The following message by Soka Gakkai President Minoru Harada was published in the September 2024 issue of the Soka Gakkai’s monthly study journal, Daibyakurenge.
Today’s Soka Gakkai was founded on two pillars. The first is the selfless dedication of the first three presidents to propagate Nichiren Buddhism, and the second is the philosophy of profound respect for life that underlies the denunciation of nuclear weapons as an absolute evil, articulated by second Soka Gakkai President Josei Toda in his Declaration for the Abolition of Nuclear Weapons. In that declaration, which President Toda delivered on Sept. 8, 1957, at Yokohama’s Mitsuzawa Stadium, he entrusted young people with the task of eradicating all nuclear weapons, calling this the foremost of his instructions for the future.
I was a first-year high school student at the time, and my older brother had taken me with him to that event. I didn’t really understand the weight of the declaration at first, but as the years have passed I have come to realize that this event has an ever-greater significance for humanity. This is entirely due to the extraordinary efforts of Ikeda Sensei, who was determined to realize his mentor’s will.
“Nothing is more barbarous than war. Nothing is more cruel.”
“Nothing is more precious than peace. Nothing brings more happiness.”
These opening lines from The Human Revolution and The New Human Revolution, respectively, perfectly express Sensei’s firm commitment to peace.
Sept. 8 was also the date Sensei issued his call for the normalization of relations between Japan and China at a student division general meeting in 1968. It was the date he was invited to attend a gathering of the people of Atsuta Village, his mentor’s hometown, in 1973; the date when he made his first visit to the Soviet Union in 1974; and the date he designated for the publication of the last installment of The New Human Revolution in the Seikyo Shimbun in 2018.
Sensei once wrote, “On Sept. 8 each year, I renew my determination to strengthen our gathering of Soka youth.” True to his word, he set an example through his struggle as a disciple and entrusted to us, his successors, the task of transforming the karma of humanity. There is no question that now is the time for us to inherit that Soka spirit and make our mentor’s wish a reality.
The first three Soka Gakkai presidents all treasured these words of Nichiren Daishonin: “When once we chant Myoho-renge-kyo, with just that single sound we summon forth and manifest the Buddha nature of all … living beings” (“Those Initially Aspiring to the Way,” The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin, vol. 1, p. 887). The sound of our voices chanting Nam-myoho-renge-kyo has the power to awaken the Buddha nature within all people and to move the universe.
Our steadfast daily efforts to sow the seeds of this Mystic Law are a sacred endeavor to draw forth Buddhahood within all living beings; they are the great light of peace that illuminates our troubled world. Embracing the principle of establishing the correct teaching for the peace of the land, let’s strive to engage in dialogue to further spread our movement for the good of all humankind!
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