The Life of Food
July 2009
Banner photo: Oxheart tomatoes [© Creativ Studio Heinemann]
The Philippines--Confronting the Truths of History
Mr. Ikeda meets with President Corazon Aquino in Manila in April 1991 [© Seikyo Shimbun]
On January 2, 1942, just weeks after Pearl Harbor, Japanese troops marched into Manila, occupying the Philippines until General MacArthur drove them out in early 1945. The Japanese occupation of the Philippines was a period of brutality and oppression, and left lasting scars in the relationship between the two countries in the postwar years.
Many in Japan, however, have refused to confront or apologize for the horrors committed during this period of brutality. In the words of Dr. Jose Abueva, former president of the University of the Philippines, "Japanese leaders still stubbornly refused to admit, and apologize for, the grievous wrongs they had committed in the countries they invaded in World War II. Japanese history textbooks purposely concealed the truth or justified the wrongs. Fellow Asians were outraged by the insensitivity and dishonesty of the Japanese. How could they gloss over the sordid truth that so many had witnessed and endured, recorded and remembered?"
Dr. Abueva himself is one such witness to the atrocities of those times: his parents were brutally murdered by the occupying Japanese army just a few months before the islands' liberation.
Mr. and Mrs. Ikeda meet with Dr. Jose Abueva in Manila (May 1993) [© Seikyo Shimbun]
It is against this backdrop that the efforts of SGI President Daisaku Ikeda to build peace and understanding between the two countries can be understood. He has consistently confronted the truths of history, insisting that the Japanese people face up to the injustices and atrocities of the past. He sees cultural and educational exchanges involving the citizens of both countries as the most certain means of building trust and friendship to ensure this tragic history is never repeated.
Ikeda made his first visit to the Philippines in April 1991 at the invitation of the University of the Philippines, at the time headed by Dr. Abueva. There he received an honorary doctorate in law and delivered a lecture to the college of business administration.
The visit came just a few years after the nonviolent "People Power" revolution of 1986 had swept aside the Marcos regime. This in many ways marked the culmination of the independence struggle that dated back to the 19th century and the liberation movement inspired by the great Filipino hero José Rizal (1861-96). A prolific writer whose output included essays, novels and poetry, Rizal was fluent in a number of Asian and European languages and was qualified as a medical doctor. An advocate of popular empowerment and national independence through education, Rizal was executed by the Spanish authorities on December 30, 1896, a day still commemorated in the Philippines.
Laying a wreath at the memorial to Philippine independence hero José Rizal (February 1998) [© Seikyo Shimbun]
As Ikeda stated in his lecture, "Is it not correct to consider the revolution of February 1986 as a great step forward toward the realization of the dream Rizal cherished? The fact that an entrenched dictatorship of 17 years was toppled through the power of the people, without recourse to violence, is an extraordinary accomplishment that will shine brilliantly in the annals of world history."
The day after his visit to the University of the Philippines, Ikeda met with President Corazon Aquino. Aquino's husband, Ninoy, had been a leader for democratic reform who was assassinated within minutes of returning from exile on August 21, 1983. His widow, Corazon, determined to take up the struggle, and unleashed a peaceful revolution which restored democracy to the Philippines.
In a poem he gave Aquino when they met, Ikeda described these events as "a grand drama of reversal by the people's hand / It was the triumph of a husband and wife's beautiful love. / . . . . Against the threat of tanks / the people formed 'human chains' / to turn them back. / 'Into the streets!' they cried, / 'Let us show them the power of the people!' / It was a magnificent victory of nonviolence."
During his second visit to the Philippines in 1993, Ikeda met with President Fidel V. Ramos, Aquino's successor. President Ramos spoke of the importance of Japan's role in working for the peace and security of the Asia-Pacific region, Ikeda expressed his desire to promote peace, cultural and educational exchanges toward that common goal.
A Bridge of Culture
The next day, Ikeda attended the opening of the University of the Philippines' facility for international educational exchanges, "The House for Peace (Daisaku Ikeda Hall)," at the university's Diliman campus in Quezon City. At the ceremony, quoting José Rizal's words that "Education brings security and peace to a nation," he expressed his desire that the new facility would bring together the world's leaders and scholars in their quest for peace.
Ballet Philippines perform in Japan at the invitation of the Min-On Concert Association [© Seikyo Shimbun]
Soka University in Japan, which was established by Ikeda in 1971, has been engaged in academic exchanges with the University of the Philippines since 1988. The Soka Gakkai-affiliated Min-On Concert Association has also promoted numerous cultural exchanges between the two countries. The first such event was the "Pearls of the South Seas--Music and Dance from the Philippines" tour in March 1990 by the Ramon Obusan Folkloric Group. The prestigious Ballet Philippines troupe has also toured Japan twice under the auspices of Min-On.
These performances have been supported by the Cultural Center of the Philippines, whose former president, Maria Teresa Escoda Roxas, met with Ikeda in 1991. Recalling how her parents suffered at the hands of the Japanese militarists during World War II, Mrs. Roxas described how an encounter with Japanese traditional arts had finally enabled her to see the Japanese through new eyes. "I came to love Japanese arts, and through them, at last, to open my heart to the Japanese people. Art can lead us to transcend love and hate. Culture is the strongest tie that can bind human beings together."
A further example of how such ties of culture can be created is "Happy Tales," a series of animated stories in the Tagalog language that have been shown by television channels throughout the Philippines. The 12 animated films are based on children's stories by Ikeda, including "The Cherry Tree" and "The River of Peace." The series won an award for the most outstanding television program for children from the Southeast Asian Foundation for Children's Television in December 2004.
Ikeda's third visit to the Philippines took place in 1998 at the invitation of the Order of the Knights of Rizal, an organization dedicated to promoting the vision of Jos‚ Rizal. It was the centenary of Philippine independence, when the Philippines cast off the yoke of colonial rule and became the first democracy in Asia, fulfilling the dream of the martyred national hero.
SGI-Philippines youth members have an ongoing tree-planting project in different parts of the country [© Seikyo Shimbun]
Ikeda received the Grand Knight Cross of Rizal in 1996, and the First Rizal International Peace Award in 1998. At the award ceremony, the Supreme Commander of the Order of the Knights of Rizal, Sir Rogelio M. Quiambao, said that Rizal and Ikeda were inspired by similar humanistic ideals.
In his acceptance speech, Ikeda pledged himself to the effort to share the spirit of Rizal with the world, to convey his message of peace and nonviolence into the coming century.
"Before us," he stated, "lies the vast path that Dr. Rizal pioneered at the risk, and finally the cost, of his life. This path is first of all a path toward victory for ordinary people, for the common person." Referring to Japan's invasion of the Philippines, he continued, "To ensure that there is never a repetition of this cruelty and barbarity, we must create waves of friendship, a flowing river of peace that deeply and firmly binds together the hearts of our young people. It is my belief that cultural and educational exchanges are the means to achieve this; I have devoted myself to this effort, and will continue to do so."
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