Goto's statement to Tokyo District Court - Part 4 (Second Half)

Here is the Second half of  (4) in Second Confinement, which are highlighted blue in the index below.  In today's post, Mr. Toru Goto shows his fierce resistance in an attempt to escape from the confinement.

Original documents in Japanese are uploaded in the blog operated by the Association to Support Toru Goto's Court Case. The Association consists of 5 members from various background, mixture of current UC members(2) and non UC members(3).

The Association to Support Toru Goto's Court Case

http://antihogosettoku.blog111.fc2.com/

Index of the Toru Goto's statement submitted to Tokyo District Court 

1.   Personal History
2.  Joining Unification Church (1986)
3.  First Confinement (Oct 1987 - Nov 1987)
4.  After Escape from First Confinement
5.  Second Confinement
   (1) Confinement in Niigata (Sep 1995)
   (2) Transferred to First Apartment in Tokyo (1997)
   (3) Transferred to Second Apartment in Tokyo (Dec 1997)
   (4) Miyamura's Deprogramming Work (5) First Hunger Strike – 21 days
   (6) Second Hunger Strike – 21 days
   (7) Third Hunger Strike – 30 days
   (8) Release from Prison
6. After Hospitalization
7. At the End

------------------------------

    5.  Second Confinement

(4) Miyamura’s Deprogramming Work (Second Half)

Miyamura himself told the story how he became my counselor in the article titled “The Unification Church on the Ropes Struggles in Vain” in the Apr 2010 edition of a magazine called “Monthly Times” .

In that article, Miyamura was asked how he became my persuader.  Miyamura said, “Toru Goto and his family went to Niigata in 1995.  I don’t know anything about it.  His family members must have planned and carried out.  2 year later after that, Toru Goto’s father contacted me, and I met Toru Goto’s parents in Tokyo.   At that time, Goto’s father was suffering from liver cancer and he had only 3 months to live.  Toru Goto’s father said to me, “I can’t die like this.  Could you please talk to Toru?” I said to him. ”I will talk to Toru if he agrees.  After that, Toru Goto and his family members moved to Tokyo.”(Page 17).  Miyamura said, “I don’t know anything about the details of Toru Goto’s move to Niigata.”  But it is an outrageous comment.

At that time, my brother was an employee of Miyamura’s Tap Co Ltd.  On the night of Sep 11, 1995 when I was abducted at the parents’ home in Nishi-Tokyo City, a man hiding in the garden to help my captors was Tap’s employee, which I learned later.  Miyamura poured his efforts into his conversion work for many years, and he was involved with my brother and sister’s conversion.  I was the last person to be converted.   As my brother was working for Miyamura’s Tap(less than 10 employees), Miyamura must have known the plan.

Miyamura took over the task of my conversion from Matsunaga* who did not know what to do with me.  My family members who trusted Miyamura as a “reliable counselor” must have received Miyamura’s instructions.

(* Added by translator:  Matsunaga, a Christian minister, is a deprogrammer who worked on Toru Goto in Niigata prior to Goto’s transfer to Tokyo.)

In Feb or Mar , 1998, Matsunaga visited the room 804 of Ogikubo Flower Home.  Matsunaga came with Miyamura, and Matsunaga sat in front of me, and Miyamura sat behind Mastunaga but in a position that Miyamura could see me.   A Sense of tension and feeling of repulsion attacked me as Matsunaga showed up in front of me all of sudden.  It was as if I had an electric shock in my whole body.  I recalled the time in Niigata, when Matsunaga conducted the forcible conversion on me.

When I gingerly revealed to Matsunaga that my renouncement in Niigata was fake, Miyamura said, “Your confinement has been protracted as you did such a thing.”  Matsunaga  said to me, “I would like to split your head to see how your structure inside is,”  He used the expressions as if there was something wrong in my head, and he ridiculed me.

I recalled that Matsunaga talked about Miyamura a lot while I was confined in Niigata.  Matsunaga esteemed and trusted Miyamura.  Matsunaga said, “There’s no one who knows the Unification Church matters more than Mr. Miyamura.  All the information gathers at Miyamura. ”

Miyamura and Mastunaga often co-operated when conducting conversion work on UC members.  They co-operated when my brother’s wife received conversion from them.  So it seems that Miyamura and Matsunaga contacted each other for my 2^nd abduction and confinement.

As I didn’t accept Miyamura’s conversion, the number of his visits to the apartment was gradually reduced.  After Sep, 1998, he hardly came, and only his followers visited the apartment.  I counted how many times Miyamura visited the apartment by making a note on the book of the Divine Principle.  He came to the apartment 73 times in total in the period until Sep. 1998. 

Toru Goto when he was younger
-in the middle of the front row-.
The lady in the 2nd row - far right is also
a victim of deprogramming.

Also a lady who visited me with Miyamura was a former church member who belonged to a same department (2^nd row – far right in Pic).  It seems she was abducted by her family members and left the church after I was abducted.

 I was not allowed to get the information that I want to know in the confinement apartment.  I asked for “Koujien” (a famous Japanese Dictionary), but Miyamura flatly rejected it.  My brother said to me, “Actually the Bible and the Divine Principle are enough for you.”  Only information that is convenient to them was brought to me.

In May, 1999, a TV set was brought in the room even if I didn’t ask for it.  But I didn’t feel like to watch TV, so I hardly turned it on.

In Dec. 1999, I felt strong anxiety about the situation that I was left behind without knowing what was happening outside as years had already passed.  I demanded my family to bring “Gendai Yougo No Kiso Chishiki” (Basic Knowledge of Modern Language =  a large dictionary published yearly to explain current terminology and knowledge).  Their rejection caused a fierce argument between family members and myself.  I was so furious that I said, “I’m getting out of here.  I’m going to jump.”   I rushed to the window of the far back room, and the sliding door by the window was broken. 

My family members seemed daunted by my action.  In Jan 2000, they brought the ”Basic Knowledge of Modern Language”.  Around from this time, they provided “Sankei Shimbun” (a daily newspaper).  Afterwards, Sankei Shimbun was replaced by Tokyo Shimbun.  Then at around June 2006, they stopped providing Tokyo Shimbun.

I was isolated in the confinement room and was left behind from the outside world.  The more I learned what were happening outside via “Gendai Yougo no Kiso Chishiki” and “Sankei Shimbun” the more I became to feel extreme anxiety.  In Feb. 2001, feelings of uncontrollable anxiety that “I may have to remain isolated for the rest of my life and I may not be able to get out. ” haunted me.  I headed on to the front door and tried to escape.  Every time I was overpowered by my family members, I shouted “Get me out.  Help.  Call Police.”  I did it over and over again in loud voice with all my might, which could be heard by neighbors.  I risked my life to attempt to escape.

I condemned my family by saying, “You say the Unification church is violating human rights, but what you are doing ARE human rights violations.  The Unification Church never confines people like this.  This is a torture.  This is a witch hunt in modern days.  How many times did you rob my right to vote?  Do you think this kind of things will be tolerated?  I shall reveal your acts of barbarism.  I’ll take the matter to court.  You’ll be criminals.”

But I was held in a full nelson and pushed down by my brother, sister and mother.  They wrapped me by blanket and held their hands against my mouth, so neighbors could not overhear my scream for help.  I couldn’t breathe and I was almost choked.   As I had had no opportunity to exercise in the long confinement, I lost my muscles.   Even if I scuffled with my brother, my brother easily overpowered me.  Also my sister and mother had enormous power in such frantic situation as if they were possessed by something.   I couldn’t resist at all when these 3 people overpowered me.    

I was covered in blood by bleeding from my face, hands, legs and feet.  I had a mass of bruises and my clothes were torn apart.  The blood from my legs and feet dropped on the tatami floor, and I wiped it up with towels and even by my hands.  I had pain in my whole body at night, and I couldn’t sleep.  When I took a bath, I showed my body, full of bruises, to my brother, and intensely complained by saying “Look!  You are cruel.”  My brother didn’t care about my claim by replying, “Me, too.”  My annular finger of right hand was bent and hurt during the scuffle.  I had an acute pain.  It looks like the bone was fractured.  The pain lasted for 2 – 3 months.  The figure remains bent even now.

Furniture was also damaged during the scuffle.  I clung onto a metal pole in kitchen shelves or an accordion curtain between the rooms when trying not to be dragged by them.  As they pulled me forcefully, the metal pole was distorted and the accordion curtain was torn and damaged.

Around that time, my brother stayed in the room all the time and continued to monitor me.  When an opportunity arose, I moved to room B and tried to turn the knob of the door (door D) to attempt to escape.  The door could not be opened even if I turned the knob, or pushed or pulled.

At the time, my brother was in position C, and said, “People steal like bandits.”  It is clear that he meant  “It was good to lock the door D to prevent you from escaping.”  My family prevented me from reaching the front door by locking the door D in order to stop my escape.  This was done as a countermeasure of my actions.

I repeated fierce resistance for a month.  Miyamura visited the apartment once during my resistance.  He came in the first day when I actioned the resistance.  When I approached to the front door, my brother immediately caught me and signaled my sister with a wink by saying “Hey” to my sister.  She called Miyamura over a mobile phone.  Miyamura rushed to the apartment, and he saw me being pushed down on the floor by my brother.  Miyamura came in front of my head, and yelled “What the hell are you doing? Don’t’ mess around.”   He remained in the apartment for a while to observe the situation, and he left.

Miyamura came to the apartment immediately after my brother and sister contacted Miyamura on the mobile phone.  It is understood that there was an arrangement between my family and Miyamura.  It is evident that Miyamura was in the behind of my family for my forcible conversion and the confinement, and that Miyamura received the information from my family and my family acted based on Miyamura’s instructions.

One day, I stood up on the edge of the bathtub opened the ventilation hole and shouted, “Can someone hear me?  I’m confined here.  Please call police.”  It was when Miyamura came over to the apartment for the second time in my resistance.  It looked like my family informed Miyamura.  Miyamura came in the bathroom, grabbed my collar from behind and hauled me out of the bathroom, then dragged me to the room in the far back.  At that time as I held some electric appliances in an attempt not to be dragged, they all fell.  When I was taken to the room by force, I fiercely banged on the desk with my both fists in rage and yelled, “Stop fooling around.  That’s enough.  Get me out of here.”  Miyamura murmured, “This guy is useless.”  Then he left the apartment.

I started to suffer unspeakable sinking feeling and despair as all of my attempts to escape failed and the security of my confinement room became tighter.  I sometimes vaguely kept on looking at the light thrown from blurred windows with the metal wire embedded within, which prevented me from seeing outside.  It was too cruel and unbearable to accept the reality.  I was trembling in fear that I would lose myself and go mad in this situation.  At last, even my drive to resist was lost, and I was forced to be in a mental status that I had to give up the use of force in the escape plan.

On the other hand, around this time, videotapes, a headphone, a portable light stand, etc were brought in the room even if I didn’t demand.  My brother brought many books.  In order to escape from the unacceptable situation, I omnivorously read the books.  I started to watch TV as they brought a headphone.  I could temporarily forget the miserable reality, but my gloomy feeling never cleared up.

Since then until my first hunger strike in Apr 2004, my family hardly conducted conversion work on me.  Miyamura stopped visiting the room.  I suspect that they feared that I would take the case to court.  I learned after my release that Christian pastor Mamoru Takazawa who had a close relationship with Miyamura lost lawsuit in Apr 2000, which was 1 year before Miyamura stopped visiting the apartment.  In that lawsuit, a Unification Church member who was a victim of confinement and forcible conversion filed a lawsuit against the Christian pastor.

Even though he stopped coming to the room, he continued to confine me.  If Miyamura released me, he feared that I would file a complaint.  My family and Miyamura continued to confine me to keep my mouth shut so their criminal acts would not be revealed.   I condemned them by saying “I’ll take the matter to the court.  You’ll be criminals.”  My accusation must have pressured them.

Around this time I had an idea to throw a letter, and I tore one page from a notebook and wrote a message on it, “My name is Toru Goto.  I’m confined on upper floor of this apartment.  Anyone who sees this, please contact the Unification Church.  I’ll pay you a reward.”  I tried to carry out the plan.  But the reinforced glasses with metal wires inside were not easily broken.  Even if I could throw a letter from the window, if it went wrong, I didn’t know what kind of revenge I would receive from captors.

Therefore I could not help but to hesitate to carry out the plan.  I was overpowered every time when I approached to the front door.  I received lots of violence and I got injured.  Such incidents were recalled and the determination to carry out the plan wilted.  After wavering, I tore the paper and flushed in the toilet.  I was prostrated with despair and I used to think,  “I shall be determined to live here for the rest of my life.”     

On 12 Sep 2001, a man who was a Conversion Professional visited the apartment to conduct conversion work on me.  He said he saw me at my confinement in 1987. This man said he would come back the next day, but he never showed up.