Updated October 21, 2020
Pikareum emerged during the “Ewha Womans University Incident” in the early days of Rev. Sun Myung Moon
週刊ポスト Shūkan Post magazine October 15, 1993, pages 212 to 215
Third scoop – Buried story revealed (The two previous scoops are listed below.)
Testimony of Mrs Jeong-ok Kim At the time, in 1955, she was Dean of the Student Ministry at Ewha Womans University; she was interviewed in 1993 at the age of 82. Other direct interviews are featured.
● Report by journalist Takeshi Oobayashi
Five years after the outbreak of the Korean War one of the new religions went through a period of rapid growth, capturing the hearts of people who had been devastated by the civil war, the Korean War. That religion is now known as the Unification Church. What was the story behind its rapid growth? The case of the ‘Ewha Women’s University incident’ always comes up. It is true that Rev. Sun Myung Moon was arrested during this incident. We have sought out testimonies from officials who were present at the time.
▲ Mr. Obayashi interviewing Mrs. Kim Jeong-ok in the Director’s office at the Ewha Womans University
“A female university student’s emotions were manipulated”
Female students wearing costumes enlivened the well-known campus. On this fine fall day in 1993, even in Seoul, there was a feeling of being in another world at the prestigious Ewha Womans University.
It happened 38 years ago. Some time after the peninsula had been divided into North and South during the Korean War, in April 1955 this campus experienced a major scandal involving the Unification Church (the Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity, [now known as the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification]).
Commonly it is known as the ‘Ewha Womans University incident’. In the course of my interviews to find the roots of the Unification Church, I had run across the case of the Ewha Womans University incident.
The “Pikareum ritual”, which happened in the early days of the Unification Church, has already been reported on twice [in this magazine series – scoops one and two]. However, the testimony and documents obtained in this interview bring the “Pikareum ritual” into stark reality. Once shrouded in mystery, clarifying the reality of the “Pikareum ritual” brings us closer to the roots of the Unification Church and of Rev. Sun Myung Moon himself.
During the Ewha Womans University incident Sun Myung Moon himself was arrested. What was it all about? Professor A (female) of the Ewha Womans University History Faculty said this:
“A long time ago, there was such an incident at this university, but today the students have no idea about it. But I remember it because I was a student at this university at the time. There was a female professor of English, Chung-hwa Han, new that year, who was teaching the principles of the Unification Church (in South Korea it was called the Unification Church) in the classroom as well as in the women’s dormitory. In the women’s dorm they were lighting candles and dancing. It was very contagious and affected other professors and many female students, and it became a big incident.”
Looking at the newspapers of the day, there were headings such as “A female university student’s emotions were manipulated”, “illegal detention of a college student”. They jumped to report the story in Japan and Korea as a major and bizarre incident. In the midst of the political unrest immediately after the end of the Korean War, all the people had fallen into ‘living for the moment’. Professor A then continued:
“Seoul was occupied by the North Korean forces (The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea). Many fled to Busan, as did the Ewha Womans University, where it established another campus. I have heard that Professor Han and others were helping to make the Unification Church book of principles (Divine Principle) in Busan.”
Around the same time, there was an uproar about the Unification Church at Yonsei University. Byong-mu An, who was Chairman of the Korea Theological Institute (now Professor Emeritus) said:
“There was an active campaign to recruit believers at Yonsei University by a woman, Professor B. [Her name was Professor Yun-yeong Yang 梁允永.] She also came to invite me. I thought she was quite a beauty. I wondered about this new religion; why had such an attractive woman joined this cult? At that time she said, “Rev. Moon always talks one-to-one with women believers in the room. He talks in a high-pitched tone for hours on end. The woman then ends up becoming a fervent believer.” After all this, Professor B was made to retire, and some students were also expelled at the time.”
❖ Photo added:
▲ Professor Yun-yeong Yang 梁允永
The uproar about the Unification Church at Ewha Womans University and Yonsei University was what finally led to the arrest of Rev. Moon. He was suspected of “military service law violations”, and the illegal detention of a 22-year-old female student from Yonsei University [Soon-shil Choi] which was an “illegal detention crime”. LINK to 1955 Newspaper reports
Moon was arrested on July 4, 1955, and he spent the next three months in jail. Moon was not the only one arrested. Won-pil Kim and three brothers [two brothers and a cousin] were also arrested: Hyo-won Eu, Hyo-yeong Eu and Hyo-min Eu. The four were all church leaders at the time. Apart from Moon, they were arrested on suspicion of “mediating adultery” (Later Moon was acquitted but Hyo-min Eu and the others were found guilty.) [In reality on September 21, 1955 all of them were given jail sentences of 18 months or 2 years. They were all found guilty. Their acquittals were purchased LINK.]
These three Eu brothers had a sister, Shin-hee Eu. (Hyo-won has since died. The remaining two other brothers have since left the Unification Church.) [Hyo-won Eu and Hyo-yeong Eu were brothers. Hyo-min Eu and his sister, Shin-hee Eu, were their cousins.]
As already mentioned in this report, Shin-hee was in the original entourage of Rev. Sun Myung Moon and experienced pikareum directly with him as a partner.
❖ Photo added:
▲ Moon with three of the four Eu family members who followed him in the 1950s: standing, Hyo-won Eu. Front row: Hyo-min Eu, Won-pil Kim and Hyo-yeong Eu. Hyo-won was the first president of the UC, but he left the UC in the last period of his life. He spent his last nine months hospital. Pastor Deok-jin Kim happened to meet him a week before he passed. Hyo-won explained many things to him, and also to his cousins, Hyo-min Eu and Shin-hee Eu, who then both left the Unification Church. Hyo-yeong Eu left many years later.
Pastor Deok-jin Kim’s encounter with Hyo-won Eu in the hospital is described HERE.
Hyo-won Eu died on July 24, 1970 at 56 years of age. He spent the last few days of his life in a relative’s house. Moon made a big church funeral for Hyo-won Eu, but did not himself attend.
“House and land were all offered [to the UC].”
At the time of the Ewha Womans University incident, Jeong-ok Kim (82) was Dean of students. Now she is living a relaxed life on her own in Seongbuk-dong, Seoul. But her memories of the time are vivid.
“The president of Ewha Womans University at the time was Hwal-lan Kim [Helen Kim]. She was my aunt.”
❖ Photo added:
▲ Hwal-lan Kim 金活蘭 was also known as Helen Kim.
Kim continued to speak about a female Professor of English from that time. Her name was Chung-hwa Han and she had become an evangelist for the Unification Church.
“Chung-hwa Han’s husband had been abducted in North Korea, and two of her children were both plagued by serious illnesses.
“She had met Sun Myung Moon in Busan. He had told her that if she offered everything to the Unification Church, her husband would return and also her children’s illnesses would be healed. I heard that subsequently she became a fanatical member. I heard her lecturing about the Unification Church in the dormitory and in the classroom, so I scolded her.
❖ Photo added:
▲ Professor Chung-hwa Han 韓忠嬅 with her son, Samuel, outside the Seoul Unification Church. 서울教會
“I told her that this Methodist school did not permit her to lecture about the Unification Church in the classrooms and dormitories. I also said that Christianity was not taught in a temple. She retorted, “One day those of you who do not believe in the Unification Church will go to hell”. The next day she submitted her letter of resignation.
❖ Photo added:
▲ Professor Chung-hwa Han is in the back row on the right. Professor Won-bok Choi is in the row in front of her, at the right. The photo was taken in May 1956 at the Cheongpa-dong church, Seoul.
Inset on the right: Professor Han with her son, Samuel.
“About ten years later Chung-hwa Han came to visit my house. She was shabbily dressed. She told me she had left the Unification Church. She was crying as she explained, “I dedicated my house and land, and all my deposits to the Unification Church. Still I am without my husband and my children did not recover from their illnesses.” A few years later she died.”
Some girls at Ewha Womans University accepted her “teaching” and they joined the Unification Church. One has to wonder what fate was waiting for them.
▲ View of the Ewha Womans University campus in 1993.
Since Hyo-min Eu was one of the parties involved in the Ewha Womans University incident, to discover the truth about it I visited him several times at his home in Seoul. But Hyo-min was reluctant to talk about it, even though he has now left the Unification Church. He tried to avoid talking about what really happened at the time of this incident.
Sun Myung Moon was arrested, but after a while he was acquitted. I asked, “He reportedly had some kind of deal with the administration. Is that true?” I asked him for confirmation. Mr Eu did not deny it.
This is the story he told me. When Mr. Eu was arrested during the Ewha Womans University incident, he was delivered food every day. The man [Seong-mo Choi] who did this was the father of a certain daughter [Soon-shil Choi], who also was in the jail.
“The father of this daughter came at around 10 or 11 at night, and brought me many things, such as beer. He also took us outside the prison. I remember – it was a relief during the very hot and humid month of July.”
Now the father has become a big shot in a conglomerate which has a famous building that every Korean knows about. [The 63 Building on Yoeuido Island in Seoul].
❖ Photo added:
One of the Ewha officials from that time confirmed that this man’s daughter was also probably a victim of the Ewha incident. I wondered why Hyo-min Eu was so reluctant to talk, despite leaving the Unification Church. I was left alone to meet former believers in Seoul.
“Sun Myung Moon of the Unification Church wanted to create one large family group by having sexual relationships with many women. He was aiming for world domination through using their strong connections.
If you now build up a correlation diagram of the Unification Church leaders, it would be a major scandal that would shake up South Korea. A lot of the people who were involved went on to become successful. They don’t want their involvement to come to the surface [or to be known]. Sun Myung Moon’s “pikareum” spawned many successful people. In that sense “pikareum” was a success.
For a time the Eu family was at the core of the Unification Church. The ones who know everything are the ones in a position where they must pretend to not know anything.
In a way it is not a surprise to find that Hyo-min Eu, who knew everything very well, is reluctant to speak.
The “Difference” between the mass wedding and the Holy wedding
The ‘Pikareum ritual’ is no longer performed in the Unification Church. But if what was said in these testimonies, and what is written in the sources are true, then ‘pikareum’ was actively practised in the early days. So, when did the Unification Church stop doing ‘pikareum’? And what was the reason for them to stop?
“Why did the Unification Church quit doing ‘pikareum’?” I was asking someone familiar with the inner workings of the Unification Church. My frank question elicited a glare, if only for a moment. Then he let out some revealing words.
“After the Ewha Womans University incident, Sun Myung Moon was eventually acquitted and released.
The main reason that people who had left the Unification Church and revealed the inner workings were subsequently imprisoned was because at the time there were connections between the Unification Church and the regime.
Please look back at the history of the Unification Church mass weddings. In answer to the question, “Why did the Unification Church stop pikareum?” I will just answer that Sun Myung Moon was ordered to “Do everything, but not that [pikareum]”.
The Unification Church mass weddings started in 1960. Although it was mentioned in the previous issue, the first wedding [36 couples held in 1960/61] and the second one [72 couples held in June 1962] are called ‘Holy Weddings’, and are clearly distinguished from the subsequent mass weddings.
❖ Photo added:
▲ Sun Myung Moon and Hyo-min Eu.
Hyo-min Eu is a 36 couple who was in this second ‘Holy Wedding’. I once again went to visit Hyo-min Eu and asked:
“The people in the ‘Holy wedding’ had ‘pikareum’ with Sun Myung Moon. That is what distinguishes them from the general followers who attended the [later] Unification Church mass weddings.”
Hyo-min Eu replied, “When did you start thinking of such a thing?”, but he only repeated, “Now it is not the time to explain the whole picture.” And additionally he said, “In the Unification Church there are often unknown horizontal connections between the members. It is a complete society with Sun Myung Moon at the vertical apex. That’s why his secret is protected.”
Nine couples from the 36 couples in first two Holy weddings have already left the Unification Church. But, probably not one of them will tell the truth.
I would like the reader to see the Unification Church “rebuttal” of the Ewha Womans University incident. The missionary work of the Unification Church in Korea rapidly lost momentum.
In order to overcome this “crisis”, in the summer the Unification Church put Bong-choon Choi (his Japanese name is Masaru Nishikawa) [also known as Papasan Choi] on a boat and smuggled him into Japan.
And next, in 1959, Young-oon Kim left for America to earnestly do overseas missionary work. Bo Hi Pak followed her there in 1960, demonstrating major efforts to spread the religion overseas.
Thirty-eight years have passed since the Ewha Womans University incident. There still remain many missing parts to understanding the roots of the Unification Church.
● Unification Church “rebuttal” and “point of view”
1. Rev. Sun Myung Moon was arrested during the Ewha Womans University incident. A newspaper at that time reported “female students are at the mercy of the church leader”. There are no facts to support such a heading.
In 1955, from July 4th to the 13th, Rev. Sun Myung Moon and four other leaders of the Korean Unification Church (hereinafter referred to as the Association) were suddenly arrested. They were suspected of “avoiding military service” (Military Service Law violations) and “illegal detention”.
A newspaper of that time wrote an article which was contrary to the truth and based on hearsay, without verifying the facts.
Despite a thorough investigation, prosecution for the charge of “illegal detention” could not be prosecuted. Rev. Moon was also charged on suspicion of “doing or not doing military service”. His disciples lied about his age “regardless of Rev. Moon” for the purpose of avoiding “military service”. It is obvious that he was falsely accused. He was cleared and acquitted of all charges.
2. The 36 couples wedding was referred to as a ‘Holy Wedding’ because it was on a small scale. The 72 couples wedding was performed only within the inner circle and was also small. Later the weddings were on a larger scale and spread to society. To make it easier for the general public to understand, we started to use the term ‘Mass wedding’. So, a ‘Mass wedding’ is a ‘Holy wedding’ nonetheless.
Concerning the question in your magazine, “Does the terminology distinguish between the ‘Holy wedding’ where the members have had pikareum with Rev. Moon, and the ‘Mass wedding ceremony’ for the general followers who have not.” In our Church there is no such doctrine as ‘pikareum’ and so there is no distinction with general followers. It is no more than a far-fetched idea to say that the term ‘Mass wedding’ is a term to distinguish between followers who have done ‘pikareum’ and the other followers.
– Unification Church Public Relations Department report
▲ “At Yonsei University [in 1955] there was a furore over the Unification Church.” said South Korea Theology Institute Director, Byong-mu An 安柄茂.
Sun Myung Moon’s “Gigantic lie” by Eu Hyo-min (36 couple)
Professor Kim: “The Ewha University reputation damaged for some years”
Kim Deok-Jin – Someone who actually practised Moon’s sex relay
Eu Hyo-min, one of the 36 couples, gives his testimony:
exploited by Moon, then shunned by Moon.
Moon’s pikareum lineage began from Hwang Kuk-ju
Sun Myung Moon’s pikareum sex ritual with 36 wives theology
Moon talks about the 1955 Ewha Womans University sex scandal
The original 1955 Korean newspaper articles:
1955년 이화여대에서 일어난 문선명 섹스 스캔들
統一教會 事件 통일교회사건 1955.7.4.
This is the third article in three ‘scoops’. Here are the earlier ones:
1993.10.1 週刊ポスト Shūkan Post Buried story revealed, scoop No. 1
“Rev. Sun Myung Moon’s “Pikareum rituals” all revealed by former aide Pastor Deok-jin Kim” [not translated]
Japanese:
「文鮮明教祖の「血分け儀式」内容全告白 元側近・金徳振牧師」
1993.10.8 週刊ポスト Shūkan Post Buried story revealed, scoop No. 2
“First wife, Choi Seon-gil, gives exposé!” Rev. Sun Myung Moon’s ‘secret sex’”
Japanese:
「最初の妻崔先吉女史が告白!」「文鮮明教祖の性の秘密」
The six ‘wives’ of Sun Myung Moon
The Choi family’s entanglements with Moon
Myung-hee Kim, the third wife of Sun Myung Moon