Kirk here with another installment in my series of posts on the Unification Church and Kumamoto.
The issue of how deeply the Unification Church (the former Toitsu Kyokai; 旧統一教会) has infused itself into Japanese society is huge – the rot runs deep. I’m sure that many books will be written on this topic in the coming years. I can’t take on a research project of that scope so I’m trying to limit myself to what I can learn about the UC in Kumamoto. I’ve been impressed with the work of SUZUKI Eito so I’ve been mining his Twitter feed and blog for Kumamoto-related leads. The postcard I posted about the other day was one bit of information that I found on his blog: https://www.facebook.com/Kumamotoi/posts/pfbid023qFs3bupvFd2zguj68VzyUEpSP7mL7mzgLNFsarv4fNkvT8pJmLtsEMQwvCxY8cAl
In today’s post, I’d like to look at the following tweet by Mr. Suzuki regarding an event held at Sojo University last year:
https://twitter.com/cult_and_fraud/status/1562639325811970048
In it, Suzuki says that “it is often pointed out” that this “College Summit for Peace” project is associated with Moonie student groups such as CARP (Collegiate Association for the Research of Principals). That intrigued me but I wanted to verify it before posting here. Here’s what I found out in a nutshell: Yes, it’s almost certain that he tevent at Sojo University had Moonie connections but, unlike the tunnel project that the university’s president was involved with, the Moonie connections are so well hidden that I find it difficult to blame President Nakayama for being taken in.
Now for the details regarding how I came to that conclusion.
First, a little about CARP. On the English-language CARP website, the connection between Sun Myung Moon and the organization is immediately obvious: https://www.carplife.org
The first thing you see on this site is a picture of Sun Myung Moon and the following quote: “Before I hope to master the universe, I must first master myself.”
In Japan, CARP’s Moonie connections are known but tend to be hidden. The following article (with video) is about how the CARP “club” at Kyushu University (“Kyudai CARP”) has been working to turn students in the UC members/believers:
https://news.yahoo.co.jp/articles/02f0b3a41064bba6ea791126424277ca3406b55f
An article (in English) in the Asahi Shimbun explains how CARP works as follows:
— start quote — “A middle-aged man showed up, describing himself as a “lecturer.” He showed a picture of an elderly man and said: “This is Sun Myung Moon. He is a messiah.” Before the winter break, the then freshman had been told that the name of the circle was CARP, for Collegiate Association for the Research of Principles. He said he had no idea that CARP was connected to the Unification Church until the evening meeting when the picture of the organization’s founder was shown. — end quote —
Ex-member: Church used close-knit circle to lure followers https://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/14705839
Kyoto University Press has issued a warning to all students regarding the CARP club associated with Kyodai:
https://www.kyoto-up.org/genri
By the way, Kumamoto University has a CARP club but I’m not aware of any problems that have been reported regarding this group:
https://www.pinterest.jp/kumadaicarp/
So, CARP’s connections to the Moonies are clear. But can a connection between the “College Summit for Peace” and CARP be confirmed? As I wrote above, I think the answer is “yes” but connecting the dots is more difficult. Let me try to walk you through it.
First, College Summit for Peace is a national series of events that have been held at Japan’s most prestigious universities – from Tokyo University on down. All of the websites have the same logo, which looks very professional. The main website of the organization can be viewed here: https://www.college-summit.org/
If one looks at the “contact” page, the only human being listed is a senior at Keio University named Kitano Takahiro (北野嵩大). The student has his own webpage that looks completely innocuous – no Moonie connections. But he also has a Facebook page and one of the groups his page says he likes is Keio CARP: https://www.facebook.com/keiocarp
In addition to this evidence of the connection between “College Summit for Peace” and CARP (and by extension the Moonies), there is other more indirect evidence. Suzuki warns there is a history of using events (online and off) that focus on SDGs (sustainable development goals) as ways of making initial contacts that may later lead to individual recruitment.
https://www.mbs.jp/news/feature/kansai/article/2022/08/090320.shtml
(By the way, this page has a video of Suzuki speaking on this topic on TV that I recommend watching.)
Indeed, most if not all of the “College Summit for Peace” events listed on the organization’s main website deal with SDGs. And, SDGs are identified as a major topic of concern on CARPs official website:
And, the event at Sojo University also focuses on SDGs.
Another bit on indirect evidence that something is fishy about “College Summit for Peace” is that the high quality of the web design and video production over multiple websites bespeaks organizational power and financial resources that must go way beyond the individual students identified as the “representative” (代表) on each website. None of the websites identify “adult” (non-student) support or any external organization. I find it inconceivable that individual students who happen to be interested in SDGs could build a unified, nation-wide movement like this without substantial assistance (or, indeed, direction) from an external organization with deep pockets.
So, after spending a chunk of time looking into this, I would agree with Suzuki Eito: All indications are that the event held last year at Sojo University did indeed have Moonie backing. I don’t know if it led to individual students being recruited. If that happened, there would not be any record of it unless a student was willing to come forward as a victim. People who participated in the event who politely decline subsequent invitations would probably never have any reason to suspect that the Moonies were behind it; only those who were sucked in quite deeply would become aware of what was really going on. And, by that time there’s a good chance that the sophisticated mind-control techniques Suzuki has described and been warning about would have begun to take hold.
So, that’s what I’ve been able to find so far. Currently, the only thing I’m aware of that has come out about the specific event at Sojo University is the single tweet by Suzuki. I’ll be watching to see if major media outlets pick this up.