Hideo Oyamada, former National Leader of Japan
Rev. Oyamada gave this testimony almost 30 years ago on October 27, I 992 in Kodiak, Alaska at the missionary workshop in the presence of True Father and many missionary brothers and sisters.
Part 6 (Click to read Part 1 and Part 2 and Part 3 and Part 4 and Part 5)
My wife was the extreme opposite of me. She walked around saying to herself, “Rruuhh, rruuhh. I am so beautiful. In this universe there is no one more beautiful than I…!” That’s how she carried on, always. I hated that kind of woman. I was trained as a Christian to be humble. She was completely different. I never imagined she would accept. I didn’t know how Father managed to convince her. In any case, I was very grateful.
It was May Day. Outside there were a lot of demonstrations going on. After the Blessing, I heard from her why she accepted the type of man that she hates most.
Father’s advice to my wife and me
Now I am so grateful to Father. I realized then that Father knows my past, present and future. Father is so clever. He told her, “If you marry this guy you will have wonderful children, and later you will be a very special, good couple.” Then she accepted.
When I look at her and she looks at me, many times she says, “You are not a man. If I hadn’t received you from Father, I’d kick you out.” Father counseled me: “For a short time, you’ll go through a period of fighting.” Why did Father choose me for fighting I wondered?
For the first three years of our marriage, our fighting became famous all over the world. Mr. Abe was always sympathetic to me: “If your wife won’t talk to you, come to see me.” She was working on VOC [Victory Over Communism] under Mr. Abe.
I had already decided that for the sake of solving my original sin, I would accept any kind of woman. Then when she came, how could I complain? I decided to just shut my mouth. We started competing to see which was stronger, her anger or my patience. I was determined to win the victory.
There’s an old saying, “If you see the mother, you shall know your spouse.” I met my wife’s mother and father. They were very nice and honest people. Her mother was not sophisticated—just a wonderful country mother. Her father was wise. Between them there was a gentle and wonderful feeling.
I decided: if my wife eventually becomes like her mother, then I am ready to accept her. Three years, ten years—no matter. There were times when I would start to feel complaint, but I would remember my determination and refuse to complain. From her supervisors—Mr. Abe or someone else—I knew she was always criticizing me.
I don’t have younger sisters, but through my wife, I became related to three younger sisters. All of them became our members and were blessed.
Father sent my wife to Taiwan. The other elder couples all had their families; I was still alone. She was in Taiwan for three years, after which time Father asked her to return to Japan.
While in Taiwan, she worked directly with the Taiwanese government, conducting special political activities and giving lectures to government officials. Mr. Rhychi Sasagawa often traveled back and forth between Taiwan and Japan, and sometimes he would bring a letter from her. “Here is a love letter from your wife,” he would say. My special dream was that my wife and I were living together, but I would wake up and realize that it was just a dream.
My wife went to Korea to report to Father. “What was your three-year experience?” Father asked her.
“Yeah, well, well, Father, well, Father,” she replied, pretty confused.
Then Father said, “You are a woman. Woman is in the objective position, isn’t she?”
“Yes, Father.”
“Do you need a husband?”
“Yes, Father.” This was how she understood her need for a husband.
In Taiwan my wife also learned to appreciate Christians and became loyal to Christians. When the secret police began arresting Christians, her father was so moved by the Christians that he wanted to become a Christian and send his children to a Christian school. My wife watched the Christian students praying night and day and hated them so much! When she saw me, she thought, “Oh, he’s that same type!” Because of that, she hated me. She also worked in communist activities.
Thus our couple exemplifies the fighting between man and woman, Christianity and communism, Christianity and Buddhism. We engaged in world-level fighting. However, although we fought, it was always for some common goal. It was the best combination.
When I visited my in-laws, everyone in my wife’s family (except my wife) was on my side. When I brought her to my house, my entire family was on her side. My father said, “Ah, so wonderful a wife you brought! Stronger than you, isn’t she?” My father also said, “I always miss, not you, but your wife.”
My father respects True Father, because recently the young couples in Japan don’t want children, or maybe just one. For him, the Unification Church is so nice, because its families have so many children. That is the way it should be. For the couples, it’s a lot of hard work, but for the future, it’s very nice. Out of my father’s family, only he and his younger sister survived; all the others died because of poverty or disease. So, my father is always anxious about having descendants.
After we were married for three years, we had nothing to fight about, because we knew what things caused us to fight. After ten years, I felt so grateful. We now have five children.
As time went on, I became a CARP leader, and later, acting president of the Unification Church of Japan, a position which I held for almost twenty years. During that time, I came to America for the International Leadership Seminars. I especially remember the IOWC work.
Father’s true teaching
When I was thirty years old, I went back to the mainstream of my life. On God’s Day after becoming thirty years old, I was sitting in a room at headquarters and praying when suddenly I heard a voice: “You have prayed to me seeking eternal truth, the real teacher, and your spouse. You have already received the answer. Isn’t Divine Principle the truth?”
“Yes, the absolute truth,” I said with confidence.
Then the voice continued: “The problem is that Rev. Moon’s understanding of the truth and your own understanding are so different from each other. Your mission is to cross over to Rev. Moon’s true teaching.”
From that time on, my concern has been how to fulfill that mission. All my life I had been seeking truth. I understood that the Principle is the final, eternal truth. To know the Divine Principle, I must make effort at the cost of my life. It is not just a book written by some author. It is not just written words. It is living truth, and it is mankind’s hopes!
I realized how deeply true the Divine Principle is when Father assigned me to lecture to ministers, professors, politicians, and economic leaders. At first I was afraid. I didn’t have enough knowledge. I was just a small fry, with nothing of my own to be proud of. I thought, if all I have is Father, I will lecture only on the Divine Principle. That’s exactly what I did.
One of the students at a three-day ministers’ workshop was the wife of a Christian minister. She had a very strong personal experience and prayed, “Until death, I will dedicate myself to the Unification Church.” When I taught her, she completely went into the spiritual world and didn’t sleep at all for three days. Afterwards, fear of persecution never caused her to waver.
Her husband had heard the Divine Principle previously. He was almost eighty years old but still proud. He told his wife, “That guy has almost the same knowledge as I do. You can go.” That is the attitude with which he had allowed his wife to attend the seminar. His wife’s response was completely different. For her, Divine Principle was so wonderful, a heavenly truth.
When the wife went back home, the minister was jealous. “What happened between you and that guy?” he demanded. He was nearly eighty years old and suspicious. The wife was over seventy years old, and I was less than thirty at that time. Still the minister suspected that there was some kind of love relationship between her and me, because she was not behaving like a regular grandma but was alive and fresh.
We consider the Divine Principle knowledge, but we are still lacking heart, especially with regard to the history of restoration. Once I prayed to God, “Father, please show me what Your heart is really like.” Not receiving any good answer, I went to sleep.
In the early morning I woke up. Suddenly, in the doorway Father appeared spiritually and came into the room. At that instant I understood that the heart of the lecture of restoration is Father himself, his life.
Continued next week….