Rev. Sun Myung Moon
As a Peace-loving Global Citizen is the autobiography of Rev. Sun Myung Moon, the founder of the Unification Movement. It was published in 2009 in both Korean and English by Gimm-Young Publishers of Seoul, South Korea. The book was released in South Korea on March 9, 2009 and debuted at #3 on the Businesss bestseller's list. It has ranked in various bestseller lists since then and was ranked 15th on the General bestseller's list as of October 14, 2009.
“Please Don’t Die”
“It doesn’t matter how much good you are trying to do,” she said. “It’s more important that you keep yourself alive. No matter what happens, don’t die.”
I felt sorry for her. I would have liked to call out, “Mother,” embrace her, and cry out loud with her. I couldn’t do that, though, because I knew perfectly well why the Japanese police had brought her there. My mother kept pleading with me not to die, but all I could do in return was blink my badly swollen and bloodied eyes.
During the time I was held in the Kyounggi Province Police Station, it was Mrs. Gi Bong Lee, the mistress of the boarding house, who kept me supplied with food and clothing. She wept every time she visited me. I would comfort her, saying, “Endure a little longer. !is era is coming to an end. Japan will be defeated soon. You don’t need to cry.” These were not empty words. God had given me this belief. As soon as the police released me in February of the following year, I took all my diaries that had been stacked in the boarding house to the bank of the Han River. There I burned them so they would not cause any further trouble to my friends. If I had not done this, I knew the diaries could eventually be used by the police to harm others. My body did not recover easily from the torture. I had blood in my feces for quite a while. Mrs. Lee, the boarding house mistress, and her sister helped me to nurse my body back to health with great sincerity and dedication.
Finally, on August 15, 1945, Korea was liberated from Japan. This was the day every Korean had been waiting for. It was a day of tremendous emotion. Shouts of “Mansei!” and people waving the Taeguk flag covered the entire peninsula. I could not join in the festivities, however. My heart was deadly serious because I could foresee the terrible calamity= that was about to befall the Korean peninsula. I went alone into a small anteroom and immersed myself in prayer. Soon a.er that, my fears were realized. Although liberated from Japanese rule, our homeland was cut in two at the 38th parallel. In the North, a communist regime that denied the existence of God came to power.
