The Makuya Movement started in May 1948, in the same year and the same month when the State of Israel achieved her independence after 2000 years of dispersion and persecutions. We see in these two events more than a mere coincidence: we feel the same invisible hand of God working on both of them.
Teshima Ikuro believed that the establishment of the State of Israel was the greatest miracle in the 20th century. In March 1973 Teshima and 400 Makuya pilgrims celebrated the 25th anniversary of Israel’s independence and prayed in front of the tomb of Zeev Binyamin Theodore Herzl, the father of modern Zionism.
Herzl believed that the Jewish people needed their own national homeland in order to live in a free and peaceful environment. He called for his fellow comrades to return to the land of their forefathers and to build a modern Jewish nation, saying, “If you will, it is not a myth.” His vision was fulfilled half a century after his passing.* * *
In 1956 God revealed to Teshima Ikuro that “Jerusalem will surely be restored into the hands of Israelis.” In May 1967 when President Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt threatened Israel to be cast into the Mediterranean Sea, Teshima, foreseeing the impending Arab-Israel war, formed in Japan “An Emergency Committee for Rescuing Israel.” And he foretold “Nasser will be cracked down by an iron hammer from heaven.” As soon as the war broke out, he flew to Israel with relief supplies.
Standing in front of the Western Wall, he offered a prayer of thanks for the restoration of the Holy City of Jerusalem and wrote on a sheet of paper, “The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, our God, I give thanks to the promise and the truthfulness of the God of David. June 12, 1967, Teshima Ikuro from Tokyo, Japan.” In his diary he wrote, “Today is the best day in my life.”
Returning to Japan, Teshima immediately organized celebration meetings for the restoration of Jerusalem with Israeli guests; he sent Makuya delegation pilgrimages to Israel, and invited General Uzi Narkiss, the liberator of Jerusalem to the Makuya Convention. He envisioned the spiritual movement of the world to keep expanding with ever increasing strength.