The horrors of deprogramming need to be remembered, as they can come back if the Unification Church will be dissolved as a religious organization in Japan.
February 21, 2025
Toru Goto (61), the President of Japan Victims’ Association Against Religious Kidnapping & Forced Conversion, which consists of victims who were abducted, confined, and forced to renounce their faith, mainly members of the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification (formerly the Unification Church), has published his autobiography entitled “Desperate Struggle: Survival from 4,536-day Confinement.” In this book, Goto recounts his experience of being confined for twelve years by his family and deprogrammers, as well as the court proceedings he launched after his release.
On 10th February, 2025, exactly 17 years after he was released by his family from the apartment used for confinement at Suginami ward in Tokyo, Goto held a commemorative lecture to announce the publication of his autobiography, which was attended by around 300 people.
Goto, a member of the Family Federation, was held captive in an apartment building for twelve years and five months from the age of 31 to 44 by his relatives who were so instructed by Christian pastor and professional deprogrammer Takashi Miyamura, who viewed the Family Federation as heretic.
In his lecture, Goto described the abduction and confinement of believers for the purpose of deprogramming as “the worst human rights violation since World War II, taking away any and all freedom.” He was unable to exercise his right to vote 19 times. He was not informed of the location address where he was confined (whether it was in Tokyo or somewhere else) for the first six years of confinement. In this occasion of the publication of his autobiography, he said, “I hope this book will serve as an opportunity for people to think about what religious freedom really means.”
Tomihiro Tanaka, President of the Family Federation, was also invited as a guest to the lecture. Tanaka emphasized, “What is absolutely unforgivable is that the affection between parent and child, which cannot be severed, was exploited for this wicked confinement.” The confined victims could not fully hate the perpetrators because they were their parents. They were left in the agonized ambivalent psychological state between love and hate. President Tanaka said,“If you read this book, you will vicariously experience the ‘Desperate Struggle’ fought by Mr. Goto.”
President Tanaka also expressed his concern, “If the Family Federation were to be dissolved, abductions and confinements would occur again.” The abduction and confinement of Family Federation believers became rare after Toru Goto’s victory over his tormentors in the civil suit in 2015. However, if the Family Federation is held to be dissolved at the pending court process, then the relatives of believers would be more likely to feel that the Family Federation is “anti-social” and to try to “protect” the devotees by way of unlawful abduction and confinement. As such, the maliciousness and inhumaneness of the abduction and confinement are not yet fully recognized in Japan. I wish this book could serve to enlighten those who are unfamiliar with this issue.
At the lecture, Tatsuhiro Iwamoto, a former pastor of the United Church of Christ in Japan (UCCJ) and now an independent pastor, made a congratulatory address. He emphasized the historical “partisan” stand of the UCCJ, which has plotted and endorsed abductions and confinements to attack the Unification Church.
Shinichi Tokunaga, a lawyer who represents Goto in the defamation suit against an anti-cult journalist, Eight Suzuki, commented that this book shall be the Japanese version of the world-famous “Man’s Search For Meaning: An Introduction to Logotherapy” written by psychologist Viktor Emil Frankl about his experiences in Nazi concentration camps. Tokumaga compared him to the modern-day-Holocaust-like figure of Toru Goto, who wrote his book after the lengthy confinement.
After the lecture, the participants marched about three kilometers to the apartment where Goto was held captive. With Goto at the front, the participants shouted slogans such as “Let’s protect religious freedom and fundamental human rights” and “The abduction, confinement, and forced de-conversion of the Family Federation believers is a crime.”
Source: bitterwinter.org
Comments