Japanese CARP Overcomes Opposition

CARP was first initiated twelve years ago in Japan, at Waseda University, and has grown to encompass 800 university campuses. According to the former director of CARP publications, Dr. Kazuyoshi Ikeno, CARP is now the largest student movement in Japan. He considers working with CARP a “very happy job,” and predicts that in Japan “in two years it will be a big influence on all of society.” Most Japanese Unification Church members joined through CARP as students.

In Japan, where Communist opposition is very fierce, CARP members make very large signs and teach Victory Over Communism Theory on the streets and campuses. When the Communists come out and destroy the signs and beat the speakers, CARP members return with much bigger signs. When other students see what the Communists are doing, all the conscientious ones flock to CARP.

In April CARP members begin to prepare papers to give to incoming freshman students in the fall. They describe CARP activities for freshmen implying “this is a freshman requirement.” According to Mr. lkeno, students attend a seminar and join.

CARP chapters on each university campus publish their own student newspapers. The biggest of these is the Waseda Student Times, published at Waseda University. At Waseda, two sects of the Japanese Communist Party last year opposed each other and killings took place. Some CARP members fasted against such violence. CARP cried to mobilize students to build a seminar house in memory of those killed in the violence.

“This form of killing is not uncommon among Communists,” Mr. Ikeno explained. “So it is important to inform radical students of just what the Communists do when they take over.”

CARP in Japan focuses on promotion of welfare, critique of Communism, and promotion of information of the university system.

A model university in Japan was planned by the minister of education. The president of this new university used to be a CARP leader at Tsukuba University.

The new university is a new concept of a university, planned around a village model.

Mr. Ikeno was chief editor of the World Student Times, a newspaper distributed to students throughout Japan, Taiwan, and Korea.