Media reports worsened relationship with daughter, leading to her suicide
Originally published by the Family Federation of Japan on 10th August 2024 on their website.
Prepared by Knut Holdhus
Interviewer： Thank you for agreeing to the interview today. First of all, can you tell us what year you joined the Family Federation, Ms. Nakata (not her real name)?
Nakata: I became a member in 2001. I was first introduced to the Unification Principle in 1988. When I heard about the “three stages of life” in the Unification Principle, namely life in the womb, life on earth, and life in heaven (the spiritual world), I thought, “This is what I have been looking for,” and I began to study it in earnest. The Unification Principle was interesting, and I was happy to attend their lectures because I wanted to hear the rest as soon as possible. Then, to make a long story short, I officially joined in 2001.
Interviewer: I see. May I ask you to tell us about what happened to you after 2022?
Nakata: At the end of July 2022, my daughter, who was living with me, took her life. She was in her late 20s. Ever since she was a child, she was not very strong mentally and carried a lot of stress in her interpersonal relationships. That affected her health, and she suffered from physical ailments because of that. She stopped going to school in middle school and did not even go to high school, but later took exams so that she was able to get her high school diploma. She also went to a psychotherapist for a long time.
After becoming an adult, she did several part-time jobs, but when she faced problems in relationships, her hands would chap, and she would get the hives. Each time she quit her job, the hives went away. This cycle kept repeating itself.
My daughter was happy to come with me when I invited her to church at an early age. Of my three children, she was the most involved in church events. My husband was not a member, and my daughter did not go to church as much after she became an adult, but she helped out when there were church events and went with me to Gapyeong, South Korea, every year, at a place considered holy by Family Federation members.
However, after the incident with former Prime Minister Abe on 8th July 2022, media reports on TV or online were very critical of the Family Federation, and my daughter watched the reports all the time at home. I was very worried about her because she had just quit her job due to stress in her relationships at work, and she was very weak mentally at that time.
After the 8th July incident, my daughter once asked me in a very strong tone of voice, “How much are you in debt?!”
I had borrowed a little money for my parents’ funeral, but I told her that there was nothing to worry about. She never asked me (about my finances) after that. There was also a time when I was chatting with a neighbour, who is also a church member, at the front door my house. My daughter slammed the door to her room so loudly we could hear it throughout the house.
And then, in the latter half of July, my daughter took her own life at home. When I opened the messaging app on my daughter’s smartphone, I found messages exchanged with her closest friend, where she wrote things like, “My mother is donating money to the Unification Church and getting into debt,” and “Is she trying to use me?” It was incredibly painful to read those words, as they showed she didn’t trust me.
Interviewer: That must have been very tough for you.
Nakata: My daughter, who enjoyed going to church the most among my children, did not have any ill will that I know of towards the church before the events of 2022. She attended church events and workshops several times a year and seemed to find peace of mind in learning things from the church and interacting with church members.
Since the incident, while continually hearing the one-sided claims of those referred to as “former believers”, I believe my daughter’s heart was deeply affected by feelings of resentment toward the church, driving her to the point of exhaustion. Right now, I am filled with an overwhelming sense of helplessness, but I think the only thing I can do is live each day to the fullest, not just for myself but for my daughter as well.
Interviewer: Thank you for the interview today.
Click here to read more on Religious Persecution
Featured image above: Yoko Nakata (pseudonym), a woman in her 60s from the Tokyo metropolitan area. Photo: FFWPU