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T. Goto: Address to Summit 2022, Session V
Written by Toru Goto, chair, Japanese Victims’ Association against Religious Kidnapping and Forced Conversion
Friday, August 12, 2022
Address to Summit 2022 and Leadership Conference,
Seoul, Korea, August 11-15, 2022
I'd like to thank you for giving me this opportunity to speak to you. I'm the chairman of the Japanese Victims’ Association against Religious Kidnapping and Forced Conversion. I'd like to make my presentation short. If I talk about the 15 years of experience, I think I will take more time. I want to share my experience with you.
In 1995, one day when I was in my home, my family members came and took me in a van to an apartment. [Mr. Goto showed a PowerPoint presentation.] This is the apartment where I was detained on the eighth floor. This is the entrance door. It was locked, and nobody could get in or out of this place. This is the lock that was set in the windows, so I could not escape from the windows as well.
This is the layout of the apartment. The blue dots represent my family members. There was quite a long distance between my room and the entrance door. There were more than three family members in the apartment. They were living in this apartment to watch me so that I could not escape.
One thing I'd like to mention is the masterminds of the detention. My parents were very kind people, sensible people. They would not have thought about detaining me in this way. They must have been taught this method of detaining me.
These are the two main culprits. They call themselves counselors, and they are experts in detention. One is Takashi Miyamura, and the other is the pastor Yasutomo Matsunaka. These two spread false information. So the family members believed them and agreed to the detention and paid a substantial amount for that. And this detention is a very bad practice.
I was surrounded by the counselors, who were trying to persuade me to defect from the Family Federation. One of them said to me, you are being mind-controlled. You cannot think independently, freely. Your brain is not working properly. You cannot get out until your brain functions properly.
When I protested, he cursed me, saying I was foolish and that I should behave myself, and he hit me. He said I should pay attention and listen, and he sprinkled hot tea on me. Wake up, he said, and poured cold water on my back.
And sometimes I caught influenza and suffered from fever, but I couldn't consult a doctor. Every day in confinement I was forced to hear criticisms of the Family Federation. I had a fear that my religious freedom was being squashed. I had a terrible mental anguish and was so miserable. So I wanted to die after detention.
Nine years have passed since the detention, and I'm in my 40s. I staged a hunger strike for 30 days. I thought I was dying, but I stopped because I feared death. But after that I was strictly controlled. And this abuse continued for about two years.
In 2008, after 12 years of confinement, I was released. It was a very cold day. I went to the church to seek help. I hadn't walked for many years, so I couldn't walk properly.
In asking for help, I talked to a stranger passing by, and he said he was a member of the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification. And thanks to his help, I was led to the FFWPU headquarters. This miraculous meeting was possible by the help of God. I'm sure of that.
I couldn't stand on my own, so I was hospitalized immediately. This is a photo of myself three days after being hospitalized. I didn't have muscles, I had various body problems, malnutrition, anemia. I had to stay in the hospital for 40, 50 days. I was suffering severe malnutrition at the time because I fasted and my diet was strictly limited. I was 44.
As soon as I was discharged from the hospital, I filed a lawsuit against the counselors. But nobody was arrested; no police action was taken against them. The prosecution dismissed the case. It was unbelievable. I couldn't forgive them for the detention. So I filed a civil suit, and I presented new evidence and won the case. The defendants were judged to have done wrong, and the court ordered that they should pay the fines.
In 2009 the appeal was dismissed. The court acknowledged that there was a confinement-detention for twelve years. And there was evidence that the counselors had done wrong. That was the court’s judgment. After I won the case, for several years there were no cases of detention and confinement. But last year there was another case.
Last month former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was assassinated in broad daylight. The motive for the crime was hatred against the Family Federation. So all of Japan’s media are unfriendly to Family Federation. I'm really sorry to hear this news, hear about this phenomenon. What I'm worried about is that there may be yet again cases of detention and confinement.
Detention is a crime. In no case should detention be condoned. There have been more than 4,000 cases of detention and abduction. Japan is a law-abiding society. Minority religious practitioners are entitled to the protection of the law. We should never be forced to give up our faith. That is my hope. Thank you for listening.
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