The Words of the Burton Family
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The Words of the Burton Family |
The Institute on Religion and Public Policy, a respected nonprofit based in Washington, D.C., called upon the Japanese government to enforce the laws guaranteeing freedom of religion to all Japanese citizens in a statement issued January 12 and updated Jan. 28, 2010.
Read the Institute on Religion and Public Policy article below.
"The Institute on Religion and Public Policy calls upon the government of Japan to bring to a halt the long-term and persistent use of kidnapping and forced confinement of its citizens to deny and change their religious beliefs," the news release stated and continued:
"It has been reported that just in the Unification Church alone, more than 4,000 members have been victimized to date. Those who have managed to escape often did so at great personal risk.
The approximate 1,300 who returned to their religious communities reported horrific accounts of long-term incarceration, mental and physical abuse and psychological manipulation designed to force them to recant their faith. Currently at least four Unification Church members remain missing and are suspected to be held against their will.
One example of Japan's religious persecution is the case of Mr. Toru Goto, who was confined for over 12 years against his will in Tokyo and finally gained his freedom in 2008. Mr. Goto was not allowed to leave the illegal private prison, even to exercise, and was deprived of food by his captors, necessitating a prolonged hospital stay when he was finally released.
The perpetrators of this crime are known to the police, and yet on December 9 prosecutors refused to hear the case against them. Their claim of "insufficient evidence" is a travesty of justice and allows those responsible to continue their activities with impunity. Such inaction by the government will almost certainly result in more such kidnappings," according to the IRPP.
A 22-year-old business administration major at Meijo University in Nagoya, is the latest victim of kidnapping and forced confinement of Unification Church members, according to church officials in Japan. Ms. Fusako Tomoda, had been an active member of the campus ministry of the Unification Church, known as Collegiate Association for the Research of Principles (CARP) for two years. CARP ministers believe she was kidnapped by her relatives on January 15, 2010, two months before her scheduled graduation from the university.
She met the CARP movement in October 2007, and participated in a 40-Day Workshop in the spring of 2008. Ms Tomoda had lived communally in a CARP center in Nagoya since April 2009 and had devoted her summer vacations and winter vacations of 2008 and 2009 to CARP activities, according to Mr. S. Uotani, a church spokesman in Tokyo.
Ms. Tomoda's parents live in Shiga Prefecture. In June 2009, she visited her home in order to explain her faith to her parents. After that, her mother, elder brother, and elder sister tried to persuade her to leave CARP. They called her frequently and wrote a letter to her, asking her to give up her faith, Mr. Uotani reported to familyfed.org.
She visited her parents' home January 15, 2010, and planned to stay there for a couple of days but did not return. The leader of Shiga CARP visited her parents' home where he was met by Ms. Tomoda's elder brother who told him: "This is a family matter. So, I cannot let you meet her."
More than 4,300 members of the Unification Church have been kidnapped and confined by their parents and fanatical opponents of the Unification Church during the preceding 40 years. More than 1,300 of these victims broke free from their kidnappers and returned to church service. Some of these victims reported having suffered, rape, torture, or forced starvation intended to break their faith.
Church officials believe that four other Japanese church members are victims of forced confinement in recent months.
These include Yuko Majima, 60, who joined the Unification Church in 1985 but kept her membership secret from her husband until 1998. Her husband employed Christian ministers to confine her and attempt to break her faith that year. She was released after 42 days of verbal abuse. She told church members afterwards that she had collapsed in tears and wrote a letter renouncing her faith. Church members and friends believe that she has was confined a second time last year and has been kept hostage in a condominium in Osaka since October of 2009.
Another victim is believed to be Masako Kudo, 35, a landscape architect who disappeared on Jan. 1, 2008. Ms. Kudo joined the church in 1998 and later participated in the marriage blessing of Rev. Moon in 2007. She attempted to introduce her fiancé to her parents in Sagamihara City, Kanagawa Prefecture on the day she went missing.
Momoyo Yamada, 30, is believed to have been kidnapped on Sept. 18, 2009. She graduated from Japan Women's College of Physical Education in March, 2002 and joined the church in 2005. On September 18th, she told church members that she was in the process of being kidnapped while on a visit to her father's workplace in Sendai, a city in Northeast Japan.
Takashi Nishikawa, 26, an activist with the campus ministry of the Unification Church, has been missing since August, 2009. Mr. Nishikawa sent a certified letter announcing his renunciation of his church membership in December, 2009. His parents confined him for 18 days from Sept. 12, 2006, but he escaped and rejoined his colleagues in the Osaka campus-church center. Church officials report to familyfed.org that they believe that Mr. Nishikawa's letter of renunciation was coerced and may have been a tactic to gain release. Mr. Toru Goto and thousands of other victims of kidnapping were obliged to write such letters in bids to gain their freedom.
Rev. In Jin Moon, president of the Unification Church in the United States and Rev. Hyung Jin Moon, the chairman of the Unification Church International, have hailed the victims of deprogramming as martyrs and saints of the modern age.
Alexandria, VA, January 12, 2010 -- THE INSTITUTE on Religion and Public Policy calls upon the government of Japan to bring to a halt the long-term and persistent use of kidnapping and forced confinement of its citizens to deny and change their religious beliefs.
It has been reported that just in the Unification Church alone, more than 4,000 members have been victimized to date. Those who have managed to escape often did so at great personal risk.
The approximate 1,300 who returned to their religious communities reported horrific accounts of long-term incarceration, mental and physical abuse and psychological manipulation designed to force them to recant their faith. Currently at least four Unification Church members remain missing and are suspected to be held against their will.
One example of Japan's religious persecution is the case of Mr. Toru Goto, who was confined for over 12 years against his will in Tokyo and finally gained his freedom in 2008. Mr. Goto was not allowed to leave the illegal private prison, even to exercise, and was deprived of food by his captors, necessitating a prolonged hospital stay when he was finally released.
The perpetrators of this crime are known to the police, and yet on December 9 prosecutors refused to hear the case against them. Their claim of "insufficient evidence" is a travesty of justice and allows those responsible to continue their activities with impunity. Such inaction by the government will almost certainly result in more such kidnappings.
These practices are clearly in violation of international human rights instruments guaranteeing the right to freedom of religion and belief and freedom of movement. Japan is bound to uphold these standards as a member of the international community. Moreover, false imprisonment is a crime in Japan under Article 220 of the Japanese Penal Code. These gross human rights violations threaten to stain Japan's otherwise exemplary role in promoting and defending fundamental rights around the world.
THE INSTITUTE strongly urges the immediate and forceful intervention of Japan's Government, Diet, prosecutors, police, human rights organizations, and religious leaders to put an end to kidnapping and forced religious conversion in Japan. A conscious lack of action on the part of the Government of Japan to end these kidnappings and forced conversions makes the government complicit in such acts.
Last Updated (Thursday, 28 January 2010)