Stranger Things

Nan-sook Hong's Wikipedia page (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nansook_Hong)

Her book In the Shadow of the Moons: My Life in the Reverend Sun Myung Moon's Family (https://amzn.to/4pxyR7v) was published in 1998 is only now available secondhand as an expensive hardback for $99. I was hoping a Kindle version was available for convenient reading, but I do own a copy of her book in hardback. I bought it and read it around 20 years ago. Curiously, my Amazon account has no record of it - perhaps because it's not longer in print. I will read it again over the coming weeks as I both want to refresh my memory and also look for glimpses into the personality and life of her mother-in-law now that she has been arrested and is at the center of quite significant media interest. There are disturbing glimpses into her life in the 60 Minutes video below. Some other links and quotes I found interesting/disturbing and that might help someone new to her story to get a quick idea...

I actually just opened it a random page - page 105, and the word "promiscuous" caught my eye. Both pics are from that page:


Nov. 16. 1998: Unification Church: Inside Moon's Unhappy Family (https://web.archive.org/web/20241012123953/https://www.christianitytoday.com/1998/11/unification-church-inside-moons-unhappy-family/) (Chritianity Today)

Nov. 22, 1998: The Dark Side of the Moons – Nansook Hong (https://tragedyofthesixmarys.com/dark-side-of-moons-nansook-hong/) (Tragedy of the Six Marys - Reposting of Sunday Telegraph article)

QuoteNansook Hong was 15 when she was forced to marry into the 'True Family' at the head of the Moonies religious cult. It was the start of two decades of physical and mental abuse, from which she has only recently escaped. Here, for the first time, she tells James Langton of the 'hypocrisy and evil' at the heart of the Unification Church.

Dark Side of Rev. Moon: Generation Next (https://www.consortiumnews.com/archive/moon5.html) (Robert Parry - Consortium News)

QuoteIn August 1995, a thin dark-haired Asian woman furtively led her five children in an escape from an elegant mansion on an 18-acre estate overlooking the Hudson River north of New York City. Fearful of her tyrannical husband, the woman was abandoning a life as a modern-day princess who had "wanted for nothing," a pampered existence with docile American servants tending to her every need. ...

In a sworn affidavit, Nansook described how she and other members of Moon's family lived the royal life inside the Irvington, N.Y., compound. But the price for that life of luxury was tolerating Hyo Jin's violent outbursts.

"From very early in our marriage, Hyo Jin has abused drugs and alcohol and is an addict as a result," Nansook wrote. "He has a ritual of secreting himself in the master bedroom, sometimes for hours, sometimes for days, drinking alcohol, using cocaine and watching pornographic films. ... When he emerges he is more angry and more volatile."

Nansook described a pattern of abuse which included Hyo Jin beating her in 1994 when she disrupted one of his cocaine parties. "He punched me in the nose and blood came rushing out," Nansook wrote. "He then smeared my blood on his hand, licked his hand and said, 'It tastes good. This is fun'." At the time, she was seven months pregnant.

On another occasion, she said he forced her to stand naked in front of him for hours because "I needed to be humiliated." Meanwhile, Nansook complained that her in-laws did little to confront Hyo Jin. "Although Hyo Jin's family knew of his addictions and his abuse of me and the children, I received very little emotional or physical support from them," Nansook wrote. "I was constantly at the mercy of Hyo Jin's erratic and cruel behavior."

Sept. 13, 1998: Excerpts from 60 Minutes Interview:


Transcript, More Details and Articles (https://tragedyofthesixmarys.com/nansook-hong-interviewed/) (Tragedy Of The Six Marys - Updated July 9, 2021)

Review of In the Shadow of the Moons: My Life in the Reverend Sun Myung Moon's Family (http://www.reveal.org/library/reviews/shadowmoon.html)

Quote...Most members of the Unification Church get no closer to the True Family than the distance between the stage and their seats at some rally..."