.
"If that's why he gave the grant, he's throwing his money away," said McGrath. "That's not the way the Bushes operate."
He added, "President Bush has been very grateful for the friendship shown to him by the Washington Times Foundation, and the Washington Times serves a vital role in Washington. But there can't be any connection to any kind of a pardon."
You can write to Rick Casey at P.O. Box 4260, Houston, TX 77210, or e-mail him at rick.casey@chron.com.
Shinzo Abe’s assassin forced to give up college after mother's $722,000 donation to Unification Church, says uncle by Jane Nam Fri, July 15, 2022 at 6:04 PM
Shinzo Abe, 90th, 96th, 98th Prime Minister of Japan
The uncle of Shinzo Abe’s suspected shooter Tetsuya Yamagami stated that Yamagami’s mother had donated approximately 100 million yen ($721,875) to the Unification Church, leading to the family’s alleged financial ruin.
Yamagami reportedly told police that he had targeted the former prime minister due to Abe’s affiliation with the Unification Church, which Yamagami blamed for bankrupting his mother due to its forceful donating practices.
On Friday, the uncle, who is the 77-year-old older brother of Yamagami’s father, shared that Yamagami’s mother first joined the church in 1991 after her husband’s suicide in 1984.
She made multiple donations to the religious group throughout her time as a devoted member, including proceeds from the sale of the family’s property and house.
Despite becoming bankrupt in 2002, she continued giving to the church, albeit in smaller amounts, under the principle of “world peace and unification.”
“I believe she was a very important follower of the church. She was under mind control,” the uncle said.
He added that the family was thrown into poverty and Yamagami was forced to give up college due to financial ruin.
“He was extremely smart just like his father,” the uncle recalled of Yamagami. “He was also hardworking and I only have good memories of him.”
Church officials stated at a news conference on Monday that it had no direct relationship to Abe, although it did with other lawmakers through an affiliated organization.
It also insisted that it had returned 50 million yen ($360,929) back to her, while claiming there were also no records of her donations to the organization.
The Unification Church was first founded in South Korea in 1954 by Rev. Sun Myung Moon, who was heavily influenced by the Confucian idea that world peace begins with harmonious families.
The church is known for its mass weddings, in which leaders officiate thousands of new couples at once in a single gathering, and its influence over conservative political parties.
Yamagami reportedly planned to kill the church’s religious leaders first but changed his target to Abe after watching a video message sent by Abe to one of the Unification Church’s affiliates.
COVID-19 also prevented him from being able to travel to South Korea, where many of the seniors are.
Yamagami told police that he began experimenting with making his own firearms around spring of last year and had initially thought of making a bomb instead of a gun.
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Why did Abe appear in a Unification Church video? by Cho Yeon-hyun religion correspondent Hankyoreh Hani.Co.Kr. Posted on : Jul.12,2022 17:55 KST Modified on : Jul.12,2022 17:55 KST
The relationship between the Unification Church and Japanese political circles is being all the more highlighted due to the religious movement’s enormous success in Japan
Former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe delivers an address for “Think Tank 2022,” an event jointly organized by the Universal Peace Federation and the FFWPU in September 2021. (provided by UPF)
Reports have surfaced that Tetsuya Yamagami, the man who fatally shot former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, referenced his mother’s religion — the Unification Church — as the motivation for his actions, drawing interest to the religious movement.
While being questioned by police Yamagami reportedly said that his mother is “a follower of the Unification Church” and that he had “targeted Abe due to his ties” to the group. Additionally, he reportedly stated that he “originally wanted to target the leader of the Unification Church,” but believing it would be difficult, he’d attacked Abe, believing the former prime minister of Japan to have ties with the church.
Following her husband’s death, Yamagami’s mother took over his construction company until she went bankrupt 20 years ago. Regarding this, Yamagami reportedly was resentful of the Unification Church, as he believed his mother — a follower of the church — made large donations to the religious movement.
The Unification Church released a statement Monday, in which it said that Yamagami “is not a member of the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification (FFWPU), and there are no records indicating he was a member of the federation in the past.” The church added that the suspect’s mother has been attending Family Federation events once a month.
According to Japanese media, Yamagami reportedly “believed [Abe] had ties [with the Unification Church] due to a video message he sent [to the church] and was not motivated by a grudge concerning [Abe’s] politics.”
As a matter of fact, last September, Abe delivered a keynote address at the Rally of Hope event co-hosted by the Universal Peace Federation — a group affiliated with the Unification Church — and the FFWPU via video following their launch ceremony for “Think Tank 2022: Toward Peaceful Reunification of the Korean Peninsula.” During his address, Abe said: “Some countries, including totalitarian and hegemonic regimes, are attempting to bring about change by force. Political maneuvering of this type should stop. [. . .] Thus, the need for more solidarity between countries that share the values of freedom and democracy — such as Japan, the United States, Taiwan and South Korea — is more pressing than ever.”
The event saw other participants along with Abe, such as former US President Donald Trump, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, and former President of the European Commission Jose Manuel Barroso.
Concerning this, the Unification Church remarked in its statement, “The suspect’s argument that he targeted Abe, one of the top leaders of Japan, simply because he delivered a video address for our federation does not align with common sense.” It continued, “As the incident was an extreme one born out of a difficult growth process within a family that’s hard to understand, we anticipate law enforcement agencies to clearly investigate the criminal motive of the suspect.”
Abe seems to have made his video address for the Unification Church event due to the long-held ties between the church and right-wing political forces in Japan. Moon Sun-myung (1920-2012), the founder of the Unification Church, reportedly held intimate ties with right-wing Japanese politicians ever since the founding of the Japan chapter of the International Federation for Victory over Communism (IFVOC) in April 1968.
Moon Sun-myung, the founder of the Unification Church (Hankyoreh file photo)
The relationship between the Unification Church and Japanese right-wing political forces can also be seen in the fact that former Japanese Prime Minister Nobusuke Kishi, Abe’s maternal grandfather and an ultranationalist within the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), visited a Unification Church in Japan in April 1970. Afterward, Kishi reportedly proactively utilized the IFVOC in Japan to garner financial support and build consensus for anti-communist legislation such as the establishment of an anti-espionage act by the LDP in the 1970s.
Hiroshi Yamaguchi, the president of the National Network of Lawyers Against Spiritual Sales — a team of lawyers who have brought suits for damages against the Unification Church — and a lawyer who wrote the expose concerning the church titled “The Family Federation for World Peace and Unification,” pinpointed Kishi and Ryoichi Sasakawa, a former member of the House of Representatives and a Class A war criminal, as key figures who helped the church gain political influence within the LDP during an interview with CBS.
Yamaguchi also said, “The Unification Church’s political empowerment began during the time of Kishi, Abe’s grandfather, with Sasakawa acting as a bridge.” He further claimed that “North Korea policies and anti-communist movements under conservative administrations were carried out through the help of the Unification Church’s IFVOC, and as there are barely any young election campaigners or party members in Japan, Japanese politicians probably could not refuse funds and campaigners systematically sent by the Unification Church.”
Moon Sung-myung speaks at an event at the Capitol in Washington DC in April 2004, where he crowned himself as “king of peace.”
After releasing a chart depicting links between 128 Japanese lawmakers at the time and the IFVOC and the Unification Church in February 1999, the Japanese magazine Modern Weekly published an article criticizing Abe’s ties to the Unification Church, which the weekly described as “continuing since [Abe’s] grandfather’s generation.”
The Unification Church has also made similar claims. In an article published on July 20, 1986, the church’s bulletin asserted that “130 lawmakers elected in the House of Representatives and House of Councillors elections are proponents of victory over communism.” The church’s document compiling the sayings of its founder also contains a quotation in which Moon directly references his ties with Japanese political figures.
Moon Sun-myung, the founder of the Unification Church (Hankyoreh file photo)
The relationship between the Unification Church and Japanese political circles is being all the more highlighted due to the religious movement’s enormous success in Japan. The church had its start in the country after Choi Sang-ik, a missionary of the church, arrived in Japan as a stowaway in October 1959. Subsequently, the church’s mission in Japan gained much traction, laying the foundation for the religion’s foray into and eventual anchoring in the US.
The Unification Church in Japan has gathered funds mostly through door-to-door sales via the so-called “spiritual sales” method. At its height, the church in Japan would send 10 billion yen back to the church’s headquarters every month.
The Unification Church sold items they claimed had supernatural spiritual powers, such as seals, flower vases, replicas of Dabo Pagoda and Seokga Pagoda in Korea, wooden beads, and ginseng extract.
When victims of the Unification Church’s sales activities came forward in great numbers, lawyers in Japan formed the National Network of Lawyers Against Spiritual Sales to investigate related cases and come up with relief measures.
Regarding this, the Unification Church stated that “door-to-door sales through the spiritual sales was mostly carried out during the 1980s and has not been done since the 1990s.”
There are wildly different conjectures regarding the number of Unification Church followers in Japan, from ones that speculate the figure to be around 600,000 to ones that say it only amounts to around 10,000 and 20,000. Still, considering that 90% of the names listed at the entrance of Cheonjeong Palace, the world headquarters of the religion located in Seorak hills of Gapyeong County, Gyeonggi Province, as donors who contributed to the construction of the building are Japanese, it’s undeniable that the vast majority of donations received by the church are made by Japanese individuals.
Plus, an overwhelming majority of women who marry Korean men through mass weddings by the Unification Church are Japanese. The fact that Junko Sakurada, a famous pop idol during the 1970s in Japan, married an ordinary Korean office worker as designated by Moon during a 1992 mass wedding at Jamsil Olympic Stadium, garnered interest.
Born in 1920 in Chongju, North Pyongan Province, Moon founded the Unification Church in 1951. Based on its success in Japan, the church sent missionaries to 194 countries across the world, even going so far as to hold a mass rally that drew over 300,000 participants in Washington, DC, in 1976, thanks to which Moon was selected as “Person of the Year” by Newsweek.
Moon Sun-myung embraces North Korean leader Kim Il-sung on Dec. 6, 1991, in Pyongyang. (Hankyoreh file photo)
After founding the IFVOC and leading anti-communist movements, Moon started the Washington Times in 1982, which served as a mouthpiece for far-right conservatives in US politics. Moon garnered international attention in 1990, when he met with Mikhail Gorbachev in Moscow in an exclusive meeting, and a year later, on Nov. 30, 1991, when he met with Kim Il-sung in Pyongyang.
Moon expanded his activities into fields other than religion and media as well, going into education via Sunhwa Arts Middle and High Schools, Kyung Bok Elementary School, Sunjung Middle and High Schools, Sun Moon University, and Cheongshim International Academy, and trying his hand in business endeavors through Ilhwa, Ilsung Construction, and Ilshin Stone.
The Unification Church’s Cheonjeong Palace, located in Gapyeong, Gyeonggi Province (Hankyoreh file photo)
In 2009, to mark the 90th birthday of Moon, the Unification Church unveiled Cheonjeong Palace, the church’s headquarters covering 4,000 acres of land located in Seorak Township, Gapyeong County, Gyeonggi Province, carrying out a “coronation for the realm of liberation for God, the King of Kings.” Members of the church venerated Moon with such titles as “King of Kings,” “Savior,” “Messiah,” “True Father” and more.
Han Hak-ja, current president of the Unification Church, blesses new couples at a mass wedding ceremony on April 16, 2022. (provided by the Unification Church)
Moon died on Sept. 3, 2012, at Cheongshim International Medical Center, now known as the HJM International Medical Center, located on Unification Church holy ground in Gapyeong, Gyeonggi Province.
In April 2008, he appointed his then 33-year-old son Moon Hyung-jin — also known as Sean Moon, the youngest son among his 13 children — to serve as international president of the FFWPU. However, Moon’s widow Han Hak-ja assumed full control after the founder’s death and has been acting as de facto leader of the Unification Church ever since.
