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Y. Ohno: Address to World Summit 2014
Written by Hon. Yoshinori Ohno, Former Minister of Devense, Japan
Saturday, August 9, 2014
Address to World Summit, Seoul, Korea, August 9-13, 2014
I am extremely honored to have this opportunity to express my sincere sentiments of welcome to all of you who came from 62 countries throughout the world in order to attend the World Summit 2014 of the UPF in Seoul, Korea. Needless to say, the founder of the UPF is the Rev. Sun Myung Moon. We highly respect Dr. Moon’s lifelong achievements for world peace. His ideals and legacy will be studied and adopted further in this program.
It is quite often said that the world is getting smaller and smaller, and yet it takes more than ten hours to go from here to the United States even by plane. In addition, we need a passport, visa, etc., to cross a national border. However, in this room, almost 300 people from more than 60 countries have gotten together and now, for example, the distance between Japan and the U.S. has become only three meters. Whatever country you are from, the distance between your country and others is very short and equal in this room.
In this room, the world has become so small and so equalized, thanks to affections and considerations of Mrs. Hak Ja Han Moon, one of the most outstanding woman leaders for world peace.
And now, I could hear a loud voice arising, “Oh, no! to any atomic bomb,” “Oh, no! to any war,” “Oh, no, to any terrorism.” Incidentally, my name is “OHNO.” But don’t misunderstand me. I’ll never say “Oh, no! to this wonderful meeting of World Summit 2014 of the UPF.
Today is August 9. This day 69 years ago, an atomic bomb was dropped onto Nagasaki; three days earlier, one was dropped onto Hiroshima. That put the period to World WarⅡ.
I was only ten years old at that time. I was born in Formosa, or Taiwan, in 1935, and lived there until 1947, two years after the war. Then, I was repatriated back to Japan. As a twelve-year-old boy, I experienced a lot of misery, eating even a grasshopper because of the shortage of food. I have very few friends from my elementary school days, because it is very difficult to find out their present whereabouts after being separated under such circumstances.
However, right now, I am greatly relieved and feel very happy, having heard a loud voice arising in this room for “peace and friendship.”
Let us construct an arc and bridge of peace and friendship high up in the sky. Let us construct a highway of peace and friendship on this earth, including a tunnel connecting Japan and Korea, through the best efforts of those of us who gathered here in this room. Even though a tunnel is, in some occasions, considered very dangerous, such as the tunnels between the border of Israel and Gaza, because the tunnels were for terrorists, let us push forward the construction of this kind of tunnel by our own hands, because our tunnel is a tunnel for peace and friendship, not for terrorists.
In closing my remarks, please allow me to shout once again,
Oh, no! to terrorists, Oh, no! to atomic bombs!
Oh, yes! to the UPF. Oh, yes! to highways for peace!
For more information about the World Summit, click here.