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SGI News: Global activities for peace, education and culture

50th Anniversary of Toda Declaration on Nuclear Weapons

A Day of Peace in Hawaii
"Creating a Culture of Peace" at the University of Hawaii  [Sophia Mendoza]

The School of Architecture at the University of Hawaii in Honolulu was the site of SGI-USA's Aloha Peace Community Forum on April 21, organized by SGI-Peace 21, the SGI-USA student club on campus, together with the United Nations Association-USA Hawaii Division and the SGI-USA International Committee of Artists for Peace.

In his keynote address, UN Under-Secretary-General Anwarul K. Chowdhury stressed that we live in an unequal world and each individual has a role in ensuring security. Dr. Linus Pauling Jr., psychiatrist and eldest son of the late Nobel Prize-winning scientist and humanitarian Linus Pauling, spoke about education as being fundamental to positive change. Dr. Ha'aheo Guanson, vice president of the Center for Global Nonviolence, noted there is a great need for peace education and that second Soka Gakkai President Josei Toda's vision of a conflict-free world is being carried on by the Toda Institute for Global Peace and Policy Research, which has a branch in Honolulu, Hawaii.

At the Aloha Peace Forum  [Craig Wood]

The event then moved to Sinclair Library for the opening of the "Creating a Culture of Peace: The Right to Human Security" exhibition that commemorates the 50th anniversary of Josei Toda's antinuclear declaration in 1957. At that time, Mr. Toda denounced nuclear weapons, stating that they pose a threat to humanity's fundamental right to life. Library Head Gregg Geary stated, "My hope is that [the exhibit] will prompt all who see it to reflect on the idea of peace and to ponder its meaning."

Coinciding with the Aloha Peace Community Forum, more than 1,800 SGI-USA members from California, Nevada, Guam and Hawaii gathered for meetings at the SGI-USA Hawaii Culture Center, and the launch of the second phase of SGI-USA's Victory Over Violence campaign, with each participant being encouraged to make a personal pledge to value their own life, respect all life, actively pursue dialogue and inspire hope in others.

Satyagraha and Human Revolution
Dr.N.Radhakrishnan  [©Seikyo Shimbun]

On April 3, Dr. N. Radhakrishnan, former director of the Gandhi Smriti and Darshan Samiti, New Delhi, India, was invited to lecture at an Indo-Japan Joint Symposium held at the Institute of Oriental Philosophy (IOP), Tokyo, to commemorate the centennial of Gandhi's satyagraha, the nonviolence resistance movement for Indian independence, and the 50th anniversary of second Soka Gakkai President Josei Toda's Declaration for the Abolition of Nuclear Weapons.

In a lecture focusing on the commonalities between Gandhi's satyagraha movement and Toda's appeal for the abolition of nuclear weapons, the Gandhian scholar observed that satyagraha, which also means the pursuit of truth, resonates with Toda's philosophy of "human revolution"--an inner transformation that is reflected in one's environment. He stressed that it requires tremendous courage, conviction, resolve and commitment to inherit the philosophies of Gandhi and Toda and actualize them in our daily lives. Once accomplished, such a profound inner change will then trigger the transformation of society at large.

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