Chapter Summary
Illustration courtesy of Seikyo Press.
On January 1, 1962, Shin’ichi Yamamoto led the first gongyo of the Year of Victory at the Soka Gakkai Headquarters in Shinanomachi. He prayed deeply to achieve total victory on all fronts.
On January 13, he traveled to Hokkaido to attend a memorial service for a region young women’s leader who had passed away the previous year. The next day, Shin’ichi attended a district leaders meeting and a meeting for the Hokkaido General Chapter, where he called upon the “lions of Hokkaido” to rise up.
Four days later in Tokyo, a group of House of Councillors members who were Soka Gakkai members held a press conference to announce the formation of the Komei [Clean Government] Political Federation. [Shin’ichi took this step in order to make a clear distinction between the Soka Gakkai as a religious organization and the political party that they support. And now, the handful of Soka Gakkai-supported representatives had a platform from which they could speak.]
Shin’ichi arrived in Osaka on January 24, a day before the final verdict in the trial for the Osaka Incident was to be handed down. He attended leaders meetings for the young men’s and young women’s divisions, and urged them to advance boldly as allies of the suffering, committed first and always to the people’s happiness.
On January 25, at the final session of the trial, the judge announced the verdict: Shin’ichi was found “not guilty” on all charges. After returning to the Kansai Soka Gakkai Headquarters, Shin’ichi gazed up at the portrait of Josei Toda and reported his victory.
Shin’ichi said to his fellow members that the Osaka Incident marked only the beginning of the persecutions that the Soka Gakkai would encounter as they grew. In closing, he declared: “We are lions. Let us make our way through the storm toward the sunlight” (The New Human Revolution, vol. 5, p. 307).
Unforgettable Scene
Illustration courtesy of Seikyo Press.
A Declaration of Justice to Protect the People
In January 1962, Shin’ichi Yamamoto attended the Kansai Young Women’s Division Leaders Meeting at the Nakanoshima Civic Hall, the place where the Osaka protest rally took place in July 1957.
On that occasion, Shin’ichi had called out from the rostrum: “It is my firm belief that the Gohonzon is aware of everything. President Toda told us that the third of the three powerful enemies, false sages, have appeared. However, convinced of the Daishonin’s statement ‘When great evil occurs, great good follows’ (“The Great Evil and Great Good,” The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin, vol. 1, p. 1119), I am determined to arouse strong faith and further advance the cause of kosen-rufu together with all of you.
“Let us undertake this task with the conviction that the Mystic Law and those who strive tenaciously in faith, steadfastly upholding the Gohonzon, will definitely emerge victorious!”
■ ■ ■
Immediately afterward, Shin’ichi attended the young men’s division leaders meeting. Here he outlined events leading up to the Osaka Incident, solemnly relating the injustice of his arrest, based as it was on trumped-up charges …
“Having pledged to carry on the work of presidents Makiguchi and Toda, I do not hold my life dear.
“But this I declare: I will fight resolutely throughout my life against any authority that inflicts suffering upon ordinary, upright citizens—upon people who are selflessly working for the happiness and welfare of others.
“Buddhism concerns itself with winning. Let’s continue to discern who is just and correct: we of the Soka Gakkai, or the prosecutors who interrogated our members in a cruel, inhumane manner and the authorities who compelled them to do so.”
Passion infused Shin’ichi’s words. (NHR-5, 293–96)
The chapter summaries were originally published in the February 6, 2019, Seikyo Shimbun, while the “Unforgettable Scenes” were originally published in the February 13, 2019, issue.
Key Passage
The authorities’ job should be to protect and safeguard people’s rights and welfare, definitely not to harass and torment honest, upright citizens. People are the protagonists in our society and nation. We must resolutely fight against the insidious aspect of power that would enslave, torment and oppress people, trampling on their rights. This, I declare, is the Soka Gakkai’s mission. (NHR-5, 304)
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