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Josei
Toda (1900-1958) -- Man of Conviction
 February 11 was the 100th anniversary of the birth of
Josei Toda, second president of the Soka Gakkai.
Toda grew up on the northern island of Hokkaido. Working
and studying part-time, he qualified as a primary school teacher, and
taught in the local school.
At 20, he moved to Tokyo. Disillusioned with a Japanese
educational system that advanced the interests of the state and suppressed
independent thought, he was inspired by his meeting with Tsunesaburo Makiguchi,
a primary school principal with a unique, child-centered teaching methodology.
At 23, he began managing a private school called
Jishugakkan,
where he put Makiguchi’s educational theories into practice. He also
published a textbook on arithmetic which sold over a million copies.
In 1928, Toda converted to Nichiren Buddhism together
with Makiguchi. Two years later, in 1930, he helped publish his mentor’s
seminal work, "The System of Value-Creating Pedagogy" and cofounded
the Soka Kyoiku Gakkai (Value-Creating Education Society) with Makiguchi,
who became its first president.
In the early 1940s, as this organization promoting human
development through education and Buddhism grew, its leaders came under
surveillance by the secret police. The military government was clamping
down on freedom of speech and forcing adherence to State Shinto on the
entire population. In July 1943, Toda and Makiguchi were arrested on
charges of lèse-majesté and violating the notorious Peace Preservation
Law.
Makiguchi died in prison, but Toda survived two years
of incarceration and resisted state coercion. While in prison, through
intense Buddhist practice and study, Toda came to understand that Buddhahood,
or enlightenment, is inherent in life itself, and that all people can
manifest it.
This realization, and his deep anger toward the military
government’s abuse of power, made him determined to propagate Nichiren
Buddhism for the remainder of his life. Toda vowed to rebuild the Soka
Gakkai in the devastation of postwar Japan, spreading the hopeful message
that it is possible to dramatically transform one’s own destiny.
By May 3, 1951, when Toda became the Soka Gakkai’s
second president, the membership was less than 3,000 families. Within
seven years, the society was a nationwide religious movement, with a membership
of over 750,000 households. Josei Toda died on April 2, 1958.
Toda also cared deeply about the state of the world and
was an early advocate of global citizenship. Toward the end of his life
he became deeply concerned about the escalating nuclear weapons race.
In 1956 and 1957, the Cold War was intensifying. The
United States, Britain and the Soviet Union were carrying out frequent
nuclear weapons tests. In August 1957, the U.S. was horrified when the
Soviet Union succeeded in testing an intercontinental ballistic missile
three years ahead of schedule. The United Nations Disarmament Subcommittee
which had convened on March 18 that year, aiming to place a moratorium
on the manufacture, testing and use of nuclear weapons, ended with no
agreement on September 6.
On September 7, Josei Toda was preparing for a large
Soka Gakkai youth sports meeting scheduled for the following day. He pondered
deeply the problem of nuclear weapons. He felt that nuclear deterrence
was founded on an equilibrium of terror, resulting in a vicious circle
that fueled the endless escalation of the nuclear arms race.
Toda was certain that nuclear weapons were the product
of the dark, destructive nature inherent in all people, and that they
posed a fundamental threat to people’s right to exist. He was convinced
nuclear weapons and their use must be absolutely condemned, not from the
standpoint of ideology, nationalism or ethnic identity, but from the universal
dimension of humanity.
At the meeting on September 8, he spoke passionately
against nuclear weapons and asked the assembled youth to spread the spirit
of his message around the world:
"Although a movement to ban the testing of nuclear
weapons is now under way around the world, it is my wish to attack the
problem at its root, that is to rip out the claws that are hidden in the
very depths of this issue . . . we, the citizens of the world, have an
inviolable right to live. Anyone who tries to jeopardize this right is
a devil incarnate, a fiend, a monster."
Toda’s call was the starting point of the Soka Gakkai’s
peace activities, and nuclear disarmament has remained a key issue for
the organization.
In 1975, Soka Gakkai youth members collected 10 million
signatures for nuclear abolition which were presented to the UN secretary-general.
In 1978, SGI President Ikeda submitted a proposal on nuclear disarmament
to the First Special Session of the UN General Assembly on Disarmament,
and in 1982 the exhibition "Nuclear Arms: Threat to Our World"
opened
at the UN headquarters and began to tour different countries. Continuing
Toda’s legacy, in 1998, Japanese youth members collected over 13
million signatures in support of the Abolition 2000 campaign calling for
the abolition of nuclear weapons.
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