My Dream Has Been to Realize the Vision of  My Mentor (Part 1)

This September will mark the 40th anniversary of my call for the normalization of diplomatic relations between Japan and China. Fostering friendship with China was also the wish of both first and second Soka Gakkai presidents, Tsunesaburo Makiguchi and Josei Toda. I, in my capacity as a private citizen, have done everything I could to make this a reality. Though I was repeatedly criticized and slandered for my efforts, events now prove that promoting amicable ties between our nations was the right thing to do.

The fact that the Olympic Games—a “festival of peace”—are being held in China, I believe, also carries profound significance for friendship among the countries of Asia and indeed the entire world. I have spoken of this with various Chinese leaders.

While expressing my deepest concern and condolences for the victims of the recent earthquake in Sichuan, China, I would also like to offer my sincere prayers that the Beijing Olympics will serve as a “festival of hope” toward reconstruction in the wake of that natural disaster.

I’d also like to share some of the other ways our youth are involved in the Beijing Olympics. One member, a graduate of Kansai Soka Senior High School and Soka University, is participating in a project to provide video and audio equipment to Olympic venues in China, including the Beijing National Stadium—nicknamed the Bird’s Nest.

Demonstrating the limitless power of the Soka path of mentor and disciple, the youth are actively taking their place on the world stage. This fills me with great hope for the future.

I would like to energetically lead the way to a century of youth and capable people by devoting even greater efforts to fostering individuals who will make positive contributions to humankind.

My sole dream as a youth was to realize my mentor’s vision.

Now, I would like to speak a little about my own youth, out of my wish to pass on to you, my youthful successors, the true spirit of mentor and disciple that I forged with my own mentor.

On May 3, 1951, my mentor, Josei Toda, was inaugurated as the second president of the Soka Gakkai, and he proclaimed his lifetime goal of achieving a membership of 750,000 households.

The sole dream of my youth was to realize that goal of my mentor. I worked tirelessly to make his vision a reality.

In 1952, as advisor to Tokyo’s Kamata Chapter, I initiated a dynamic propagation drive known as the February Campaign.^[1] In 1953, I led the young men’s division First Corps to an exponential increase in membership. Later that year, I guided Tokyo’s Bunkyo Chapter to a new record. At the time, Bunkyo was one of the least successful chapters in terms of propagation activities. Mr. Toda sent me there as his right-hand man, and in less than a year I helped lead Bunkyo into becoming one of the nation’s top chapters in introducing Nichiren Buddhism to new members.

Mr. Toda sternly declared: “For the sake of kosen-rufu, you must win in all of your struggles. You must win, whatever the circumstances!” This is the spirit we need to have as leaders who practice Nichiren Buddhism. 

‘In every struggle, preparation is key.’

In August 1955, I participated in the summer propagation campaign in Sapporo, in the northern island of Hokkaido. At Mr. Toda’s request, I took the lead in that campaign and, in the short space of 10 hot summer days, we achieved the unprecedented record of introducing 388 new member households. 

In those days, we had to make the long trip to Hokkaido by train. On that occasion, I left Tokyo’s Ueno Station just before 10 a.m., caught the Seikan Ferry across the strait linking Aomori and Hakodate, and arrived in Sapporo a little after 11 the morning of the following day. Addressing the members who were waiting for me at Sapporo Station, I cheerfully declared: “We’ve already won!”

In every struggle, preparation is the key. This is even more the case for a short, concentrated campaign. For about a month before I was supposed to go up to Hokkaido to take on the assignment, I kept in close contact with the top leaders in Sapporo via mail and other means, making sure that they spoke to as many people as possible about Nichiren Buddhism and carefully planned upcoming meetings. After that, we were all set. The campaign started out brilliantly. And the Hokkaido members and I won the victory that we had prepared for.

Mr. Toda called on us to engrave in our hearts a certain passage from The Record of the Orally Transmitted Teachings: “If in a single moment of life we exhaust the pains and trials of millions of kalpas, then instant after instant there will arise in us the three Buddha bodies^[2] with which we are eternally endowed. Nam-myoho-renge-kyo is just such a ‘diligent’ practice” (p. 214).

It is important that we give careful, painstaking thought to our objectives, chant as much daimoku as possible and strive for kosen-rufu with all our might, making our mentor’s spirit our own. All who do so, no matter who they are, will be able to manifest the invincible life state of Buddhahood within them. Nothing can surpass the power of our hearts or minds, united in spirit with our mentor.

A struggle for freedom of belief in Yubari.

Speaking of Hokkaido, I’d like to tell you about the Yubari Coal Miners Union Incident of 1957. The extremely influential Yubari Coal Miners Union began to persecute Soka Gakkai members who belonged to the union, threatening them with the loss of their jobs unless they abandoned their Buddhist practice. The union employed numerous underhanded tactics to harass Soka Gakkai members. At the time, the union was widely regarded as all-powerful, and no one dared stand up to it.

With Mr. Toda’s permission, I rushed to Yubari, and there, together with courageous young local members, let out a mighty roar for freedom of belief.

The American civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. (1929–68) declared: “We had dignity because we knew our cause was just.”^[3] I also had complete confidence that right would win out in the end.

Win with courage.

President Toda always sent me to the places in most need of help. There were many more experienced leaders, but he always selected me. “Daisaku, it’s up to you!” “Daisaku, I want you to go!” he would say. Youth are crucial. Certain leaders, envious of my relationship with Mr. Toda, tried to engineer things so I would fail, but I always fought on with confidence and wisdom with my fellow members for the sake of realizing our mentor’s goal.

We can’t win if we are cowardly. We can’t win if we don’t strive all out. I gave my whole life. I had tuberculosis, and I spent my 20s in an intense struggle. I was worn out to the point of exhaustion every single day.

Mr. Toda used to lament that I might not live to the age of 30 and wept about what would happen to the Soka Gakkai if I died. That’s how devotedly I served my mentor and built our organization.

In any event, I triumphed. Kosen-rufu is an unrelenting struggle against devilish functions, against the workings of the devil king of the sixth heaven.^[4] There was no one I could turn to, but I fought my hardest and won, through the spirit I shared with my mentor.

To be continued in an upcoming issue.

March 7, 2025 World Tribune, pp. 2–3