True Father Arrested in Ehwa Womans University Incident

Unification Church members Yoo Kyoung-kyu and Hwang Hwan-chae witness at Ehwa Womans University in 1955. They had both joined as students at the nearby Yonsei University in Seoul. The main building of the Ehwa campus is in the background. Ehwa was supported by the US Methodist Church.

In late 1954 and early 1955, the newly founded Unification Church witnessed successfully on the campuses of Ehwa Womans University and Yonsei University in Seoul. Nearly 400 students connected to the church, at which point Ehwa President Helen Kim and Vice President Maria Park spearheaded a crackdown. Five Ehwa University faculty members, including Dr. Young Oon Kim and Won Pok Choi, who had joined the church, were fired.

Students were given the choice to discontinue association with the church or be expelled. Fourteen students accepted expulsion. Finally, as a result of an orchestrated defamation campaign, True Father, Won Pil Kim, Church President Hyo Won Eu and two of Mr. Eu’s relatives were arrested. True Father spent three months in Seoul’s Seodaemun prison before being freed on appeal.