Osami Kuboki Inspires New Determination at Students' Festival in Japan

Gaku Makise
June 11, 1988

Flag bearers lead the march of festival speakers and representatives

A spectacular rally called the "All Japan Students' Festival to Create a New Future of Asia" was held at the Kobe World Memorial Hall in Hyogo Prefecture on June 11, 1988. Over 6,000 students participated in the festival, under the slogan of "Jump and Move and Open a New Door of Asia."

The participants, who have been promoting the Unification movement all over Japan, reconfirmed their consciousness of being Unification students who are responsible for the future of Asia and the world. They made a new determination to work more seriously than ever before. When laser rays beaming through the auditorium created the symbol of the Unification Church on the screen, a great cry of joy rocked the hall. The activities of the Unification movement were introduced with a multivision slide show. Receiving a storm of applause, the officers of the Japanese Church headquarters, professors, and guests from overseas entered the hall.

Osamu Yokoyama, the director of the Evangelical Students Department, which sponsored the festival, spoke about its meaning. He said, "Let's realize God's word, inherit heavenly tradition, and work hard for the eternal prosperity of Japan."

Several distinguished speakers, including the president of Japan CARP, gave messages that expressed their expectation that the Unification students should fight to open the future of Japan and Asia.

Over 6,000 students fill the Kobe World Memorial Hall to capacity

Living for Others

The main speaker, Osami Kuboki, president of the Unification Church of Japan, gave a vigorous speech emphasizing the necessity of a spirit of living for others, the essence of True Father's thought. He said:

Japan has to share with the Asian people the blessing of prosperity that she has received from God, with a parental heart. This is the destiny that God gave to Japan. Now God's blessing has arrived in Asia. This is a good chance for us to make an effort to promote the unity of North and South Korea. Unless we do so, the Japanese people cannot survive. Every Japanese has to have a parental heart. This is heavenly justice, and the fundamental heart that will create progress for eternity."

Student representatives then expressed their heartfelt resolve to unite with these ideals.

Students gather outside the hall

During the second part of the rally, demonstrations of karate, chon do sul, and jazz dance by high school students were performed. Two teams of student motorbike riders, who hope to pass through the International Highway Tunnel, had arrived in Kobe from both Kyushu, in the southern part of Japan, and Hokkaido, in the northern part of Japan, by motorcycle. They rode up to the stage.

The team leaders exchanged stones, one stone from the city of Karatsu, where the first excavation tunnel for the Highway is now being dug, and the other stone from Wakkanai, Hokkaido, the northernmost city in Japan.

Songs by guest singer Yuki Katsuragi made everyone wild with excitement. Finally, Takayuki Matsunami, the director of the Education Department of the church headquarters in Tokyo, took the initiative to lead everyone in three cheers.

The five-hour festival proved to be a great success.