Paying the Ultimate Price to Follow God’s Path

As soon as I was released from Seodaemun Prison, I went to
the Gabsa Buddhist temple on Mount Gyeroung in Choongcheong
Province. I needed to heal the wounds from my torture
in Seodaemun Prison. Also, I needed a forest where I could pray
and think about the future of our church. This was not long after the
end of the Korean War, and just finding enough food to survive was
often a difficult task. Despite such short-term difficulties, however, it was
important that I make plans for the longer term. We still did not have a
church large enough to hold all our members for service, but I felt it was
important to spend some time looking out into the distant future.
Following the collapse of Japanese colonial rule and the liberation
of Korea in 1945, the two countries had not established diplomatic
relations. Japan had not recognized the government in Seoul, and
Korea considered Japan an enemy country. My belief was that, when
the situation of the world was considered, it was important for the two
countries to resume contacts. A number of attempts were made to send
a missionary to Japan, but these were unsuccessful. In the end, it was
Bong Choon Choi who accomplished this task.
In 1958, I called Bong Choon Choi to meet me on the mountain
behind the Gabsa temple.
“You need to go immediately to Japan. You will not be able to return
to Korea until you have succeeded.”
“Yes!” he replied, without hesitation.
The two of us then sang the Korean Christian hymn whose words begin:
Called of God, we honor the call;
Lord, we’ll go wherever you say.
We came down the mountain together in high spirits. He never
asked how he was supposed to support himself in Japan or how he was
supposed to begin his activities there. Bong Choon Choi was that kind
of audacious man. Travel to Japan was not allowed for most Koreans.
His only option was to try to enter Japan even without a visa. He would
need to endure many things.
Bong Choon Choi did not even know if he could enter Japan, but
he was prepared, if necessary, to lay down his life. Until I could hear
that he had safely crossed the strait to Japan, I put aside all other work
and sat praying in a small room in the church. I didn’t eat or sleep. We
even had to take out a loan of 1.5 million won to send him. We had
many members who had nothing to eat, but evangelizing Japan was so
important that everything else had to be put aside.
Unfortunately, Bong Choon Choi was arrested as soon as he arrived
in Japan. He was placed in prison, first in Hiroshima and later in Yamaguchi,
until he could be deported back to Korea. While in prison he
decided he would rather die than be sent back, and so he began to fast.
During his fast, he developed a fever. The Japanese authorities decided
to place him in a hospital and delay his deportation until his health could
be restored. While in the hospital, he managed to escape from custody.
After such efforts made at the risk of his life over a year and a half,
Bong Choon Choi established the church in Japan in October 1959.
Korea and Japan would not establish diplomatic relations for another
six years. In fact Korea, because the painful memory of suffering under
Japan’s colonial rule was still quite fresh, was rebuffing any suggestion
that it open contacts with Japan. I had our missionary smuggle himself
into this enemy country for the sake of Korea’s future. Instead of refusing
all contact, Korea needed to evangelize Japan so that it would be in the
position to be the senior partner in the bilateral relationship. Korea was
impoverished materially, so it needed to open a channel to the Japanese
leadership, get Japan on its side, and then link itself to the United States.
That was how Korea could survive. As a result of the successful effort
to send a missionary to Japan, owing to Bong Choon Choi’s sacrifice,
an exceptional youth leader named Osamu Kuboki joined the church,
together with a group of young people who followed him. The Japanese
church became securely established as a result of their work.
We sent missionaries to America in the following year. There was no
visa trouble this time. They were able to receive passports and visas before
leaving. In securing the passports, we were aided by some cabinet
ministers of the Liberal Party who had played a part in having me imprisoned
in the Seodaemun Prison. Previously, they had opposed us, but
now they were helping us. The United States in those days seemed like a
very far-off country. Some of our church members opposed the idea of
sending missionaries there, saying it was more important to grow our
foundation in Korea first. I convinced the members of its importance,
however, saying that unless America’s crisis could be resolved, Korea
would be destroyed, too. In January 1959, we sent Young Oon Kim, one
of the professors who had been fired by Ewha Womans University. Then
in September of that year, we sent David S.C. Kim. The work they began
in America was aimed at the entire world.