7.6 What kind of education did Sun Myung Moon receive?

When I was ten and going to the village school, I had to memorize a page a day. I usually finished memorizing it in thirty minutes. If I concentrated, I could do it in thirty minutes. All I had to do was to show my teacher that I had memorized it. What I could do in thirty minutes, other students had to spend a whole day on. After I did my portion for the day, and my teacher took a nap, I went up to the hills to play.
In my village school, my teacher used to give us something to memorize over night, usually parts of the Analects of Confucius or the Discourse of Mencius. Students had to recite the parts they had learned the previous day. If we did not recite them properly, we would be caned. I remember being caned myself then. (204-251, 07/11/1990)

In the past, there were cram schools to help students enter schools, just like those in Seoul today that prepare students to enter universities. At that time, I decided to go to a grammar school, but I had to go through a cram school to be tested in order to enter a school that was acknowledged by the government. (171-258, 01/02/1988)

Although my parents paid one year of tuition for the village school, I insisted on going to a better school. I persuaded my parents, my cousin and my grandparents. I was the first one in my family who thought of going to a school teaching new things from the West. I revolutionized their way of thinking. I knew that we should not just be memorizing what Confucius had said while other people were building airplanes. (203-280, 06/27/1990)

I am a very ambitious man. I made a determination to have more than three doctorate degrees before my death. However, now I think the easiest thing for me would be to get doctorate degrees. They call them honorary doctorate degrees and many people want to give me those. (194-294, 10/29/1989)

After the academy, I went to elementary school. It was called Osan Elementary School. I transferred to the third grade having passed the test. I studied there for a year. Of course, I had no choice but to study hard. I desperately studied and my grades were high enough for them to allow me to skip the fourth grade and to enter the fifth grade the following year. (211-133, 12/30/1990)

I walked eight kilometers to the elementary school every day. If kids living along the way joined me on the way to school, they were never late. I was like a clock for them. At every turn in the pass, kids were waiting for me. I could walk very fast. I could walk eight kilometers in forty-five minutes. Kids following me really had to hurry. (133-155, 07/10/1984)

Osan Elementary School did not permit the students to speak Japanese. As you know, it was founded by Mr. Lee Seung-hoon, who was one of the thirty-three patriots who had stood up to the Japanese [proclaiming Korean independence on March 1, 1919]. So the school's tradition was to oppose Japanese colonialism. That was why they would not allow students to speak Japanese.
I had to get to know my nation's enemy. Without understanding the enemy, no one can make a good strategy to win over them. So, I took another test to transfer to Jeongju Elementary School which was a public school at that time. I learned to speak Japanese fluently there in order to graduate. In the meantime, I came to think about the fundamental questions of life as well as about life of faith - all the difficult questions. (211-133, 12/30/1990)

I had to learn Japanese in school. It feels like yesterday that I learned the Japanese alphabets, Katakana and Hiragana. I memorized the entire alphabet in a night. Then I memorized my Japanese texts in fifteen days. After that, I could understand what people were saying in Japanese.
My teacher displayed my first painting on the wall. Although I had not learned it formally, I knew that I had to divide the space into three parts. I simply guessed that the open space I was going to paint should cover a certain percentage of the space on the paper, and so forth. I measured them exactly and put them in the right place with the right proportions. (171-258, 01/02/1988)

When I used notebooks in my young school days, I did not start with the first line of the notebook. I started to write from the top of the page. Sometimes, I used a page twice. That way I could get twice as much use from a notebook. People must save materials. (31-259, 06/04/1970)

I watched the principal in my elementary school and made up my mind that I would live this and that way. (25-122, 09/30/1969)

The time when I used to study with the small kerosene lamp feels like yesterday. Do you know about small kerosene lamps? When I studied until two or three o'clock in the morning, my parents used to tell me that I would impair my health if I did not get enough sleep. I really studied so hard. I made friends with night bugs. Night bugs were my friends in the summer. (100-155, 10/09/1978)

What I can vividly remember is my graduation from Jeongju Elementary School. Many parents, teachers and influential people in Jeongju gathered to celebrate our graduation. The principal spoke and this was followed by congratulatory remarks from one of the guests. Right after the guest's speech, I volunteered to go up to the stage. There I confronted Japanese colonialism. I can still remember that time like yesterday.
At my elementary school graduation, I made a big speech. In front of a police chief and a county ombudsman, I spoke, "You Japanese should pack your bags and go back to your country." I was called by the police chief, and we argued. I argued that one could not stay quiet when things were so unjust. Of course, I was branded as a troublemaker from then.
When I first came to Seoul, I realized that things were totally different. Jeongju was in the countryside. Having lived in the country, the experience in Seoul was very different, 180 degree different. You have no idea how large Seoul felt to me then. I remember trying to put up with the new environment.
In my junior high school, I did most of the cleaning at school. I wanted to be the student who loved the school the most. I wanted to clean the school as if it were my own home. When I had such a mind, I did not want anyone else to help me.
I was a self-sufficient student for seven years. It was not because I did not have enough money but because I wanted to understand about women's work. I never used dirty water when cooking. No matter how cold the water was, I used fresh water. In the cold, fresh water, my hands felt numb. I often used to wash rice. (211-134, 12/30/1990)

Because I am so used to few side dishes, I do not need many. I like things to be simple, practical and delicious. I always had one side dish. One side dish is enough for me. (45-258, 07/04/1971)

I thought that a person who had not been able to keep his own nation did not deserve to eat all three meals a day. I often went hungry. As much as I missed food, I missed the day of my country's liberation. That was how I trained myself. I said to myself that I must love my people and my nation more than food. So, during my life in Seoul, I skipped lunch. It was not because I did not have money in my pocket. When I had money, I gave it to poor people around me. (49-71, 10/03/1971)

I often fasted on my birthday. How could I celebrate my birthday when I had not even accomplished the individual level victory and family level victory, let alone the national and the world level victories? That was the way I thought. How could I celebrate my birthday, knowing my situation. Sinners must fulfill their responsibilities for God, and only then could they celebrate their birthdays. That was the way I lived. (93-278, 06/11/1977)

There was a place called Choong Ji island in the middle of the Han River. I remember lamenting looking down the Han River. I remember saying to the river, in my mind, "How passionate is your love for this nation? You should be the lifeline for this nation. You should be like mother's milk for this nation. If you are not going to be that, I will be that." I can vividly remember what I thought. There was only one bridge. I remember what I thought crossing that bridge, too. (197-74, 01/07/1990)

I was a Sunday school teacher who thought of children to be the most precious things. I really loved the children more than anyone else. The children were also crazy about me, too. They would not even go to school but follow me instead. (60-197, 08/17/1972)

I understand so well about the background of people like Rev. Park Jae-bong or Rev. Lee Ho-bin. Although I know their secrets, I never revealed their faults. They have followers, too. Those church pastors and their followers met because of their destined fate. God brought them to meet through the full workings of fate, let us just put it that way. So if anyone reduces that degree of fate by half, then the person who dragged them down should take responsibility for those people whom he pulled them apart. What is once planted in a field should be harvested in the same place.
One day, I wrote an entry in my diary that was thirty pages long, as long as a whole notebook. I recorded how serious I felt in my heart about the situation in my country. This was used against me by the Japanese later. I had written several people's names in the diary, and they were all arrested and accused of participating in an incident I was involved with. From then on, I never wrote again in a diary. I would not even carry a notepad. I kept all the important things in my head. (33-129, 08/11/1970)

I burned my own diaries and cried. "This could have been a historic record by which suffering young people could find the way to their nation's liberation, but I have to burn it now." I was choked with tears. I have tried to find the way to save my people, the world and God. (197-164, 01/13/1990)

When I went to Japan, as I boarded the train at Seoul station (at that time, it was called the Hikari line, running between Seoul and Busan), I told myself, "I will not come back to Seoul as a miserable loser. God will protect people that have a passionate love for and desire to save their nation. When I return, I will be full of hope." (197-75, 01/07/1990)

Leaving for Busan from Seoul, I said to myself, "What will I learn in Japan? I will pave the road for the young people in my country to rise in this world and to establish an independent country." I remember crying unstoppable tears as my train crossed the Han River Bridge after leaving Yongsan station. (199-185, 02/16/1990)

I felt that I was leaving my nation, which was like an orphan. I covered myself with a coat and wailed with grief from Seoul to Busan. A Japanese lady came to me and asked, "Has your mother or father passed away? Well, everyone has to go through such sadness." I was sad only for my nation, out of my deep love for my nation. (39-62, 01/09/1971)

I can never forget my prayer at Busan harbor before I left to study in Japan, at two o'clock in the morning of 1 April 1941. I promised my country in my prayer, "Although I am leaving you now, my love for you will only grow stronger. I will shed more tears for you."
As soon as I set foot in the enemy nation, my tears stopped. I never visited any of the famous spots in Japan. I did not think I was qualified to have such an enjoyable time because I did not have my own nation. (22-122, 02/02/1969)

I studied electricity and science. I knew where I was headed. I studied science, especially electricity, because I knew I had to be good at mathematical calculation to undertake complex projects. I have to make decisions quickly and precisely. Electricity is invisible, so it is somewhat like religion. In every single phenomenon of the natural world, there is electrical activity. (120-316, 10/20/1982)

I used to walk around downtown when I was studying in Tokyo. There is nowhere I did not see in Tokyo. I was making a plan in my mind. I thought, "In a few years, the young people in Japan will definitely rise up." (15-87, 09/29/1965)

I studied people, from scholars to simple laborers. I walked around the back streets of Tokyo. I was not happy there, being a patriot for Korea. I talked to nature, the trees and rocks in Japan, "You know you are in the enemy's territory but you must know that you belong to God." That was the way I thought. (154-163, 06/12/1964)

At the time of my graduating from school in Japan, Japan was in the middle of the Second World War. I skipped a semester and graduated earlier, in September [1943]. (15-147, 10/03/1965)

I went to Tokyo station to catch my train, but somehow my feet would not move. If I had taken the boat according to my original plan, I would not be speaking to you here now. Heaven stopped me from going. I did not send a telegram to my family in Korea explaining that I would arrive there later. I just went off to climb mountains with my friends. It was fall. We went to Mt. Fuji. We spent several days mountain climbing. When I arrived at my hometown in Korea a week later, my family was devastated. (105-238, 10/26/1979)

They had known that I would arrive at a certain time on a certain day and on a certain boat. But I did not actually come when I told them I would. The boat I was going to take was wrecked and most of the passengers died. So my family was devastated. (51-236, 11/28/1971)

From my home to the town of Jeongju it was about eight kilometers. My mother ran the eight kilometers with bare feet and she rode a train to Busan. She could not even think and so did not put shoes and clothes on properly. She heard that I was dead. So she ran barefooted to Jeongju and even to Busan by train. She checked the list of people who were reported to be dead at Busan Marine police station, but she could not find my name. She could not find out what had happened to me. She was so devastated by the notion that her son had died. She did not even notice that she had a big thorn in her foot. She did not know until the wound festered. Anyhow, I returned home ten days later than my original plan. I really felt sorry when I heard what had happened, especially about my mother. (45-134, 06/24/1971)

When I left Japan, I thought to myself, "I will come back twenty years from now. I will meet you again then. Now I am leaving without avenging my nation's sorrow on the Japanese emperor. The time will come in which I will command and teach young people in Japan."
Twenty years later, I went back to Japan. What I wanted to know the most was how many young Japanese people were in our church. There were about five hundred young people, all from very good family backgrounds. I asked them what they would do in the future. They all said that they would do whatever I told them to do. How amazing that was! They only wanted the Unification Church and me to be successful. (34-349, 09/20/1970)