In the mid-70s, then Napa Sheriff Earl Randol had some major clashes with the Moonies in an attempt to gain the "release" of one young man.
The Aetna Springs facility of the Moonies receives a $406,836 local tax exemption on their property, because they qualify as a religious organization. You won't find a sign saying "Moonies", the facility is registered as the New Education Development Systems, Inc., of 1600 Aetna Springs Road, in Pope Valley. There are six parcels of land owned by the New Education Development Systems, Inc. equalling 672.47 acres, which they pay only $5507.52 tax annually. At one point in 1977, the Board of Equalization denied any tax break for the New Educational Development Systems, Inc.
The Moonies first came to prominence in Napa County in October 1976 when Charles Lotz arrived here from Arizona with his two attorneys, Wayne Howard and Michael Trauscht. Lotz suspected that his son, Steven, was living as a Moonie on the Aetna Springs Resort. With Napa Attorney John Dower, the group appeared before Superior Court Judge Thomas Kongsgaard for the purpose of having Lotz appointed temporary conservator of his son, this essentially gave him the legal right to forcibly control the actions of his son who is declared temporarily incompetent.
With the appropriate legal documents secured, the group went to Aetna Springs accompanied by Sheriff Earl Randol and Lt. James Munk. Randol knew the removal of one of the members from the Moonie camp was likely to incite hostility. The Sheriff did run into resistance. The group was hassled by Moonies. The son was located at the camp but did not want to leave. At this point the keys to the car owned by one of the attorneys were thrown into a field and then another Moonie got under the car to prevent it from driving off. The son was forcibly removed from the Moonie camp.
Sheriff Randol stated publicly that the Moonie defiance of the Lotz court order confirmed his initial suspicions about the New Education Development Systems, Inc., whose "avowed purposes...is to open Aetna Springs as a regional training facility for the Moon movement." Randol said that he seriously doubted that members of the New Education Development Systems, Inc., wanted "to become responsible citizens of this community. Responsible citizens of this community don't forcibly disobey orders of Superior Court...and don't attempt to keep people from enforcing those orders. They don't attempt to follow and harass people, either. Any credibility these people attempted to establish in Napa County should be seriously questioned as a result of this action. They've been misleading the people of Napa County when they said there's no connection to the Unification Church and Reverend Moon." The Moonies also made efforts to infiltrate Pacific Union College.
After the incident with Sheriff Randol, Rev. Sun Myung Moon filed suit in Federal District Court to halt California courts from issuing temporary conservatorship orders without a court hearing in which both the conservator and alleged conservatee are present. The suit was filed only days after the Napa incident.
Moonies from the Pope Valley area were arrested in Tucson, Arizona, for interfering with court-ordered deprogramming of two young Moonies. In another local incident, a woman in the Moonie community was injured and the leaders of the camp refused to allow her to be transported to a hospital.
One neighbor, who has had "recruits" knock on her door, states, "They were trying to leave the compound, and would ask me 'which way do you get out of here?' The Moonies have no idea how to leave the place, whether to turn left or to turn right, or what." Several Moonies do get into the community, however, without restraint. There is one woman who is a part time teacher in the St. Helena-Pope Valley area. Some sell roses along the roads and go door-to-door selling other items.
The flower sellers used to be easily identified with a yellow signs with red writing. But now they have changed their colors, as words got about linking the yellow and red signs, the color of the Japanese Rising Sun.
When the Moonies attempted to open their camp at Aetna Springs, the Napa County Board of Supervisors opposed it. A lawsuit ensued, and the Moonies prevailed. The Supervisors rejected the New Education Development Systems, Inc., request in March 1979. The suit was filed on September 1979. Attorneys for the New Education Development Systems, Inc. claimed that the County's denial of a use permit constituted discrimination on the basis of religion and denial of due process and equal protection under the law. The suit cost the County nearly $1 million to fight Rev. Sun Myung Moon's attempt to establish a camp at Aetna Springs. The battle lasted nearly eight years. The suit was finally settled in 1986 with an out-of-court settlement. The property can be used for religious, but not educational purposes, the settlement states.
The Moonies also own Aetna Springs Golf Course and will have a Planning Commission hearing on March 18 at 9 a.m. on their proposed recreational fee fishing facility on a 55 acre parcel located on the north side of the Aetna Springs Road where the golf course exists. There is also a riding club in the encampment. Local deputy sheriffs who patrol the area are wary of the encampment, fearing it may even be fortified.
Who are the Moonies? What is their political background? Who are their leaders? What ties do they have to the U.S. government? What ties do they have to known Japanese war criminals?
Second in a Series
Friday, March 6, 1992
What has sparked so much controversy about the Moonie movement is the allegations that their followers are brainwashed. The movement is reported to pray on the discontent, anger and disenfranchisement of the young, transforming their youthful concepts and values into the dogma of Reverend Sun Myung Moon.
Gift of Deceit, written by Robert Boettcher, states: "The American System is ill-equipped to deal with Moon. He knows this and benefits from it. He can break some laws and use others for protection. By perverting freedom of religion, he can keep thousands of people in brainwashed captivity while he intimidates and manipulates the non-Moon world." The book further states, "The United States government believed brainwashing was real enough in the Korean War. Apparently that was different because Communists were doing it to American soldiers. When Moon does it in the name of God he gets away with it."
In 1974, Rev. Moon stated, "I truly disciplined and set the traditions of our movement in Korea, so that they (Moon's followers) were completely liberated from the fear of how to live, what to eat, and how to sleep." Why do people voluntarily surrender control of their life to Moon's Unification Church?
Moon's followers are generally people in their twenties, they are free of legal parental restraints and therefore less easily wooed out of the Moon organization. Young, clean-cut youths, will recruit others on college campuses or in shopping centers. They will insist that they are offering a new way of life and not a religious experience. They invite young people to their centers, such as the one in Pope Valley. The concept of love and fraternity are strongly pushed.
Generally, the recruit meets organizational officials over a quiet dinner. Moon is not mentioned, religion is seldom broached. While you eat, you listen to their lectures and prayers and share in their singing, the recruiters constantly smile throughout the encounter. The youth is asked to attend a three-day workshop. Some do last longer, seven, 21, 40 or 120 days. But generally the first encounter is only three days. The workshops are held in churches, on estates, camps or rural retreat, or a training center. The short workshops work on getting you committed, the longer ones are to groom leaders.
The first recognition individuals have when arriving for the three day workshops, is that the followers of Moon regard each other as a family. The recruit is called a spiritual child and the people who recruit the youth are referred to as the recruit's spiritual parents.
The recruit is not left alone. As the neighbors of the Moonie encampment in Pope Valley have attested to, they walk in pairs. J. Isamu Yamamoto states in his book The Puppet Master, It becomes immediately apparent to you that you are not to be left alone and that all 'spiritual children' have someone of their opposite sex from the family assigned to them. If you should wander off by yourself, someone will follow you and politely ask you to rejoin the group. You are even escorted to the rest room." The book continues, "You also learn that there is a rigidly held schedule. There are specific times for eating, exercising, playing, singing, listening to lectures and discussing them. You are separated into small groups, led by a team leader who has to have perfect control, not approximate control. From the beginning, the leader directs his or her group like a kindergarten teacher, telling you when to do this or that."
If the leaders of the group should slacken in their enthusiasm or diligence, they are sternly reprimanded. The recruit is rarely permitted to engage in any casual conversation with anyone. They are only allowed to speak about spiritual things within a structured framework. Creativity is frowned upon, conformity is stressed. "All day you are bombarded by ideas and concepts," states The Puppet Master. "There is little relaxation, and so your resistance is low. When you refrain from sharing or resist in any way, you are met with benevolent concern. Peer approval is an important technique which subtly tells you to conform. The family members aim directly at your most vulnerable points: the need to belong, to feel useful and to feel love. Throughout the workshop you are flooded with affection, hugs, pats, hand-holding and smiles."
Recruits react to the regimental control by trying to please. "But, you quickly learn that the only way to please is to conform," The Puppet Master states. "You succumb many times to small acts of conformity without realizing it. You feel guilty when you hold back, and you are told that wanting to be alone is a symptom of fear and alienation." It is at this point that the recruit is asked to join the movement. The family member who has spent all the time with the specific recruit will beg and plead for the recruit to stay. "There will even be tears along with promises. They will continue to implore until you decide to join," The Puppet Master states.
After joining the Moonies, the recruit will be given about two weeks of adjustment. They call it "losing", a period when the recruit's desires become nothing. Recruits are allowed to return home for one visit, but they must be accompanied or tailed by a Moonie. After that one visit, the recruit's communication with his natural family is reduced to mainly correspondence, and that diminishes rapidly. The Moonies see to it that being with the recruit's natural parents makes the recruit so vulnerable and so unable to cope with the real world that you are compelled to stay with the Moonies. "When you do step out into the world, it is a shock, a cultural shock," states The Puppet Master. "You are taught that everyone not in the movement is under the influence of Satan and that you should mistrust them. They insist that the devil works strongest through those closest to you to destroy your faith. This naturally offsets the concern of parents and friends, most of whom want you to leave. You are told that their motivation is love, but because love in the world is fallen, they cannot understand that their motivation is evil. If someone talks to you from outside the family, no doubt they are trying to take your mind away. You begin to fear the world and those in it. Thus you become dependent on the group for love and positive reinforcement. After alienation is complete, you are told that you can leave if you want."
After the "losing period" the regimentation becomes even more rigid. The recruit is required to adhere to even more demanding workshop schedules. They sleep five or six hours a day. Their diet consists of starchy foods and low proteins. Often they fast for many days. The recruit must now fundraise and recruit others. The recruit must sing and pray before meals, before classes, before work, before evening gatherings. Most songs are traditional or Korean hymns. Alcohol and drugs are forbidden. The recruits are further told that if their body reacts negatively with illness or fatigue, it is a sign of Satan invading their body. If they begin to work less, they are told they are selfish and not growing close to God. If they object to the rules, they are told it is Satan working through them against God.
Third in a Series Tuesday, March 13, 1992 To best understand the Moonies, one must look at their doctrine. The Unification Church of Reverend Sun Myung Moon warns Christians that they will be swept away. In his Divine Principle, the foundation of his teachings, Rev. Moon claims that Christians today will be like the priests and rabbis of Jesus' day, the "first to persecute the Messiah". He says that Christians will cling to their archaic beliefs and will be blind to the truths of the new age. "Innumerable Christians of today are dashing on the way which they think will lead them to the Kingdom of Heaven. Nevertheless, the road is apt to lead them into hell." He says, Christians must accept the revelations within the Divine Principle and the Lord of the Second Advent or be damned.
Moon leaves no room in his philosophy for doubt about where he and Korea stand in the eyes of God. Moon claims he is the new Messiah and Korea is God's chosen nation. "This is the culmination of God's 6000 year quest to restore man from the fall of Adam." Moon tells his followers and captives that God revealed this to him when he was a young man. He states, "God said, 'You are the son I have been seeking, the one who can begin my eternal history'."
Moon's Divine Principles teaches that man can be restored to original goodness by restoring Adam, Eve, and three archangels. "Adam's fall resulted from Eve's being seduced by the archangel Lucifer, who was jealous because God gave Eve to Adam instead of to him." He claims that Adam, Eve and the archangels are occupied by persons, nations and movements identified by Moon. "Ultimately, Adam must dominate after successfully going through three stages: formation, growth, and perfection. If Eve or an archangel is at a higher stage than Adam, they must help restore Adam to perfection so he can assume his rightful role in the unified system of things.
Moon sees himself as the Perfect Adam, so he must be obeyed without question. He claims that Jesus was the most important Adam between the original one and Moon, attaining spiritual perfection but a "flawed" Messiah. Moon is the reincarnation of Jesus only more perfect.
Moon teaches his followers and captives that Jesus' mission was foredoomed by John the Baptist, who spent his time baptizing people instead of becoming Jesus' obedient disciple for influencing the politics of the Herod regime, and even killing the enemies of Christ. Though Christian beliefs portrays the Virgin birth. Moon teaches that Jesus was a child of adultery, not immaculate conception. "Mary was impregnated by Zachariah (John the Baptist's father). Jesus had an unhappy home life because Joseph was jealous of Zachariah and resented Jesus."
Moon also states, "When Jesus grew up he failed as a leader because he was unable to love his disciples enough to motivate them to kill for him or die in his place." Moon says that his love is not weak, like he portrays Jesus. "Since Jesus was incapable of perfect love, owing to his unwholesome upbringing, he was also unable to marry as intended by God," Moon said. "The reason why Jesus died was because he couldn't have a bride. Because there was no preparation of a bride to receive Jesus, that was the cause of his death."
Moon sees Christian churches as furthering Satan's power. "Israel was God's chosen nation, but the Jews, falling prey to Satan's power, rejected Jesus. God punished them with centuries of suffering, and finally cleansed them by killing six million in World War II. But the Jews had missed their chance. God had to find a new Messiah and a new Adam nation because it is God's principle not to use the same people and the same territory twice," Moon teaches. "Korea was ideally suited for several reasons. It is a peninsula, physically resembling the male sex organ. Like the Italian peninsula, cultures of islands and continents can mingle there to form a unified civilization corresponding to the Roman Empire."
Moon says that Japan is in the position of Eve. "Being only an island country, it cannot be Adam. It yearns for male-like peninsular Korea on the mainland." Moon says the Japanese generally are effeminate people who want to be dominated by stronger, manly powers. "But as Eve prevailed over Adam in the Fall, Japan prevailed over Korea in the colonial period. And like Eve in the Fall, Japan became a Satanic power."
The United States is viewed by Moon as an archangel country. "The archangel America helped the Adam country Korea by sending Christian missionaries, rescuing it from Japanese rule, and stopping the advance of Satan's Adam, Communist North Korea. America is too arrogant and individualistic, however. It cannot remain the world's leader, because God has destined America to serve Korea," Moon teaches. Moon states that the battlefield for the showdown between God and Satan would be Korea. "God's chosen people would triumph through suffering. America, Japan, and all other nations could be restored by helping Korea's anti-Communist cause. Only in Korea could the civilizations of East and West be unified. In the end, even North Korea's Kim Il Sung could be restored if he answered the call to follow the Divine Principle.
Moon was born in North Korea in 1920. He was raised by a Presbyterian in a middle-class family, was a good student, and studied engineering at a university in Japan during World War II. He was married in 1944 and divorced in 1950. He was arrested twice by the Communist government in North Korea for activities as an evangelist and was sentenced to five years in prison in the fall of 1947. He was released by U.S. forces during the Korean War. He founded his church in 1954.
Moon was reported to be a ritual womanizer. Reportedly, young girls underwent sexual initiation into his cult; he would thus purge them of the Satanic spirits that inhabited Eve and lead them to the Divine Principle. He was jailed for three months in 1955 by South Korean authorities on charges of draft evasion, forgery, pseudo-religion and false imprisonment of a university coed compelled to adopt his religion. The charges were dropped.
Moon teaches that lying is necessary when one is doing God's work, whether selling flowers in the street or testifying under oath. "The truth is what the Son of God says it is. At the Garden of Eden, evil triumphed by deceiving goodness. To restore original perfection, goodness must now deceive evil. Even God lies very often."
(Continued Tuesday)
Fourth in a Series
Tuesday, March 17, 1992
Rev. Sun Myung Moon may preach that he is the Adam and the Christ reincarnate, but he has been accused in a 447 page Congressional report with bribery, bank fraud, illegal kickbacks and illegal sale of arms. He was also accused of attempting to secretly build nuclear weapons for Korea. A Congressional report also indicated that Rev. Moon's Unification Church was founded by a director of the Korean Central Intelligence Agency, Kim Chong Pil, as a political tool in 1961.
The House report states, "Kim Chong Pil organized the Unification Church while he was director of the ROK (Republic of Korea) Central Intelligence Agency, and has been using the church, which has a membership of 27,000, as a political tool." Kim was among the inner core of Army officers who led the coup that brought President Park Chung Hee to power in 1961. "Members of the church are actively engaged in increasing membership in farming villages. The church apparently has considerable money, because it pays influential people in the villages a substantial sum for joining the church." The Moon organization denies any ties with the Korean government or intelligence community.
In 1977 Congressman Donald Frazer launched an investigation into Moon's background. The House Committee report states that it uncovered evidence that the Moon organization had systematically violated U.S. tax, immigration, banking, currency and foreign agent registration laws. The report indicates that Moon was paid by the Korean CIA to stage demonstrations at the United Nations and run pro-South Korean propaganda efforts. The investigator for the report commented, "We determined that their primary interest, at least in the U.S. at that time, was not religious at all, but was political, it was an attempt to gain power, influence and authority." But after the inauguration of President Ronald Reagan all investigations were halted. Moon was Vice President George Bush's guest at the inauguration and was a major financial contributor to the Washington conservative establishment.
Moon's most expensive political project was the creation of the Washington Times. "Washington is the most important single city in the world. If you can achieve influence, if you can achieve visibility, if you can achieve a measure of respect in Washington, then you fairly automatically are going to achieve these things in the rest of the world. There is no better agency or instrument that I know of for achieving power here or almost anywhere else than a newspaper." These were the words of Rev. Moon. President Bush admits the first thing he does in the morning is to read the Washington Times. Ironically, Napa Sentinel Publisher Harry V. Martin received an offer to become editor of a New York newspaper, News World, which was to commence publishing on December 31, 1976. It was the forerunner of the Washington Times. Martin was promised that if he took over the editorship of the New York paper he would be named editor of the Washington Times. After a thorough investigation of its ownership and upon learning Rev. Moon was in charge, Martin declined the job.
The newspaper policy was subtle, in which editors were to use key words to emphasize political messages. Specific organizations were targeted. The Washington Times gained access to American television. The newspaper fostered the likes of Pat Buchanan, Bill Rusher and Mona Sharon, who suddenly became TV personalities, but were little known before the Times. When Martin declined the assignment, James Whalen accepted it, but he soon became disillusioned. "When we started the paper, there was never any question that it would, in any fashion, project the views or the agenda of Moon or the Unification Church. All to the contrary. We said, look, we're going to put a high wall in place It's going to be a sturdy wall, and it will divide us from you," Whalen said. But Whalen's wall of editorial independence was often breached. "Moon, himself, gave direct instructions to the editors, of who Ð in fact, called the shots. Ultimately, Moon calls all the shots. The Washington Times has become a Moonie newspaper," Whalen said.
The Washington Times is quoted virtually every hour on the hour by Voice of America and on the BBC. When Whalen resigned, Arneau de Borgrave took over. He maintains that the editorial department has complete freedom. But no way, says William Chester. "I protested to Mr. de Borgrave and I was honest when I saw this happening, telling him that this was unethical, improper, unprofessional, and ought to stop. And I also said it was dumb." Chester and four other editors resigned after de Borgrave ordered an about-face on an editorial critical of the South Korean government. The U.S. Justice Department won't investigate complaints that the Washington Times may be in violation of the Foreign Agents Registration Act.
The Times provided editorial and financial support to the Contras. When Col. Oliver North wrote a top secret memo proposing the formation of a private foundation called the Nicaraguan Freedom Fund, the Washington Times announced the formation of the foundation on their front page. The Times contributed $100,000 to the cause.
Moon also founded the World Media Association, which pays journalists for junkets all over the world. He told a television show, "There is a total war, basically a war of ideas, war of minds, the battlefield of the human mind. This (the media) is where the battle is fought. So, in this war, all weapons will be mobilized, political means, social means, economic means and propagandist means, and basically trying to take over the person's mind. That is what the Third World War is all about, the war of ideology."
Moon has supplied materials for the rally in support of the Persian Gulf War, slick voter score cards, 30 million pieces of political literature. He sponsors the American Freedom Coalition, which may be in violation of the Foreign Agents Registration Act. The Act states that any organization involved in political activities, controlled or directed by a foreign principle must register with the U.S. Department of Justice. One third of the Coalition's money came from the Unification Church.
A federal investigation into Moon's finances led to a 1982 trial on charges of conspiracy and filing false tax returns. Moon was sent to the federal correctional institution in Danbury, Connecticut. He remained there for 13 months.
Moon has sought to influence the American political agenda by pouring more than a billion dollars into the media. Moon looks upon the media as almost the nervous system for a global empire. After his imprisonment he began a media blitz called The New Birth Project. It's strategy was to show that Moon's prosecution was really racial and religious persecution.
Moon's organization told Martin in 1976 that they would establish a newspaper in New York, then Washington and finally one in San Francisco. The San Francisco publication has not been produced to date.
(To be continued.)
Fifth in a Series
Tuesday, March 24, 1992 The Moon organization has spent an alarming amount of money in the United States in an effort to influence the government. More than $800 million has been spent on the Washington Times, alone. Hundreds of millions more have been spent on the periodicals Insight and World and I. Tens of millions have been spent on the electronic media, and at least $40 million on New York newspapers.
Moon's New York publishing house, Paragon Press, has been the recipient of $10 million. Millions more were spent on the world media associations and conferences, the new right organizations, including the American Freedom Coalition. Moon has purchased millions of dollars in real estate, including the New York Hotel ($100 million), the New Birth Project ($75 million), and commercial fishing ventures ($40 million). Moon recently spent billions of dollars building an automobile plant in China.
But these billions of dollars in investments are not earning sufficient revenue, all of Moon's business ventures are losing money. One of the biggest business losers for the Unification Church is the influential Washington Times. The newspaper is losing as much as $50 million a year. Moon has testified before a Senate Judiciary Committee that his money comes from overseas, but ths could not mean Korea, because most of Moon's investments there are also losing money.
Most of Moon's money comes from Japan. For almost 20 years there have been consistent reports that one of Moon's most important financial supporters and advisors is Ryoichi Sasakawa. In 1969, Moon and Sasakawa, together, formed the Freedom Leadership Foundation (FLF), which lobbied the U.S. for a hawkish position in Vietnam. One of Sasakawa's favorite projects for the Moon organization was Win Over Communism (WOC), which was a fund raiser for the Unification Church. Sasakawa. was the WOC's chairman. Sasakawa. is clearly one of the richest men in Japan. Much of his money comes from the Japanese motorboat racing industry. Since it was legalized in Japan, it has become a $14 billion sport. Sasakawa. describes himself as "the world's richest Fascist".
In addition to his riches, according to author Walter Pat Choate, "for more than half a century Sasakawa. has been one of the primary political brokers inside Japan". Choate claims that Sasakawa is part of Japan's attempts to influence America's politics and policies. "Many of Sasakawa's and Moon's operations parallel each other. They operate in the same way, giving away money, a great deal of attention to media and media organizations which operate across national borders, and the maintenance of a very right wing conservative focus," states Choate.
According to Choate, Sasakawa's political activities go back 50 years, when he formed one of the most radical and Fascist parties inside Japan. "He was one of those individual business leaders who was calling for war with the United States in the months preceding the attack on Pearl Harbor," claims Choate. In 1931, Sasakawa. formed the Kokusui Taishuto, a militarist political movement, and according to a U.S. Counter Intelligence Corps report after World War Two, Sasakawa. was "one of the most active Fascist organizers prior to the war." He was later imprisoned for plotting the assassination of a former Premier. In 1939, Sasakawa. even flew to Rome in one of his own aircraft to meet personally with Benito Mussolini to help arrange the Axis alliance between Italy, Germany and Japan. Sasakawa organized Japan's black shirts patterned after Mussolini's.
Ten months before the outbreak of World War Two, Sasakawa. toured the South Pacific in a flying boat. There still exist letters which he wrote to his close friend Admiral Yamamoto, the architect of the Pearl Harbor attack, and it was Sasakawa. who was virtually Yamamoto's only political contact to the far right wing in Japan.
Another prominent Japanese war criminal who became an important member and supporter of the Moon organization was Yoshio Kodama. Having become an ultra-nationalist, terrorist leader in Japan at the age of 15, Kodama joined scores of secret societies with names like Blood Brotherhood, Holy War Execution League, Federation of Radical Patriotic Workers, and Capital Rise Asia Academy. He made his living working for those murderous groups. These yakuza armies were bankrolled by and served the interests of wealthy industrials, the police and the Army. They broke up labor unions, "protected" factories and offices, and assassinated opposition leaders. Having participated in a failed plot to assassinate, in one stroke, all the most powerful men in Japan, Kodama ended up in prison for attempted assassination and other terrorist acts.
By 1940, Kodama had set up a strong working relationship with Japan's military intelligence apparatus, and served on many secret missions into Manchuria. The work landed him the lucrative position of supplying the Japanese Navy during World War Two. By one account, it was Sasakawa. who asked Kodama to do this work. He established the Kodama Agency, which according to U.S. Army Counterintelligence Corps records, consisted of "systematically looting China of its raw materials". In order to accomplish this supply network, Kodama dealt in heroin, guns, tungsten, gold, salt, iron, owned farms, fisheries, an orphanage, and molybdenum mine, a munitions factory in China, industrial diamonds and radium, which he stole from the hospitals in Shanghai. Eventually he became known as "the man behind the Kempei Tai (secret police). When World War Two ended, Kodama was 34, a brigadier general, Cabinet advisor, and possessed millions of dollars worth of platinum, industrial diamonds, over $175 million in foreign currency, plus liquid assets.
At the end of World War Two, both Sasakawa. and Kodama were classified as Class A war criminals by the American Occupation Forces in Japan. According to American Intelligence, "Sasakawa. appears to be a man potentially dangerous to Japan's political future...He has been squarely behind Japanese military aggression and anti-foreignism for more than 20 years. He is a man of wealth and not too scrupulous about its use...He is not above wearing any new cloak that opportunism may offer." In 1946, an American Army officer attached to the International Military Tribunal in Japan, said of Kodama, "He committed numerous acts of violence in China in acquisition by foul means or fair of commodities and goods belonging to the Chinese," and that "ten years from today, Kodama is going to be a great leader in Japan." The officer's assessment of Kodama was bleak. "His long and fanatic involvement in ultra-nationalistic activities, violence included, and his skill in appealing to youth, make him a man who, if released from internment, would surely be a grave security risk...Persistent rumors as to his black market profits in his Shanghai period, plus his known opportunism, are forceful arguments that he would be as unscrupulous in trade as he was in ultra-nationalism."
But when the Cold War began, U.S. officials in Japan began to fear the Communists more than the Fascists, a pattern too familiar in Europe. Sasakawa., Kodama and other prominent Japanese war criminals were quietly released from prison in 1948, and many went on to play a dominant role in the Japanese Liberal Democratic Party, the most important political party in Asia, which has controlled the political destiny of Japan ever since. It has been reported that Kodama's release from Sugamo Prison was the work of the CIA. As a result, many of the very same men in Japan who had worked closely with Nazi Germany a decade before, again assumed the leadership role in Japan.
By 1958, Kodama was one of the most powerful men in the Orient. That same year, he signed a contract with the Lockheed Corporation to help influence the Japanese government to reverse its intention to purchase the Grumman F-111 for the Japanese Air Force. To do this, Kodama used an American agent who had lost his U.S. citizenship by working with the Japanese during World War Two in Manchuria, another intelligence agent who had worked in China, and other associated politicians, including war crimes suspects whom he had met in Sugamo Prison. Among the people who helped him to secure the contract for Lockheed were General Minoru Genda, the architect of the attack on Pearl Harbor, who had recently been appointed commander-in-chief of the new Japanese Air Force. Kodama had helped him in this new appointment. Lockheed received the Japanese contract and General Genda, who was a primary party in the bombing of Pearl Harbor 17 years earlier, received the U.S. Legion of Merit award from the U.S. Air Force.
Moon, Sasakawa. and Kodama first got together in the 1960s to form the Asian People's Anti-Communist League. Created with the help of South Korean intelligence agents and Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek, the League dedicated itself to uniting Fascists throughout Asia and combatting Communism. The League set up and funded Moon's Freedom Center in the United States in 1964. Kodama was chief advisor for the Moon subsidiary, Win Over Communism, an organization which helped to protect his investments in South Korea. In 1966, the League merged with the Anti-Bolshevik Bloc of Nations, another Fascist organization, to form the World Anti-Communist League. Dedicated to fighting Communism and promoting Fascism, and spreading to nearly 100 nations on six continents, the World Anti-Communist League was headed by John Singlaub, one of the key players in the Iran-Contra scandal.
According to Sara Diamond, the League was a "multinational network of Nazi war criminals, Latin American death squad leaders, North American racists and anti-Semites, and Fascist politicians from every continent." The headquarters for the League is in the United States, in the offices of Moon's Freedom Center.
Sixth in a Series
Friday, March 27, 1992
The enormously wealthy Reverend Sun Myung Moon has powerful friends in Washington and he uses his influential newspaper, the Washington Times, to keep these friends supportive of him. Moon has skillfully used the fear of Communism to gain powerful allies and to intimidate threatening foes.
What few do not understand is that Communism is really not an issue with Moon, it is merely a banner which Moon uses to rally a large enough force to exert a powerful influence on society.
In 1965, working with the South Korean CIA, Moon made his first visit to the United States and obtained a 45-minute audience with former President Dwight D. Eisenhower. Ike agreed to allow his name to be used on the letterhead of the Moon-created Korean Cultural Freedom Foundation, as did Harry S. Truman and Admiral Arliegh Burke. During the 1973-74 fall of President Richard Nixon, Rev. Moon captured the attention of the American media by supporting Nixon. He traveled across the nation proclaiming, "Forgive, Love, Unite". "The office of the President of the U.S. is sacred," Moon said. "God has chosen Richard Nixon to be President. Therefore, God has the power and authority to dismiss him." On December 11, Nixon sent a statement of appreciation to Moon and the Unification Church for their support. Hundreds of Moon followers demonstrated outside the White House in support of Nixon. Moon then received an audience with Nixon, the two embraced.
Moon also received proclamations honoring the Unification Church from such governors as Georgia's Jimmy Carter and Alabama's George Wallace. Moon received endorsements from Senators William L. Scott of Virginia, Jesse Helms of North Carolina, Mark Hatfield of Oregon and J. William Fulbright of Arkansas, as well as Mayor John Lindsay of New York City and William F. Buckley, Jr. Moon had his picture taken and published with Senators Hubert Humphrey, Strom Thurmond, James L. Buckley and Edward Kennedy.
But Moon also devised a method of "lobbying" on Capitol Hill. He assigned three good-looking girls to each United States Senator. "Let them have a good relationship with them. One is for the election, one is to be the diplomat, and one is for the party. If our girls are superior to the senators in many ways, then the senators will be taken in by our members," stated Moon in 1973.
House Speaker Carl Albert had been closely linked with a female follower of the Unification Church. Several Congressmen were entertained in a Washington Hilton hotel suite rented by the Moonies. Everything the girls learned about Senators and Congressmen was to be entered into the Moonie's confidential file, including details of personal lives. Rev. Moon was Vice President George Bush's guest to the Reagan inaugural.
Moon is quoted in many publications as saying, "I will conquer and subjugate the world. I am your brain. The time will come, without my seeking it, when my words will almost serve as law. If I ask a certain thing, it will be done. If I don't want something, it will not be done."
Rev. Moon's organization has gained a tax-exempt status and has qualified for funding from the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare. The Unification Church was granted exemption from taxes because the Moonies swore it did not engage in political or business activities.
Moon's followers had control or influence over the following: International Cultural Foundation, International Oceanic Enterprises, Tong Il Enterprises, Diplomat National Bank, One Up Enterprises, Unification Church International, News World, Korean Cultural and Freedom Foundation, Little Angels, U.S. Foods Corporation, Unification Church of the U.S.A., Japan Unification Church, Toitsu Industries, One Way Productions, Sekai Nippo (World Daily News) of Japan, Il Hwa Pharmaceutical Company, and Paragon Press.
Money flowed freely from country to country. Moonie investigators gain access to the legitimate press corps by posing as journalists. Moonie money from foreign countries bought a controlling interest in an American bank without regard for banking laws and securities regulations. Nationally syndicated columnist Jack Anderson was named chairman of the executive committee of the Diplomat National Bank. The U.S. Senate held hearings concerning Moon's "programmatic bribery of U.S. officials, journalists and others as part of an operation by the Korean CIA to influence the course of U.S. foreign policy."
Now that you know about the organization, that it is far from a religious cult, the series will now focus on the youth and others of this country that have fallen victim to the Moon scenario.
Last of a Seven Part Series
Friday, April 3, 1992
The Moonies, with programming the minds of youth, also instill a protection device in the mind to make deprogramming difficult and shattering. The youth are programmed to resist listening to deprogrammers on the grounds that the deprogrammers are subhumans, working for Satan.
Parents and families that seek to "reclaim" their family member from the Moonies have a terrible time. They must first seek court orders, have law enforcement intercede and then pay for the long and costly deprogramming process. Families have nearly bankrupted themselves in order to extract their Moonie-controlled loved one.
One such person, who was part of the New Education Development in Napa County, once said to herself as she faced deprogramming, "I had finally convinced myself that if my faith was real, it could withstand any examination, confrontation, opposition." The girl spent four years with the Moonies. But as the deprogramming approached, the fear inside the girl was such that she wanted to punch her mother and strangle her brother. "In that rushing moment I literally despised my love for both of them, because they stood as antagonists to my secure construct of 'total community' and 'higher ideals'."
On the next day, the girl awoke to realize that her dearest friends were suddenly accessible to her, where under the Moonie system they were not, and she was free of "heavy Church obligations of witnessing, Trinity meetings, and flower selling, almost like a vacation.
From the book Hostage To Heaven, the girl relates her feelings. "As Mom, Dad and I sat down together for lunch, I felt myself straining to bury my parents alive. How could I tell them that they weren't my True Parents? That they weren't close to God? That they weren't perfect as Sun Myung Moon and his wife were? Yet how could I deny the unconditional love and justice they had shown through their publicly unpopular commitment to free me of an entrapment I could barely perceive? Something hidden in my smouldering heart refused to replace their genuine, touchable love and sacrifice with my pure, crystalline, abstract image of Moon's untouchable love. My mother confided that God had pulled her through the years of my separation and rejection. As we got in the car I was forced to ask myself, if everyone claims God, then who really has God? I didn't know anymore?"
To this girl and to other Moonie conscripts, Moon was considered to be the Messiah. "And so began the inevitable evaluation of Reverend Moon's character that the Church had warned against," she said. She stated that her emotions rushed out blindly to come to Reverend Moon's defense, protect him. "I didn't want to hear logical arguments evaluating by worldly standards Moon's action and words. I longed to retain my unconditional, untested faith in his purity. I can't describe the depth of pain I experienced in considering the possibility that the one I had loved absolutely might be less than what a God ought to be. I knew instinctively I was coming closer to the possibility that my love of Moon was a projection for my own mental and emotional need for someone to fill an unviolated place in my heart. All my insides fought against this like a caged animal let free and terrified of freedom."
The girl had accepted Moon as the messiah. "I wasn't measuring Moon's words and actions by my own idea, of what a Messiah should be like morally, socially, spiritually; instead, because I'd early accepted that he was the Messiah beyond my or the world's judgment, I was surrendering my own ability to think, to trust my own instincts, conscience and judgement."
Representatives of Moon interceded and talked to the girl. They told her, "Satan wants to trick you into thinking life outside the Church is free and marvelous. Don't let them influence you. Six thousand years of human misery is resting on your shoulders,. You must not give up your innocence, your allegiance, ever."
During deprogramming, the girl was told about the mind-control techniques used in Communist China as analyzed by Yale psychiatrists. "To my shock," she said, "I recognized these techniques as the same ones read to me on the way to Napa for an interview."
The Moonies laid a foundation for deprogramming. "Go ahead, indulge, if they give you alcohol during your deprogramming. Do anything external to fake them out that you've quit the Church. Then, when they relax the security, race back to us."
The girl, as she began to see a different light, composed a list of the ways that the Unification Church was bending American laws from her personal knowledge and experience (these points may be minor compared to the national scale, but they do reflect the violation of the smallest principles):
"The hearings and deprogramming allowed me to discover that in the cult I hadn't owned or had access to a private inner life of truth, free of guilt or manipulation," the girl held in Napa County stated. But after deprogramming she said, "I could see that the greatest responsibility ever granted me, or any human being, was to act from free will, especially in evaluating right and wrong in a complex world. I had confused security with enlightenment. So I came out of the (Unification) Church."
Reverend Moon is powerful, rich and has sway and influence over some of this nation's highest public officials, but in the end, the mind of a young girl overcame this power, this influence, to set her will free again.