“Neither Shall They Learn WAR Any More.”
Isaiah 2: 4b
Dr. David Suh (Former President, WAY)
한중일평화포럼_서광선박사님 설교문(영문).pdf
“He shall judge between the nations,
And shall arbitrate for many peoples;
They shall beat their swords into plowshares,
And their spears into pruning hooks,
Nation shall not lift up sword against nation;
Neither shall they learn war any more. (Isaiah 2:4)”
“The wolf shall live with the lamb,
The leopard shall lie down with the kid,
The calf and the lion and the fatling together,
And a little child shall lead them. (Isaiah 11:6)”
“They have treated the wound of my people carelessly, saying,
‘Peace, peace,’ when there is no peace. (Jeremiah 6:14)”
“”Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
(Matthew 5: 9)”
Greetings:
Peace be with you, my friends of YMCA, the peace makers. Welcome to Korea, the land of morning calm, as they say. But I am sorry to say that Korea is no more a land of morning calm. It is now a land of nightmare with shouting match of hate, anger, fear, nuclear war, total annihilation, terror, revenge. My dear friends from China and Japan, I especially welcome you to this dangerous land, where the nuclear war is a stark possibility. Now, I can trust you, my friends, as peacemakers, as we have been in the past, and as we shall be.
The Candle Light Revolution
I have special reasons for welcoming this conference to be held in Korea, and especially in the revolutionary city of KwangJu. In Chinese, “Kwang” means “the light,” and “Ju” means “the land,” so that KwangJu means the land of light. In 1980, some 37 years ago, the people of Kwang Ju came out to the city plaza, just outside of YMCA building to ignite the candle light fire to chase out the historical darkness. The university students, shop owners, taxi and bus drivers, shoeshine boys, religious leaders, ordinary men and women came out to the city plaza to cry out for democracy, human rights, and peace and life. They came out to the street to demand democracy, against the all powerful South Korean armed forces which came down from the DMZ, the demarcation line between North and South, to suppress the cry for democracy with machine guns, tanks, and helicopters. In the May 18th Kwang Ju people’s uprising for democracy against the military dictatorship of Jun Doo Hwan, tens and thousands of the peace loving people were shot to death point blank. The fields and hills of the City of Kwang Ju were covered by the blood of the peace loving people of Kwang Ju.
The most important reason for welcoming you as YMCA peacemakers from China and Japan as well as from all over Korea is that now we are able to talk about PEACE most freely. Our freedom to gather here to talk about peace is a gift from Korean people’s candle light revolution from November 2016 to March 2017. During this time from freezing winter wind of December, January, and February, to the spring time of March, city plaza of major cities in South Korea, millions of candle lights had chased out the violent power of darkness.
This was the second Kwang Ju People’s Democratic Revolution. The peaceful citizens’ democratic revolution has brought about the new life and the new vision for democracy, justice, peace, and reunification of Korea. For 70 years, under the military regimes, we were not allowed to talk about peace and reconciliation and reunification of divided Korea. We were taught and forced to hate North Korean brothers and sisters as enemies, Communist devils, with paranoia of red complex. Military is against peace, dictatorship is against human freedom and democracy, nuclear power is against life for all. We have learned a hard lesson that we need democracy and human freedom for justice and peace. We cannot talk about peace without democratic freedom, and we cannot talk about democracy without peace and justice.
For all of these reasons, we would like to extend our welcoming hands to all of us here gathered together. We are certainly happy and proud to be able to have this international conference here in Korea and particularly in the city of Kwang Ju in this most critical moment of history.
Personal History: Personal is political
I have learned from the Feminist theologians that personal is political. My life story of 87 years has been a history of political entanglement of China, Japan and Korea (in an alphabetical order). My life story is closely related to the “recent history of international relationship” between the countries that represent here in this meeting.
I was born in a small city close to Yalu River that divides North Korea and China in 1931. The 1931 is the year when Japanese Empire established the puppet regime of Manchukuo. I was born as a “semi-Japanese,” and sent to a Japanese speaking Korean elementary school, using my newly adopted Japanese name instead of my original Korean name. My father was educated in an American mission school and in a theological seminary in Pyonyang to have become anti-Japanese fighter preacher. This was to follow his family tradition for him to fight for independence of Korea against Japanese occupation. My grandfather was a military general in the old Korea, who organized an anti-Japanese army to fight against the invading Japanese. But my grandfather was finally arrested and executed by the firing squad of the Japanese army. According to my father’s story, my grandmother who heard about the death of my grandfather in prison, she decided to commit suicide. Before she took poison for herself, she poisoned my father’s elder brothers and sisters. But my father was only an infant that was left alive.
I was raised with this most tragic and heroic stories of my family at home, and I was educated as the most patriotic Japanese school boy, learning Japanese language, Japanese Empire’s glorious history. And we the Korean school kids were forced to recite the Oath to the Emperor to say most of all “We are the beloved Children of the Japanese Emperor…” every morning at the morning assembly. Furthermore, at least once a week, we had to climb up the nearby mountain to pay respect to the Japanese divines at the Shinto Shrine and sweep the Shrine ground.
The Japanese government forced the all Korean church ministers to do the same, that is, to pay respect to the Japanese Shinto Shrine. Many Korean pastors including my father, refused to do that. It was not only a religious protest, but also a political protest against the Japanese oppression. So, my father resigned the Korean church and we all had to pack up to be self-exiled to Manchuria. My father preached at various Korean speaking refugee churches. Our life in Manchuria was miserably poor and hungry. But my anti-Japanese preacher father insisted me to enter a Japanese middle school in a Chinese mining town located between Shin Yang and Tan Dong, southwestern region of Manchuria.
The life in Manchuria as a Korean school boy was nothing but miserable in terms of national identity. In Manchuria, Japanese were treated as the Number 1 citizens, the Koreans as the No. 2, and the native Chinese No. 3, the lowest. During the Second World War, rice was rationed; and when the Japanese get 10, Koreans get 7, but the Chinese only 5. You can imagine how Koreans were hated by the Chinese. And the Japanese looked down upon Koreans because we get only 7, and because we get more than the Chinese, we were hated by the Chinese. The Koreans were squeezed in between by the Japanese and the Chinese. On top of it all, Korean policemen were most brutal to both Koreans and Chinese as the running dogs of the Japanese police! In the midst of this racial struggle, I was sent to the Japanese middle school by my anti-Japanese preacher father. I did work hard and recognized as a Korean kid, better performing than the Japanese. I acted like a more Japanese than the Japanese at school in order to survive. But in the meantime,. I was raised at home as the freedom fighter against Japanese Empire, reading all the Korean literature, history books and the Christian Bible in Korean as well.
During the month of August, 1945, our Japanese middle school children were digging grounds to make deep holes on the nearby hills around the city. When we began digging the dirt holes, we were told that Soviet tanks had invaded the northern Manchuria to invade North Korea to fight against Japanese. So, in order to defend Manchuria against the Soviet invasion, we, the middle school children were mobilized to dig holes, so that invading Soviet tanks would fall into the holes and demobilized. However, my Japanese classmates were not too serious about digging holes to protect Manchuria from the Soviet Army. Because, we heard from various reliable source of rumors that Tokyo had been devastated by the American bombing, and that most of all, what we never heard of ATOMIC BOMBS were dropped on the Japanese major industrial towns of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which killed the tens and thousands of workers and civilians and devastated the industrial complex as well.
Finally on the 15th August, 1945, as we began digging the tank holes, the teacher ordered us to gather around him in circles and switched on his short wave radio. At noon, with the introduction of the announcer, the Emperor of Japan spoke: the war had ended with the Japanese defeat. My classmates started to weep out loud, as our teacher switched off the radio. And he cried out in tears: “Sayonara. Let us all pack up and go back home in Japan!!! Sayonara…”
I wanted to shout out loud, “Thank you O, my God. We are finally liberated from Japan!!!” But I shot my mouth tight and kept silence. As soon as I heard the teacher “Sayonara,” I shouted back out loud, “Sayonara,” and ran down the hill. My preacher father was waiting for me at the door, and we embraced each other with tears, not knowing the meaning of the outpouring tears from our heart.
As all of our family members got on the refugee train to cross the Yalu River to return home to North Korea, we heard the news that Korean peninsula will be divided by the US and the Soviet Union into South and North, and when we arrived at my maternal grandfather’s home in the North, we heard the news that the Soviet soldiers were marching down into the North as well. As soon as the Soviet sponsored Communist government was established, the Christians in the North were harassed and persecuted on the ideological reasons.
During the Korean War, my anti-Communist preacher father was kidnapped by the North Korean Security agents, and when the US Army and Korean Army crossed the 38th Parallel and marched into Pyongyang, we found my father’s body lying on the river bank. My preacher father was shot to death with other four preachers all tied together in one rope. We buried him in a sunny hillside overlooking the city of PyongYang, saying “We shall come back soon to take care of the grave.” That was October 1950. And Chinese Volunteer Army marched down to push down the US and South Korean army to the south of the present DMZ, the Demilitarized Zone. And in 1953, the Armistice Agreement was signed by China, US (UN), and North Korea, and the South Korean Syngman Rhee refused to sign. To complete my personal story, I came down to the South and joined the South Korean Navy.
“Peace, Peace,” When There is No Peace
Prophet Jeremiah was shouting with anger that there is no peace on the land, but the people are nonchalant about the danger of war and destruction of Israel. You might feel as you enter Korean airport and travel down to Kwang Ju, you have felt that “Why people worry about war in Korea, and wonder why people shout about ‘war, war and war,” when there is no war? Because, (1) our North Korean brother has been crazy about having nuclear bombs to protect the North Korean government from outside invasions, including USA and South Korea, in spite of the 1953 Cease Fire Agreement. Because, (2) The US President Donald Trump has been openly threatening the North Korean leader to stop firing the ICBM toward the Pacific shores of USA, or else. He did not clearly say what that “or else” means, but maybe a total annihilation of the North Korean regime. Because, (3) Japanese Abe has been pushing the change of Japanese “peace” constitution to make the nation rearmed and fight a war, as hanging on to the military alliance with the USA. Because, (4) China has been angry about South Korean government allowing the US anti-missile THAAD to be allocated on the South Korean hills against not only North Korean missile attacks but also against the Chinese military movements.
I was writing this sermon, as I was watching the Television news that Trump has arrived Japan and went on a golf tour with Abe, that I can’t tell what the two war-mongering former-enemy nation country heads are going to plan against the Continental Power of China and Russia, and the rest of Asia. Knowledgeable people are wondering about Abe’s so-called Diamond Strategy to form an India-Pacific Alliance to contain China, North and South Koreas, and Russia. And South Korea refuses to join this alliance, emphasizing the historical alliance with the US, but “no” to the Korean-Japanese military alliance. Not only because in last two weeks China shows the possible reopening of Chinese tourists to South Korea, but because South Korea does not want to lose her independence and self-determination by being forced into the US-Japanese military alliance against China and Russia. The South Korean government already has announced “3 No’s” Namely, (1) No more THAAD on the Korean peninsula, (2) No US MD, and (3) No military alliance with US and Japan.
Our newly elected President Moon has not announced his “MOONSHINE policy” toward North Korea for peaceful engagement policy. But he seems determined to go for peace, and he repeated to say in public that there should be no war on the Korean peninsula. Some Korean historians are saying that history repeats itself: Korea now looks like 123 years ago when Sino-Japanese War broke out on the Korean peninsula in 1894. With the victory of the Japanese army, Japan came into Korea to take over the land and the people until 1945.
Looking back on the 1000 years of political and war history of Korean peninsula, there were two Chinese invasions: One was the Mongolian invasion of 1231- 1232; and another one was in 1636. This means that there had been peaceful relation between China and Korea for some 4 centuries, even though Korea was regarded as a tributary state. In relation to Japan, Japanese Samurai Toyotomi Hideyoshi raised invasion army to Korea in 1592 and invaded Korea to devastate the land for some 6 years. And then, until 1894, for some 2 centuries, there was no recorded armed invasion from outside. And I would like to remind you that in last 2000 years of Korean history there was no Korean invasion to another neighboring country. This means, and I would like to stress this point that if the surrounding powers of Korean peninsula such as Japan, China, Russia, and US would leave us Koreans alone, we would be able to keep ourselves in peace. We painfully remember the division of Korea was against the will of the Korean people, and the Korean War of 1950-1953 was the product of the Cold War between the East and the West. Unfortunately, it was a “proxy” war of the US against Soviet Union and China.
Isaiah’s Prophetic Vision of PEACE
As an old war veteran who knows the horror of war, I share the prophetic vision of Isaiah for peace on the earth. As we are waiting for Christmas of 2017 only one week away, we are desperately hoping for the angels’ chanting high in the sky, “Glory to God in the heaven, and Peace among the people on the earth.” The Korean YMCA adopted a revised Mission Statement at our 100 year celebration: “The purpose of the Korea YMCA is for young men and women, following the Gospel and life of Jesus Christ, to learn together, discipline each other, cultivate a sense of historical responsibility and sensitivity to life, work for the embodiment of love, justice and peace, contribute to the improvement of the welfare of the people, reunification of the divided nation and to the creation of new culture, and thereby, help establish the Reign of God on the earth.” (Adopted at the 42nd General Assembly of Korea YMCA, 2014.) And the “Challenge 21,” a revised and enlarged form of Paris Basis states that “…(YMCA) seeks to share the Christian ideal of building human community of justice with love, peace and reconciliation for the fullness of life for all creation.” (Adopted at the 14th General Assembly of the World Alliance of YMCAs, 1998 in Germany)
My senior theologian friend, Dr. Jurgen Moltmann said with a deep sigh at a recent Reformed Church Assembly celebrating the 500 years of Martin Luther’s Reformation: “We have grown old, tired, and cold, renew us, (and) give us a new heart. We have become confused and uncertain, transform us, awaken us a new spirit within us. (His speech was sent to me personally by mail with his letter.) I am with Moltmann: I have grown old, tired and helpless. I have tried with my ecumenical friends all around the world to step into the road to peace and reconciliation in this divided people on the Korean peninsula. I am deeply sorry that I cannot give a new vision and a new hope to my sons and daughters and my grandchildren.
In spite of it all, it is my ardent hope that YMCAs of China and Japan will work for peace on the Korean peninsula and in the Northeast Asian region in solidarity with the Korean YMCA peacemakers. I pray that in this conference, you will make commitment to become peacemakers to work for (1) Nuclear free world, (2) Establishment of Peace Treaty between North and South Korea, US and China, (3) Withdrawal of all foreign troops and military installments from Korea and Japan, (4) Reduction of armaments in the Northeast Asia region, (5) Free and open travel and communication between the people of Northeast Asian countries.
Will you please join me with the Peace Prayers of St. Francis of Assisi?
Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace,
Where there is hatred, let me sow love,
Where there is injury, thy pardon, Lord,
Where there’s doubt, let there be faith.
Oh, Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace.
Where there‘s despair, let me bring hope,
Where there’s darkness, let me bring light,
Where there’s sadness, let there be joy.
Oh, Divine Master,
Grant that I may not seek to be consoled, as to console,
To be understood, as to understand,
To be loved, as to love.
Oh Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace,
Where there’s despair, let me bring love,
Where there’s hatred, let me sow love,
For it is in giving, that we receive,
And it is in pardoning, that we are pardoned.
Oh Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace.
Amen
