Second Place Essay by Edward Shin

I came to know, by reading the section “Gathering Lost Family Members” [Book Seven, Chapter 1, Section 5], that True Father was in prison when the Korean War broke out and that is how he got out the first time. The second time he got out was by being freed. He tried his best to stop the Korean War, but it was just too hard to stop because of the shooting from every single soldier.

True Father was in prison for almost three years in North Korea. When he got out of prison the first time, four people wanted to follow him without returning to their hometown. True Father didn’t go back to the South and he sent people to find other people, but the person he sent never came back.

When True Father was in prison, he had to work at a factory. I was impressed that he made his own clothes, and if you rubbed the cloth with your finger the cloth would disappear. He gave his prison clothes to a lady so that she could bring them safely to the South, but she threw away his clothes.

The people who were in prison were forced to go to a dangerous place. If they disagreed, they would get shot. I am lucky that I was not born in the Korean War time. True Father was sent to prison again, and when he was freed some people still wanted to follow him. He was going to bring his brother or his parents, but he thought it was way too dangerous. True Father was trying to find a man, but it was too hard. He tried finding an old lady, but he soon figured out that she died. There was a place where they had to walk through a dangerous place with a lot of soldiers. Since they were prisoners, they decided to go that way. True Father led them, and they eventually went through and came out alive. True Father eventually went home back to his family, his brothers, sisters, and his parents; he missed all of them.

I realized that the suffering of True Father in prison became the foundation of gathering lost family members. I think True Father was being nice and courageous because he led everyone back to the South and he didn’t use violence. He made sure that the people who had just got out of prison would not get in prison again. He was trying his best to make sure nobody would get hurt and everybody would get along. Even though he was in prison, he was still not afraid to stand up for what was right.

I hope that South and North Korea will be at peace one day owing to True Parents’ course of suffering and victory. I am sorry that True Father couldn’t see the reunification of South and North Korea.