Photo/Illutration A second-generation former member of the Unification Church speaks out against the group at an Oct. 7 news conference held at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan in Tokyo. (Gakushi Fujiwara)

The Unification Church on Oct. 7 tried to stop a news conference being held in Tokyo by a former member who described the huge donations she and her parents had to make while members of what is now known as the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification.

The news conference was held at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan and the woman in her 20s used the pseudonym of Sayuri Ogawa.

She said that both her parents were active members of the church, with her father the head of a church in his neighborhood and her mother working on the campaign of a church member running in a local assembly election.

Ogawa said her parents donated a total of 10 million yen ($68,800) to the church over a period of 40 years. She said she held a part-time job for two years after graduating from senior high school, but that her parents forced her to donate almost her entire 2 million yen or so in earnings to the church.

She explained that she wanted to believe in a church that inspired such devotion from her parents and went to South Korea to prepare for a mass wedding. But Ogawa said she was sexually harassed at an event by a high-ranking church official. She was told the incident occurred because an evil spirit had taken over her soul.

Distressed by the incident, she entered a hospital for treatment. Her distrust of the church and her parents heightened when she realized that almost all of her savings had been withdrawn by her mother. When she was about 20, she left home and severed her connection with the church.

During the news conference, Ogawa called for legal revisions to provide support to children of members, along with guidelines about large donations to the church. She also called for rules on what is deemed appropriate in terms of politicians’ ties to the church.

While she was later taking questions, several members of the FCCJ’s staff brought sheets of paper to the main table, which turned out, according to Ogawa’s husband and FCCJ members, to be faxes sent to the FCCJ under the name of Ogawa’s parents and lawyers for the Unification Church demanding that the news conference be stopped immediately.

One fax asserted that Ogawa suffered from psychological illnesses and that her symptoms had worsened after former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was gunned down July 8 by a man who held a grudge against the Unification Church because his mother made huge donations that left the family in poverty.

Another fax stated she would tell many lies.

But Ogawa stood her ground, telling her audience: “I am normal. I am confident that many people who view this news conference will understand which side is evil.”

With tears streaming down her face, Ogawa said, “If you believe I am right, please do everything you can to have the church disbanded.”

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