40 Years: Celebrating Peace Road
“Carrying out Peace Road will bind the world together as one village,” said True Father. “It will tear down the man-made walls of race, culture, religion, and country, and establish the world of peace that has been God’s cherished desire.”
Forty years ago, on November 10, 1981, the international Peace Road project was first proposed at the 10th annual International Conference on the Unity of the Sciences (ICUS) in Seoul, South Korea, by True Parents. They envisioned the International Peace Highway Project where the world would be connected as one and all barriers among people could be broken down.
“Peace Road will be able to connect the world through a super highway, starting from Cape of Good Hope in South Africa to Santiago in Chile, and from London to New York, making the world a single community,” said True Mother during her 120 Nations Speaking Tour for World Peace in 2006.
The concept of Peace Road draws from the world’s history of connectivity, including the ancient Silk Road and Royal Road of the Persian Empire. Today, the vision of Peace Road continues to grow and unfold worldwide.
“Teams of participants walk, cycle or drive along designated routes representing the International Peace Highway,” said True Mother. “Their path ends at local government centers where local officials, social and religious leaders speak at rallies, publicly announce their support for the initiative and stimulate publicity in local media. In these events, people of all ages and nationalities, wearing t-shirts and carrying a Peace Road flag, ride bicycles or walk to show their support for peace.”
True Mother rekindled interest in Peace Road in 2015, and thousands of peace supporters all around the world have since walked, rode, and drove the proposed course of the peace highway in honor of True Father’s memory and dream of peace.
In summer 2021, UPF — which organizes Peace Road — unveiled its latest campaign, “Drawing Nations and People Together as Neighbors.” The flagship project aims to build an undersea tunnel between Korea and Japan, said UPF Chairman Dr. Thomas Walsh, as well as a Bering Strait tunnel to connect Alaska and Siberia. He said the current focus of Peace Road is the tunnel that would connect the U.S. and Russia, running under the Bering Strait — a focal point of True Father.
“Through Peace Road, the United States and Russia can become as one,” True Father said, “and all nations, and also all the world’s religions, can combine their energies to succeed in this project.”
Linking the world by a vast international system of highways, railways, bridges, and tunnels will make all nations accessible and interconnected in untold ways. With a presence in more than 125 countries, True Parents’ historic vision of Peace Road is within greater reach now more than ever.
“We earnestly hope that with each step we take, more people can join us and be hopeful,” said Dr. Walsh. “Then that earnest desire for peace amongst people can go beyond just hope and become reality.”
You can learn more about Peace Road here.
