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Title	Ascension Festival for Takako Fujita, victim of religious kidnapping
Date	2010-07-21		Hit	5540

On July 11, 2010, 5.30 by the Heavenly Calendar, True Parents granted that a Memorial Festival of Ascension and Unity be held for Takako Fujita, a Japanese sister who died after enduring four months of confinement designed to force her to deny her Unificationist faith.

The festival, officiated by Gentaro Kajikuri, President of the Unification Church in Japan, was held in the main sanctuary of the Japan Headquarters Church in Tokyo. Well over 100 people attended, including church officials, members and leaders of affiliated organizations. Another 20,000 church members at some 300 local churches across Japan participated via live Internet broadcast.

[Related article: Kook Jin Moon says Japan ignores persecution of UC members]

Unification Church International President Rev. Hyung Jin Moon marked the occasion by sending a signed plaque with his calligraphy, reading, “天動聖孝性.” This can be translated as “Holy and Filial Character Moves Heaven”.

Brief biography of Mrs. Takako Fujita
Takako Fujita was born July 5, 1970, in Niihama, Ehime Prefecture. She was first introduced to the Divine Principle by Yoshimi Ishikawa not long after enrolling in the social welfare department of Kacho College, a women’s junior college located in Kyoto. She joined the Unification Church, and was blessed with her Korean husband at the 360,000 Couples Blessing on August 25, 1995. In December 1996, the two began their life together in Korea.

In March 1997, while on a brief visit to her parents’ home in Japan, Takako was kidnapped and forcibly confined in an attempt to force her into denying her faith. In the early morning of July 12, 1997, she took her own life in the toilet of the apartment in Kyoto where she was confined. She was pronounced dead early the next morning at Nishijin Hospital in Kyoto. She was blessed in the spirit world in June 2002.

A friend who worked with Takako at Fushimi Academy, where she was employed for a short time after graduating from junior college, remembered her this way: "Takako was a kind person offering smiles constantly. She was good at listening to other people, perhaps thanks to her profession as an instructor at the welfare institution."

After her Blessing in 1995, Takako resigned from her job to devote herself to the activities of the Unification Church. She expressed a desire to build a family that would respond to the Will of God and the True Parents. These hopes were crushed by the heinous crime of her kidnapping and confinement.

International President sends video message
In a video message to the festival, Rev. Hyung Jin Moon referred to Takako as a "heroine of the Unification Family."

"I offer my wholehearted gratitude to the True Parents for granting this Memorial Festival of Ascension and Unity," Rev. Moon said.

"My soul aches in acknowledging the fact that we could not dedicate her Ascension for the last 13 years, but now we offer our sincere prayers for this heroine of the Unification Family, Takako Fujita, for her eternal life as embraced by the magnanimous love and grace of the True Parents."

Pattern of persecution against Unification Church members
Masayoshi Kajikuri of the Japan Unification Church pointed out that Takako's confinement was a part of a pattern of persecution going back more than 40 years.

"The right to religious freedom guaranteed under the Constitution of Japan has been denied to members of the Unification Church for no reason other than that the society at large holds negative prejudices against us," Kajikuri said.

"People in the media and others who have helped to foster a prejudicial environment in Japanese society where such a tragedy could take place must be held accountable both morally and legally," Kajikuri said.

In an interview with the South Korean monthly news magazine Wolgan JoongAng, Kook Jin Moon, Chairman of the HSA-UWC (Unification Church) Support Foundation said efforts were being made to mobilize international public opinion against religious kidnapping in Japan.

Click here to read the full interview.