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CHAPTER FIVE
THE PHILIPPINES: BUDDHISM IN A VERY CATHOLIC LAND
The other SGI chapters in Southeast Asia discussed in the previous
chapter are dominated by ethnic Chinese who live in countries with a tradition of
Buddhism. The 15,500 (2009 figure) Filipino SGI (SGIRP) members differ not
only in the fact that ethnic Chinese members are a distinct minority, but also
because seventy to eighty percent of those members surveyed by this writer in
1999 had grown up as Catholics in a very Catholic country.
The Philippines is a very different country than the three other Southeast
Asian nations surveyed here. Economically, it is light years behind Singapore,
Hong Kong and Much of Malaysia. Even at the end of the first decade of the new
century, it remains an economic oligarchy where a wealthy class of entrepreneurs
controls much of the wealth and power and most others fall into the lower classes.
The Philippines remains a distinctly Catholic and Christian culture although there
is growing evidence that younger Filipinos are much less interested in and
dominated by the Church than their parents and grandparents were. While older
Filipinos I met seem to lack a sense of identity and nationalism, younger Filipinos
appear to have a much greater sense of nationhood than their parents.
The Philippines has always experienced considerable poverty, but much of
the current crisis stems from the latter years of the Marcos era, especially during
the late 1970s and early 1980s. During this period the stagnation of the economy
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led both the nation and its people to the verge of total devastation. Morale was at
its lowest and the future looked bleak. Since that time millions of Filipinos have
left their country for work elsewhere and their remittances back home have
become one of the nation’s key sources of income.
The 1990s and early 2000s have witnessed an ever-growing gap between
rich and poor and there remains no sign of an evolving middle class. Newspapers
continue even in 2009 to report rampant corruption at all levels of government
though there are signs that government today provides better services than under
Marcos. Nevertheless, the essential problems of the past remain. There is a small
and quite wealthy upper class, a vibrant but small professional middle class, and a
huge world of sorrowful poverty. Filipinos have always had a remarkably good
educational system and enjoy a literacy rate near 90 percent, but most have not
been able to take advantage of this benefit in economic terms.
One of the biggest problems has been the lack of land reform. Agriculture
(sugar, rice, etc) remains the backbone of the economy although since the late
1990s there has been rapid growth in manufacturing, services and outsourcing.
Rich landowners keep the wealth mainly for themselves and government does
little to redistribute the wealth. Politicians often talk about the necessity of
meaningful land reform, but do very little to implement it. Land prices are high,
so the average laborer finds it quite impossible to purchase a meaningful piece of
real estate.
There is evidence of growing industry in some of the suburbs surrounding
Manila, but many of the plants are Japanese or American-owned. They employ a
fair number of workers, but at low wages. Wealthier Filipinos have begun to
invest in industry in greater numbers and their high profits have led to a rapidly
growing GNP (4.6 percent in 2008), but they are able to pay low wages to a very
plentiful labor supply.
Government corruption has also hurt. A truly nationalistic government
must invest heavily in its people by building more schools, public housing,
infrastructure, and must encourage investment in modern growth industries to
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provide many new jobs. The horribly corrupt Marcos administration stole massive
amounts of public money and foreign aid and left both the government and the
nation deeply in debt. Government administrations since Marcos have been stuck
with these debts and have failed to extricate the nation from the excesses of the
past.
The Catholic Church must share the blame for this ugly state of affairs. To
be sure, the Church has many excellent schools and provides a meaningful
education for millions of Filipinos. Church leaders maintain an important moral
structure for the people. But conservative and often wealthy church leaders refuse
to support such necessary measures as birth control, abortion, or even divorce.
When I last visited the Philippines a few years ago, I read many newspaper
articles about the government’s futile attempts to institute some forms of birth
control against the heated objections of leading clergy in Manila.
Today the Philippines has one of the fastest growing birth rates in Asia.
Poor Filipinos continue to raise large families. The population in 1950 was around
22 million, but 60 years later it is approaching 100 million. A Filipino professor
writing recently in a newspaper suggested that every time the government builds a
new school, there is a need for two more. Today economic growth exceeds
population growth, but a slowing in the surging population would be a good thing.
Buddhism in a Catholic Country
The Philippines is famous for its strong adherence to Catholicism. Until
recently nearly eighty percent of the population professed strong faith in the
Catholic Church, one of the dominant institutions of Philippine society. The
Church plays a critical role in education—nearly half of the adult SGI members I
interviewed in Manila in 1999 had attended Catholic high schools or colleges.
Three-quarters of the SGI members I met there grew up in staunchly Catholic
families. Members were typically practicing Catholics as children and young
adolescents, but quit the Church during their high school or college years, finding
no other religious “home” before adopting Nichiren Buddhism. Most former
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Catholic members indicated that they found little satisfaction or benefit from
Catholicism and had been searching for a new source of spirituality in their lives.
Most SGI members stated that Buddhism allows one to cope with
problems of war, poverty, pollution, drugs, crime and a lack of hope. They are
attracted to the possibility of true happiness and spiritual comfort in the here and
now rather than in some ill-defined paradise after death. Interviews with Filipino
SGI members brought back dark memories from their past, how they had suffered
through unhappiness, lack of self-confidence, and bad relationships with other
people. Adopting Buddhism never provided an instant cure, but it was a catalyst
for change. Chanting alone as well with others, combined with the strong social
support received from other members gave them reason for hope and the
determination to succeed in life.
They regard the key Buddhist teaching to be that everybody, no matter
how successful, always has room and potential for improvement. This is true
whether it is in relationships or elsewhere in life. Misery and failures are neither
situational nor the fault of others. Change for the better will only come through
one’s own endeavors. Self-respect must always come before the respect of others
will develop.
SGI has drawn a respectable number of followers in this deeply Catholic
country. Because it manages to demystify Buddhism and to demonstrate that it
has universalistic value. Members are provided with a clear spiritual package that
is easy to understand, but complex enough to require further study. SGI’s wellcoordinated organizational structure and socialization process bring the same
people together on a frequent basis, thus creating a sense of belonging. It also
instills a sense of confidence in many members through group affirmation and
support. These positive feelings in turn ensure their loyalty to the group and to the
organization that “helped to liberate them from their prior misery. SGI’s
methodology of group-oriented structure, close-knit relationships within the
group, and a highly structured system of guidelines and discussion-settings are a
few of the reasons for its success here.
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Demographics of Philippine Membership
The demographics of Filipino SGI members in some respects parallel that
of the other Southeast Asian states studied here. Its earliest members were
middle-aged women, but in the early 2000s there is a fairly even split among
older and younger members. Most of the members are ethnic Filipino in origin,
although the multi-ethnic make-up of many Filipinos makes it hard to define
exactly who is a Filipino and who is not. There is also a sizable Chinese-Filipino
membership, though a distinct minority. The members I met were largely middleclass and well-educated, but I was informed that there were many poor members,
especially in the more rural areas outside of the city that I toured on several
occasions.
SGIRP is a largely family-based movement. Virtually every member
comes from families that boast as many as four or five members. Proselytization
is common among family members and among friends and peers. Usually when
one family member joins, it is not uncommon for other family members to join as
well. A number of younger members told me that they first heard of SGI from
SGI member friends in high school or college.
Filipino members are usually well-educated. One of the anomalies of
Filipino society has always been its high literacy rate. Most children, even those
from very poor families, go to school for at least a few years. Many SGI
members, however, go to college and graduate school—with the result that many
younger members in their late 20s and early 30s, like their counterparts in
Singapore and Malaysia, are upwardly mobile professionals or businessmen.
Many younger members I interviewed insisted that their faith in Buddhism and
their sense of self-confidence that followed was a very important factor in their
decision to go to school and pursue a higher education.
When asked if SGI had had a positive effect on their lives, many
members, but not all responded with great enthusiasm. The following are a few
typical responses from a written survey that members did in private:
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A. I have made a total change from bad to good. I was an angry person
with an empty life, but there has been a total change in my worldview.
I have gained much more self-confidence and a much greater sense of
compassion. When work to help others, my own problems decline in
importance.
B. I am now a very happy person. I married a beautiful and capable wife,
got a dream house, own considerable property, and have a good job. I
have overcome poverty and a lack of self-confidence. I am very happy
because everything becomes a source of joy for me.
C. I have been a member for a few years now. They say that membership
in SGI is supposed to bring greater happiness and prosperity, but I was
already fairly happy when my sister persuaded me to join. Nothing bad
has happened to me since I joined, but then again, nothing that is
extraordinarily good has happened as well. I keep waiting for my life
to become better, but thus far it has not.
D. I have gained so much from this religion including an education. To
my surprise, I recently received an offer to work in a good job in the
United States, but I turned it down. I want to stay here in Manila with
my own people to serve my own country.
More Detailed Experiences
While doing in depth research on SGIPR I conducted a series of in-depth
interviews with a small number of members. The following three “experiences”
give one a more in-depth glimpse at the lives of Filipino followers of SGI:
A former priest: One of the most interesting people I met while in the
Philippines a decade ago was a late-middle-aged gentleman and native Filipino,
Paterno Casino. He had been an active member of SGI for many years, but before
that he had spent twenty years as an ordained Catholic priest. He proudly brought
an album of pictures that showed him working as a very young priest. After
leaving the priesthood he became a highly successful and motivated businessman.
Mr. Casino stated that he became gradually dissatisfied with the Church
because it appeared to be ineffective in its efforts to help people. He and his
congregation would pray to a deity that existed beyond the purview of the faithful.
People would devote their lives to prayer, but their lives changed not at all. They
remained poor, hungry, ignorant and miserable and their prayers were not
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answered. The Christian God was doing nothing to help them, even though Mr.
Casino as their priest, told them that God had heard their prayers and would
“save” them. He mentioned a case where two devout nuns were run over and
killed by a taxi. “This God did nothing to save even his most dedicated servants.”
Mr. Casino was also distressed at the wealth and power of the Church and its
perceived unwillingness and to help the poor. It took volumes of their money,
made many promises, swore damnation on those who swayed from its teachings,
yet gave them absolutely nothing substantive in return.
Mr. Casino’s attraction to Nichiren Buddhism was its teaching that each
person is in control of and responsible for his own destiny. Our faults and
problems derive from our own actions, but “through the power of the Gohonzon
and our own hard work and determination, we can turn our lives around. We must
create our own happiness and we do so by showing true love and compassion for
other people. …” “The heart of Buddhism is that we can create our own value in
life. You become your own master and master of your own mind.” Mr. Casino
cited his own success in business, which came through very hard work, a desire to
succeed, and a sense of kindness to other people, as an example of what “this
Buddhism” has taught him.
Mr. Casino concluded the interview by noting: “In Christianity all is
promise, but all is in vain. But the results of Buddhism are almost immediate and
can be very positive. Christianity is much too fatalistic.”
A Once-Cynical Artist: Cynthia Guerlan, who joined SGI in 1985, was an
established Filipino artist in her late thirties when I interviewed her in 1999. She
grew up in a staunchly Catholic household, but by the time she went to college,
she had determined to renounce all forms of religion because of its perceived
irrelevance to her life. “Religion did nothing for me and it produced no answers or
positive results about the basic problems of life. … I was taught to pray on a
constant basis, but my prayers were never answered. What is the value of
something like prayer when you realize that you have been totally wasting your
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time?” But her view of life hardly improved when she entered college. “I was
drifting with no sense of direction.”
When another student told her about Buddhism, she retorted with sarcasm:
“So what do you do? Meditate under a tree?” Later she learned about the principle
of karma and the law of cause and effect. “I learned that it is I—only me—who
can change my life, that if I want to become rich, happy and famous, that I must
do so through my own actions. Also, I learned that success comes in interacting
with others and having everyone show compassion for others. People are often
poor because they are ignorant of the law of cause and effect. They don’t realize
that their current state can be changed by themselves—miracles do not happen
unless you create them yourself. But to succeed you must be motivated to help
yourself as well as others. You must not ever rely on external powers to change
your destiny.”
A Company Employee: Jordon Ong is a college-educated ethnic Chinese
employee of a large Japanese company that has offices in the outskirts of Manila.
He became a member of SGI as a child when his father joined the movement in
1985. Prior to his father’s conversion, he and his family had followed the Catholic
Church. “I was immediately fascinated with the practicality and pragmatism of
Buddhist teachings. Buddhism taught me the nature of reality and impressed on
me the need to empower myself.”
Even though Ong has worked hard with the Japanese, he is deeply in love
with his own country. He wants his countrymen to deepen their sense of being
Filipino. He believes that the salvation of the nation could come through
Buddhism. The people are afflicted with the stranglehold of karma which, he
says, keeps them in an aimless stupor. They have no sense of hope or destiny,
failing to realize that their salvation rests in their own hands. He looks at the
successes and happiness he and other members have found through Buddhism and
dreams of a time when many others will share this revelation and escape from
poverty.
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This pessimistic form of national identity was common among SGIRP
members. Like the Singaporean members interviewed in an earlier chapter, those
in the Philippines are looking for a sense of identity. Flora Mauleon, a flourishing
artist in her mid-forties in 1999, notes the ethnic complexity of her own people:
“What is a true Filipino? We have our own native heritage that is mixed in with
Spanish, American, Japanese, Dutch and Portuguese elements.”
Because the Philippines was long a colony of Spain and then the United
States, some Filipinos lack a sense of self-identity and self-pride. Yet, the many
young members that I interviewed expressed great pride for their country and
hoped SGI could serve other Filipinos by promoting their common cultural
heritage.
The Soka Gakkai and Philippine History
The Soka Gakkai in July 2009 published an article in its SGI
Quarterly1where it reflected on the cruel conduct of Japanese troops in the
Philippines during World War II, calling it a period of brutality and oppression
that has left lasting scars in the relationship between the two countries in the
postwar period:
Many in Japan … 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 he
countries they invaded I 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 or endured, recorded and remembered?
The Soka Gakkai insists that its leader, Ikeda Daisaku, as well as the Soka
Gakkai as a whole, has constantly confronted this ugly history in its strong
relationship with the Filipino people. The Soka Gakkai has initiated numerous
1
“The Philippines—Confronting the Truths of History,” SGI Quarterly, July 2009
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cultural and educational exchanges as a way of building a sense of trust and
friendship between Japan and the Philippines. Ikeda has made several visits to the
Philippines during which he has met with several Philippine leaders including the
late president, Corazon Aquino. There have been academic exchanges between
Soka University in Tokyo and the University of the Philippines as well as
numerous cultural exchanges.
Concluding Notes
One of the questions that one frequently hears in Manila is, “What ails the
Philippines?” As the country enters the new century, it is worth reflecting just
how little progress the Philippines has made over the past several decades,
especially when compared with Malaysia, Hong Kong and Singapore. There is
modest economic growth which today is finally outstripping the surging
population, but the country as a whole still remains painfully poor. Philippine
household income has actually been better than the gross domestic product figures
suggest, but only because of remittances from migrants and overseas workers now
running at well over five billion dollars a year. In the short run remittances are a
help, but the loss of many of the brightest and/or hardworking Filipinos may be
compounding the underlying problem of a nation failing to exploit its human
potential. The Philippines is also failing in other areas including education and
life expectancy.
The Philippines needs to reinvest in itself. Vast improvements are
necessary in agriculture and to the nation’s infrastructure, and some degree of
land reform or land redistribution is a must. There is also a paucity of tax revenue.
Most existing government revenue goes to operating expenses and debt interest,
leaving only scanty resources for better roads, dams and more schools.
The Philippines will not become a Buddhist country any time soon, but it
could learn some lessons from SGI. There is an educated membership that is
willing to work hard, but those Filipinos who control the rich resources of the
nation fail to employ them for the benefit of all. There must be a greater sense of
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community and social responsibility as well as a realization by the poorest
Filipino that they have the power to change their own destiny here and now.
SGI members show a strong devotion to their nation. They eagerly seek a
new national identity and a sense of pride that has been lacking among so many
Filipinos. By serving their community and nation, they are forming the basis for a
new nation that will have greater confidence in itself. SGI has helped many of its
members to better exploit their potential and may provide a model for other
Filipinos as well.
The advent of the Soka Gakkai in the Philippines comes at a time when
changing social conditions are more hospitable to new ideas and foreign faiths.
The increased emphasis on the individual and the declining role of established
Catholicism creates a small opening for new religions that emphasize self-help.
Nichiren Buddhism provides a clear diagnosis for the malaise of the Philippines
as well as many suggestions for its eventual cure.
The individual Filipino who stands alone in the increasingly decentralized
and uncertain world of the twenty-first century feels powerless to improve his
own life as well as the welfare of humankind. It is said, however, that chanting
will give the individual more control over his own destiny and will thereby affect
the lives of his neighbors. By changing one’s own karma as well as that of others,
one feels that he is contributing to the betterment of society. This sense of control
makes the individual feel less helpless, or so argues SGIRP.
These arguments explain why several thousand Filipinos have adopted
Buddhism and how Buddhism may provide some answers to the many problems
facing their country today.
CHAPTER SIX
THE SOKA GAKKAI IN QUEBEC
Quebec, once a dormant and impoverished corner of Canada, has emerged
at the end of the first decade of the twenty-first century as a modern, wealthy and
very distinct society. The countryside and urban area in and around Quebec City
remain very French, but Montreal seems as diverse and as cosmopolitan as New
York or any other major North American city. Much of the old anglophone
population has moved away, but it has been replaced by immigrants from areas as
diverse as Haiti, China and Vietnam. Quebec has become a Mecca for new people
and new ideas, an open-minded society that has welcomed many forms of
Buddhism including SGI with scarcely a ripple of public attention.
One of my surprises while attending a week-long seminar in Quebec City
in August 2008 was encountering the handsome newly opened community center
for SGI in Quebec. Tucked in near the old wall that surrounds the city, the fine
building represents the solid growth of SGI in Quebec and Canada. SGI as it has
in Australia has made impressive gains throughout Canada and has found a
welcome home in the largest French-speaking part of North America. By 2009
there were up to seven thousand SGI members in all of Canada including well
over a thousand in Quebec. There is every indication that this slow steady growth
will continue.
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There are fewer Buddhists in Canada—no more than 300,000 according to
the 2001 Canadian census. Yet if one checks listings of Buddhist groups in
Quebec alone, one will find a large number of active Buddhist groups and centers
of worship. Included on this list are the two SGI centers in Montreal and Quebec.
A visit to either center would find large and deeply engaged members practicing
Buddhism with as much enthusiasm as in Australia, Southeast Asia or other
places where SGI is active.
In May 2002 I took a dozen of my Mary Baldwin College students on an
in-depth study tour of Quebec with detailed stops in Montreal, Quebec City and
Ottawa. The course had two educational objectives: to study the current state of
the separatist movement in this primarily francophone province and to analyze
Quebec and Canada’s role in a global environment. Since I had devoted a lot of
attention in the mid-1990s to the growth of SGI in Quebec and Ontario, I secured
focus group meetings with resident Canadian Soka Gakkai members who
provided stimulating views not only on the Quebec political scene, but also their
uniquely Japanese form of Buddhism that had secured a small but firm foothold in
French Canada. The visits to the SGI culture centers in both the Montreal Culture
Center and the Quebec Community Center2 provided a clear view of the
globalization of Japanese religions that paralleled what another group of my
students found a year later in Australia. Only a few minutes away from the famed
Plains of Abraham one could have a very intense encounter with a form of
Japanese Buddhism practiced by an entirely francophone group.
The Soka Gakkai’s growth in Quebec is strikingly similar to its
experiences in Australia and other countries where SGI has developed strong ties.
The Soka Gakkai established its first roots in Canada in the early 1960s and by
the late 1960s had developed chapters in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver.
Montreal is a “culture centre” and Quebec City is a “community centre.” The distinction is one
of size and extent of responsibility. The Montreal Culture Center is responsible for the entire
province of Quebec while the Quebec City Community Centre is responsible for Quebec City and
the surrounding area.
2
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Today there are approximately twice as many members as in Australia; and like
SGI-Australia, growth in Canada has also been slow but steady.
The traditional image of Quebec is one of a proud and simple agricultural
society. Due to the continuing influence of the colonial seigneurial system, almost
all aspects of people’s lives were directed by the firm grip of the Roman Catholic
Church. But starting in the 1960s Quebec was transformed by the swift changes
brought about by the Quiet Revolution. The Church lost its dominant place,
education and other institutions were secularized, and Quebec society became
increasingly industrial and urbanized. Today Quebec is one of the wealthiest and
culturally innovative of Canada’s provinces.
Quebec experienced a metamorphosis into a modern urban and postindustrial society that was now in close contact with the rest of the world. The
subsequent growth of the nationalist movement, election of a Parti Québecois
government in 1976, and language legislation—mandating the use of French in
schools, offices and other aspects of public life—drove tens of thousands of
anglophone Quebeckers and businesses to Ontario and elsewhere. They were
replaced by large numbers of immigrants from all over the world, including Asia,
Latin America, and the West Indies, who have made Montreal a very
cosmopolitan city.
The arrival of many immigrants and the rapid secularization of Quebec
society opened the way to a wide variety of religions and religious beliefs.
Quebec has had a well-established Jewish community since the 1700s. Today
Quebec is home to a wide variety of non-Christian/Jewish religions that are
growing rapidly due in part to the increasingly multi-culturalization of Quebec
society, especially in Montreal. It must be noted that, while less than a quarter of
Quebeckers go to church on a regular basis, four of five Quebeckers still affirm
their belief in God and two-thirds believe in the death and resurrection of Jesus.
Four-fifths call themselves Christians while most of the rest profess no interest in
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religion at all. Less than two percent in Canada and only about one percent in
Quebec identify actively with non-Christian religions.3
SGI in Montreal grew from the efforts of Japanese and Canadian members
in the 1960s and 1970s. The organization in the Quebec City area started with the
pioneering efforts of the late Françoise Labbé in the tiny village of Baie St. Paul,
which lies 100 kilometers north of Quebec City along the St. Lawrence River.
Labbé was an aspiring artist who left her poor village in the mid-1960s on a
scholarship to study art in Paris. She joined SGI in Paris and returned to Baie St.
Paul as a dedicated Buddhist. Despite scorn from many other villagers, she
converted a number of younger residents while building with government help a
museum dedicated to Quebec folk art. Today, due mainly to her prodigious
efforts, Baie St. Paul is a major art and tourist center and her large museum is
flourishing. Her first convert, Daniel Déry, is a college teacher in Quebec City
and an SGI leader there. See below for further detail on the experience of
Françoise Labbé.
According to surveys conducted by this writer in the mid-1990s and in
2002, females outnumber males in SGI in Quebec. Older members tend to be
female, but younger members seem to be almost equally divided by sex. Although
SGI membership in Quebec tends to be quite diverse in terms of ethnic origin, the
vast majority outside of Montreal are francophone Quebeckers while Montreal
members included almost equal numbers of francophone, ethnic Asians, and
immigrants from other countries and anglophones.
Older members in Quebec generally became members in their 20s and 30s
and have remained in the movement for many years. The median age for joining
the movement was about 23-25 years and the median-age of current members in
3
See Daniel Metraux, The Lotus and the Maple Leaf (New York: University Press
of America, 1996) for further details and bibliography on religion in Canada.
Most of the data for these figures was culled from Macleans magazine in 199596. See also http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/11-008-x/2006001/9181-eng.htm
(accessed 29 May 2009)
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2002 was about 35-36 years. Although SGI members in Quebec encompass
people of very different educational backgrounds, members as a whole are very
well educated. Most members have a college or university degree and a
significant minority have graduate degrees as well.
Typical francophone members grew up in Catholic families and were
practicing Catholics as children and young adolescents, but they almost all quit
the Catholic church during their high school years and found no other religious
“home” before encountering Nichiren Buddhism. They indicate that they found
little or no satisfaction or benefit from Catholicism and had been searching for a
new source of spirituality in their lives. When asked why they joined SGI, why
they remained in the movement and what benefits they got from membership, one
typical response was:
I joined because I was in my 20s and unsure of my direction in life.
I was looking for a religion that took me as I was and offered a
source of wisdom to couple with all my desires in life n Quebec.
The members who introduced me and looked after me soon
became good friends. I stay a member because I found benefit
from practice. The biggest benefit from membership on a personal
level is being able to grow, develop wisdom, good fortune, and the
confidence to overcome obstacles, without leaving society, without
becoming someone else who I was not. My daily activities are
gongyo and daimoku twice a day for 45-60 minutes. There are on
average 3-4 meetings a week, including planning ad district
meetings.
My students and I were very surprised at the cosmopolitan nature of the
over 200 members who attended the worship program at the Montreal Culture
Centre in early May 2002. Perhaps half of the attendees were Caucasian and there
seemed to be an equal mix between francophones and anglophones, but it was
hard to tell exactly because virtually all members seemed to be equally
comfortable in both French and English. But we also met a number of ethnic
Chinese, a couple of Africans, and an impressive array of people from a variety of
other cultures. There were people from all age groups, but more young than old.
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Most were either advanced students or professionals including an impressive
array of artists, musicians and teachers. Virtually everybody seemed to be middle
class.
As was the case in Australia, roughly half of the Asian members
interviewed stated that they had been members of SGI before moving to
Montreal; the rest had converted when encountering SGI in Quebec. Many Asian
members stated that the initial appeal of SGI was the fact that they found
companionship with other compatriots that are SGI members, a phenomenon we
found to be true with other non-Asian immigrant faithful.
We received an equally warm welcome when we attended an SGI
discussion meeting in Quebec City three days later. The meeting was held in the
old community center in Quebec, not even remotely as nice as the new SGI center
which opened in 2006. The Quebec membership is much smaller than in Montreal
and lacks the great racial mix of the bigger city. Quebec has always been a far
greater francophone city than Montreal and the SGI membership that we met was
French and Caucasian. But the other demographic factors such as education, age
of members, etc., otherwise closely corresponded to what we had found in
Montreal.
Members interviewed in Montreal and Quebec joined SGI for many of the
same reasons that their counterparts in Southeast Asia and Australia did. Many
native Quebec members spoke angrily of their traditional Catholic upbringings—
criticizing the autocratic nature of nuns and priests and their failure to find any
satisfaction in the directed teachings of a Church that allowed them very little
independence of thought. Part of the great appeal of SGI to them was the fact that
they were encouraged to think freely and independently and believed that
Buddhism gave them the self-confidence to succeed in life through their own
efforts as well as the courage to take risks. They stated that they were willing to
try SGI because of its supposed ability to demystify Buddhism and to demonstrate
that it has universalistic doctrines that can apply equally well to people in Tokyo
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as in Montreal. They appreciate the fact that they are provided with a clear
spiritual package that is both easy to comprehend yet deep enough to require
continued study and inquiry. They said that they felt liberated and fulfilled,
happier and more self-confident in life. One member, a middle-aged college
teacher from Trinidad who came to Montreal to do graduate work and who joined
SGI in Montreal in 1975, told this writer in 1995:
In 1975, when I started to practice Nichiren Buddhism, I was full
of anxiety. I had recently become a single parent with a young
child and was working on a master’s thesis. Almost all of my
chanting during those first years was directed towards my
parenting situation, overcoming the blinding insecurity and anger
on being on my own, and raising a small child. Steadily, my
relationship with my former husband began to improve. Given my
tendency to neither forgive nor forget, I have had clear proof of the
power of the Gohonzon to transfer suffering and delusion into selfcontrol and an increasing awareness of the law of cause and effect.
I have used my Buddhist practice to overcome a lack of confidence
and … to find true happiness in life.
Proselytization is done almost entirely through word of mouth. Most
members that we met in Montreal and Quebec had joined after accepting a
personal invitation from a friend, colleague or family member to attend an SGI
event or meeting. A typical sequence was a Quebec woman who joined while
single but who converted her husband after their marriage. Later their children
became members as did her sister, her husband, and his brother. Friends and
colleagues often become members in much the same way that a colleague
suggested that I attend his church when I first moved to Virginia.
Evangelical Nichiren Buddhism in the guise of the Soka Gakkai has found
a welcome though small niche in Quebec because it has adapted itself enough to
Quebec culture without losing the core of its inherently Japanese Buddhist
teachings. The worship service that we attended in Montreal was no different in
style and substance from those I have attended in Japan or Southeast Asia. But the
leadership is very local, local cultural customs are encouraged, and every attempt
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is made to reach out to both anglophone and francophone communities in their
own languages. Members and guests at the general session in the Montreal
Culture Centre could use earphones to hear simultaneous translations in both
French and English.
Richard Hughes Seager, a scholar who has studied SGI in the United
States, stresses that the SGI’s emphasis on multiculturalism is essential to its
broader appeal. “Given the increasingly complex nature of American society, the
multicultural mix in Soka Gakkai—in terms of ethnicity, race, gender, sexual
orientation, and social class—is one of its outstanding achievements … The break
with Nichiren Shoshu contributed to an egalitarian accent on issues of race and
gender.”4 One finds a very close parallel with SGI chapters in Quebec. Members
eagerly embrace an inherently Japanese religion without themselves having in
many cases any particular interest or attachment to Japan. We found a tiny
handful of ethnic Japanese members in Montreal, but none at all in Quebec.
Another reason for SGI’s small successes in Quebec is its emphasis on the
concept of community. The quick pace of life in a rapidly changing society,
constant movement of people from one location and job to another, and the many
immigrant members who lack any local roots are all factors in the growth of SGI.
The Soka Gakkai’s tradition of forming small chapters whose members meet in
each other’s homes creates a tightly bonded group of neighbors who socialize
together on a frequent basis. The newcomer to a neighborhood or town finds a
ready-made group of friends who form the core of SGI. SGI provides its
membership with the companionship of like-minded people, a direction to
channel their spirituality, and a new sense of confidence and direction in life. The
fact that SGI is adamantly a lay movement makes it all the more welcome in an
increasingly secular society.
Perhaps what is most striking about SGI in Quebec is just how ordinary it
is. Unlike my small Episcopalian church in Virginia, SGI is an entirely lay
4
Seager, 95.
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organization, but like my church, local SGI chapters in Quebec choose their own
leaders, finance their own operations, and conceptualize and run their own
programs and publications. Their religious unit in a very general sense is really
not much different from any other church parish in Quebec. They are a small
religious community whose members meet several times a month but who
otherwise carry on very ordinary lives in the outside world.
Soka Gakkai is able to overcome its Japanese-based cultural baggage
because its members in Quebec believe that its core teachings are highly relevant
to the world they live in today. They find that this religion helps them to fulfill
their spiritual needs and that they can “maximize their potential” through this
practice. Many SGI members state emphatically that this practice helps them
increase their “creative energy” and allows them to contribute to the realization of
such ideals as world peace.
They feel that their greatest achievement, however, is their discovery of
what they feel is their Buddha nature inside themselves. They feel that this find is
a common element they share with everybody else in the world and that this
above all is what makes SGI a truly global movement without any particular ties
to any one culture. Many Quebec members relate how their religion helps them to
remove the “shackles” which they believe restricted their world view in the past.
They feel that they have moved away from a very parochial way of life to a
perception that they are global citizens on a quest to realize world peace. They see
their Buddhism as a key to the creation of a cleaner, greener, safer and more
peaceful planet.
Quebec members also find solace in the fact that their religion gives them
the opportunity to partake in activities in a highly conducive community of likeminded people. Younger Asian members in both countries, mainly in their 20s
and 30s, find comfort in the company of other compatriots and in the practice of a
religion that was important to their parents and grandparents, but which many of
them were not active in prior to joining SGI Canada.
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Françoise Labbé and the Miracle at Baie St. Paul
One of the main teachings of Buddhism is the oneness of man and nature.
According to Buddhism, there is no divine being who directs the course of the
universe. Instead, the divine resides inside each being and all that surrounds him.
The only demons are those which exist in the minds of men, but even the vilest
Nazi or white supremacist also has the potential to love and treasure others. The
goal of Buddhism is to help man to find that Buddha nature that exists within his
heart and soul. That Buddha nature is nothing more than our ability to love
everyone and everything, to treasure society and our environment. We can create
a heaven on earth if we can learn to love others, respect the dignity of others, and
treasure our natural environment.
But Buddhism does not stop at a world of peace and love. It also teaches
us that there are hidden talents and a deeper wisdom that will emerge if we can
tap the Buddha nature in us. Tina Turner, the American rock star, transformed
herself into a superstar after years of relative mediocrity when she became a
follower of Soka Gakkai Buddhism. She stated after chanting for many months:
“I could feel as if . . . I was getting stronger. Eventually it seemed
as if a different sort of human being was emerging from within and
I became convinced that I had changed a great deal.”5
When I asked Quebec and Canadian members to describe the
transformation they had experienced when chanting, many replied that its an
inexplicable feeling. “It is simply something that you must experience on your
own. Everybody had a separate and different reaction.” They relate that the
Buddha nature lies deep within us, but it must be activated to do anybody any
good.” “A tarnished ring might have no luster until it is polished.” “The most
powerful race car can go nowhere until somebody turns it on.”
Quebec SGI members caution, however, that the power of one’s Buddha
nature cannot be found in just one session. “The best pitcher in baseball might be
5
Soka Gakkai News, April 1986, 2-3.
107
very rusty when he reports for spring training in March, but with many weeks of
practice, he might reach his peak by mid-season. In the same way, we must
gradually build up the power of our Buddha nature. That requires a great deal of
chanting and full faith in the power of the Gohonzon to activate and bring up our
Buddha nature. When this occurs in each person, he can suddenly find the
inspiration to overcome the most difficult problems, make correct and astute
decisions, and carry on with life in a more intelligent manner.”
Françoise Labbé (1933-2001), as noted earlier, was the most famous SGI
member in Quebec. A resident of Baie St. Paul, a village on the St. Lawrence
River near Quebec City, she transformed it into a major cultural and tourist center
and brought about a true renaissance in Quebec folk art. She credited her success
to the power of Buddhism after converting to Nichiren Buddhism. Her story is
perhaps the most famous of Quebec SGI members.
The drive northeast along the St. Lawrence offers some spectacular views
of the majestic river and the Laurentian Mountains which sweep down to the
shore. The sunlight in mid-summer casts a beautiful glow on the blue river and
lush green landscape. That special light has attracted artists to the region for well
over a century, but until the late 1900s, there was very little opportunity to exhibit
art in the region and little incentive to encourage the work of local artists.
The region remained poor until the 1970s when prosperous Quebeckers
and tourists began to tour the region. By the 1980s the small village of Baie St.
Paul began to attract throngs of tourists because of a small art center featuring
Quebec folk art. By the 1990s the village had become what it is today—an
important art mecca with a major art museum and over twenty art studios along
with a multitude of restaurants and inns. Today its very hard to find a parking
place in the downtown area in mid-summer.
The revival of Baie-St. Paul and the surrounding region is largely the work
of one woman, Françoise Labbé. She left the village at the start of the Quiet
Revolution in the early 1960s to study art in France, where she encountered SGI
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and became a convinced Buddhist. Her hard work and determination led not only
to the cultural flowering of her village, but also the conversion of thirty or more
villagers, all former Catholics, to her Buddhist faith.
Remembering the time when she was in Paris, Labbé told me in 1995 that
she was a very unhappy person when she celebrated her 30th birthday in 1963: “I
had recently left a Quebec that was rapidly being transformed by the Quiet
Revolution. The Catholic Church had suddenly lost its place as the basis for
traditional values, but there was nothing to take its place. After I left the Church at
the age of 18, I felt very alone without any direction in life. I was like a little
bomb waiting to explode. I read books on psychology, but even they failed to help
me find any real meaning in life.”
Later she said that becoming a Buddhist played a key role in her life: “I
experienced a revolution of the mind. I was suddenly in control of my life and no
longer blamed others for my misfortunes. It became clear that because life
operates on a cause and effect basis, I had to create causes to have a better life.
Chanting brought opportunities that had not existed before.” She enjoyed a
successful and pleasant decade in Paris, but a family illness brought her back to
her village in 1974. She cared for her father, but the other villagers were
suspicious of her new-found religion and basically shunned her. Labbé, however,
never hesitated in her efforts to propagate her faith.
Labbé also taught art and came up with the idea of building a small
exhibition hall that would feature the work of contemporary Quebec artists. She
pieced together some money, got a place to display the art, and by the early
1980s, more and more Quebec artists, some of them quite young, began
submitting their work for display and in the early 1990s then Prime Minister
Brian Mulroney, whose parliamentary riding included Baie St. Paul, finessed a
three million dollar grant which allowed the construction of a truly fine exhibition
center. Soon other artists began opening studios in the village and by 2000 it had
become perhaps the key center for traditional Quebec arts.
109
Labbé’s success encouraged some villagers to look at her Buddhism and
before long a number had converted to her faith. She died in 2001, but the legacy
of her art work and her devotion to her Buddhism live on. Long-time SGI
members in Quebec agree that Madame Labbé was one of the key founders of the
SGI movement in Quebec—that the cultural and religious explosion in Baie St.
Paul inspired the spreading of SGI to Quebec City, Montreal and elsewhere
throughout the province. Thus, in a sense, her conversion to Buddhism was the
vital catalyst that led to the flowering of SGI here.
Concluding Notes
Buddhism is an all-inclusive religion that has survived for centuries by
adapting itself to the many cultures that have adopted its teachings. Buddhism in
Japan historically has merged itself with Shinto and other cultural traditions and is
more different than Buddhism in Thailand than the Christianity practiced in Korea
and the Philippines is from mainstream Christianity in the United States. Nichiren
Buddhism in the guise of the Soka Gakkai has found a small but very welcome
niche in Quebec because it has adapted itself to Quebec culture. It reaches out to
the Francophone and Anglophone communities in their own languages,
encourages local traditions and customs, and cultivates the cosmopolitan nature of
society that Quebec is today.
The advent of SGI in Quebec comes at a time when changing social
conditions make Quebeckers more hospitable to new ideas and foreign faiths. The
increased emphasis on the individual as well as the dramatic decline of the Roman
Catholic Church in Quebec in recent years create at least a small opening for new
religions that emphasize self-help. Nichiren Buddhism as practiced by SGI
provides a clear diagnosis for modern man’s malaise and a readily attainable
prescription for its cure. One is told that chanting will enable one to draw forth the
creative energies latent in each person, enabling him to save himself as well as the
rest of mankind.
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The individual trapped alone in the increasingly decentralized and
uncertain world of the early twenty-first century can feel powerless to improve his
life and to arrest the decline of the environment brought on by global warming.
SGI claims that chanting will give the individual more control over his own
destiny as well as the wisdom and ability to help others. By changing his own
karma and helping others change theirs, he feels that he is making contributions to
the betterment of the world.
Although the Soka Gakkai in no way meets the definition of a “New Age
Religion”—it is in fact a revival of an old form of Buddhism—it does, as Gordon
Melton notes, offer one a “primal experience of transformation.” SGI members
worldwide, like many “New Agers, have “either experienced or are diligently
seeking a profound personal transformation from an old, unacceptable life to a
new exciting future. SGI members similarly “Having experienced a personal
experience, … project the possibility of the transformation not of just a number of
individuals, but of culture and humanity itself.”6
Quebec, like the rest of Canada early in the new century, is beset by
confusion and doubt. Traditional values are changing, and the nagging question of
the status of Quebec in Canada leave many Quebeckers bitter and unsure of the
future. Nichiren Buddhism, on the other hand, gives its adherents a feeling of
confidence and self-control. They feel empowered to manage their own lives in a
more creative manner and to participate more actively in the endeavor to create a
world where peace, prosperity, happiness and creative spontaneity are to be
employed by all. The Quebec section of SGI Canada, a small community in a
nation made up of small communities, provides its members companionship with
like-minded people, a direction to channel their spirituality, and a new sense of
confidence and direction in life. The fact that Soka Gakkai is a lay movement
makes it even more attractive in an increasingly secular Quebec.
6
James P. Lewis and Gordon Melton, Eds., Perspectives on the New Age
(Albany: SUNY Press, 1992), 7.
111
Another reason for the Soka Gakkai’s modest success in Quebec is its
emphasis on the concept of community. The rapid pace of life in a society that has
changed radically in the last 50 years, constant movement of people from one
location and job to another, and the sizeable growth of foreign-born nationals in
Quebec and elsewhere in recent decades have left many Quebeckers with an
uncomfortable feeling that they are without firm roots and companionship. The
Soka Gakkai’s tradition of forming small chapters whose members meet in each
other’s homes or community center on a regular basis creates a tightly bonded
group of neighbors. The newcomer to a neighborhood or town finds a ready-made
group of friends that can ease the often long and lonely transition into a new area.
It is important to remember that proselytization is intensely personal. There is no
public advertising and nobody is invited to a “Buddhist seminar” as I once was on
a New York subway by an American Gakkai member in 1972.7
The increasingly complex nature of Canada’s multicultural society gives
cosmopolitan groups like the Soka Gakkai greater acceptance. SGI Canada is
more a model of Quebec’s and Canada’s future than its past. SGI Canada will not
become a major segment of Quebec society any time soon, but it will have a
growing niche in the province’s post-Quiet-Revolutionary society.
An SGI Canada leader wrote this author in 2009 that “In fact, since 2002, SGI Canada has been
conducting introductory seminars at our centers, universities and public libraries. They are
promoted through local community events listings, university news postings, and through
members’ invitations. We do not approach people or engage in any form of public soliciting.”
7
CHAPTER SEVEN
THE SOKA GAKKAI’S UNIQUE RELATIONSHIPS WITH CHINA
AND SOUTH KOREA
The Soka Gakkai’s relationships with China and South Korea offer some
interesting perspectives. The Soka Gakkai has no official chapter in China, but
has developed close relations with the Chinese government as well as with many
leading cultural organizations and universities. SGI Korea has exploded in size in
recent years to become the largest of the Japanese new religious movements in
Korea. The Soka Gakkai also has a sizeable following in Taiwan, but
unfortunately I have not had any oppor-tunities to connect with members there.
Many years ago I had the first of several brief encounters with Soka
Gakkai leader Ikeda Daisaku. We were seated at a table in the faculty dining room
at Soka University along with several other Soka Gakkai leaders and university
officials and faculty. I was finally able to ask him the key question on my mind—
what is the source of his fascination with China? Why did the Soka Gakkai make
such a strong effort to befriend China in 1968 at the height of Mao’s anti-foreign
anti-tradition Cultural Revolution?
Ikeda smiled and proceeded to tell me about his brother Kiichi Ikeda
(1916-1945) who had fought in China during World War II. Ikeda related his
sadness over the tragedy brought on by the Japanese invasion of China during the
1930s and 1940s, the tragic deaths of so many millions of Chinese and Japanese
113
114
in a senseless war. Even as a young man Ikeda was determined to do what he
could to improve relations between China and Japan so that such a gruesome war
would never happen again. He finally got his chance in 1968.
1968 was a difficult time for China. It was the height of Chairman Mao’s
Cultural Revolution, a period of social and political upheaval in China between
1966 and 1976, resulting in nation-wide chaos and economic disarray. China had
become an international pariah, having closed its doors to the outside world and
attacking anything foreign within China. However, Ikeda, speaking before a large
crowd of Soka Gakkai faithful in early September, stressed the importance of the
normalization of Sino-Japanese relations. Ikeda’s proposal centered on a threepoint plan involving the normalization of diplomatic relations, admission of China
to the United Nations, and the extensive promotion of Sino-Japanese economic
exchange. Ikeda urged talks between Japanese and Chinese leaders as a key step
towards the normalization of relations.
Cai Delin, former Rector of Shenzhen University in China, reflects back
on this difficult time in Chinese history:
In 1968, the Cultural Revolution was in its third year. The Gang of
Four had gained control over the entire country, and China was in
utter chaos. I myself was deprived of freedom during that time of
confusion. China was also experiencing deep tensions with its
neighbors. The country’s only surviving civil trade agreement with
Japan had expired at the end of 1967. There was a rumor that the
Gang of Four might send troops into Hong Kong, and in 1968,
Sino-Soviet relations also became increasingly aggravated.
China’s image in the international community was extremely
negative, and Chinese society was filled with turmoil and
discontent. I also understand that any mention of Sino-Japanese
exchange met with contempt in Japan. Despite these
circumstances, Mr. Ikeda discerned the true nature of this period of
history. He was convinced that domestic affairs in China would
take a positive turn, and asserted that resolution of the China issue
was a vital key to world peace.
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I imagine that there were a number of people who were actively
working for improved Sino-Japanese relations at the time. Yet, for
someone like Mr. Ikeda to stand up against the negative current of
the times, state the truth and inspire people, persevering in the face
of threats and harassment, was extremely valuable.8
Ikeda’s speech was well publicized and reached the ears of two important
figures, Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai and Kenzo Matsumura, a leading figure in
Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party. Matsumura, an avid Sinophile who was
preparing for his fifth visit to China, met with Ikeda in early 1970. Matsumura,
already in this 70s, told Ikeda, then only 42, that the Soka Gakkai leader could
and should play an important role in the building of Sino-Soviet friendship. Ikeda
replied that the work of restoring bilateral relations should be done on a political
level and not by a religious leader. Ikeda suggested that it would be much more
appropriate for representatives of the Komeito, a party strongly affiliated with the
Soka Gakkai, to go instead. Komeito party officials made three trips to China
between 1970 and 1972 and met with Premier Zhou as well as other Chinese
officials.9 These talks paved the way for Japan’s official recognition of China in
1972.10 Reflecting on these negotiations, Yano Junya, Secretary-General of the
Komeito in 1984, told this writer: “We were much more than mere messenger
boys in that negotiation process. We made many suggestions to both sides and
played an active and constructive role in the process.”11
Ikeda made his first visit to China in 1974 where he met with Zhou Enlai
and other prominent Chinese figures. Since then he and other Soka Gakkai
officials have made many excursions to China and Chinese visitors to Japan have
made many courtesy visits to Soka Gakkai offices in Tokyo. There have been
Cai Delin, “Peace Bridge with China” in SGI Quarterly, January 1999.
Ibid.
10
Tsukamoto Akira, a prominent Japanese TV news reporter, told this writer in 1984 that “The
Soka Gakkai played a pivotal role as middleman between the Chinese and Japanese government in
1972. The Chinese trusted the Soka Gakkai more than any other Japanese organization.” See also
Daniel Metraux, “The Soka Gakkai’s search for the Realization of the World of Rissho
Ankokuron” in the Japanese Journal of Religious Studies, 13/1, 1986.
11
Interview with Yano Junya, 30 July 1984.
8
9
116
many visits by Soka Gakkai youth delegations, education division and doctors’
division representatives to China and similar visits to the Soka Gakai by Chinese
groups. When I was a Visiting Fellow at Soka University in 1992, I met a number
of Chinese students and faculty who were studying or working at the university.
Today Soka University has on-going exchanges with a large number of Chinese
universities. There have been many cultural exchanges between Chinese and Soka
Gakkai-affiliated groups. By 2009 nearly 800 Soka students had studied in China
for a whole year or more.
Ikeda, however, still feels that there are problems in the Japan-China
relationship.
He noted in 2002 that: “The act of denying historical violence is
tantamount to erasing the existence of the victims of such violence. In essence,
the building of friendly ties between China and Japan depends upon whether
Japan can squarely confront the history of the crimes it committed in China. As
long as Japan’s response is left ambiguous, the Japanese will always be seen as
‘people we cannot trust. . . .’ The normalization of diplomatic ties between China
and Japan was not a resolution of the war history issue. That occasion was
actually a new beginning to face this issue. The event was a promise—Japan’s
commitment to the world and to the people of China to make an active effort to
engrave the lesson of history and to pass that on to future generations to come.
That commitment and promise must be fulfilled.”12
Despite this very close relationship between the Soka Gakkai and China,
there is no open Soka Gakkai movement in China. The Chinese are very wary of
foreign religious groups coming to China to convert native Chinese. The Soka
Gakkai wants above all to maintain its formal relationships with Chinese
authorities and educational and educational institutions. But that does not mean
that there are no Soka Gakkai members living in China. Several Chinese members
of SGI have told me that since there is no formal Soka Gakkai organization of any
12
Ikeda Daisaku, Essay, Seikyo Shimbun, 8 September 2002.
117
kind in China, individual members practice their faith in their own homes and
often meet quietly in small groups in the homes of SGI followers. They are
convinced that as long as they practice their faith quietly and unobtrusively,
Chinese authorities will not bother them.
One Chinese SGI member told this writer: “Although there are no official
SGI chapters in China, there are many adherents who practice quietly in our own
homes. We meet in small friendship groups in our homes. Many Chinese
members joined as a result of meeting SGI members in other countries, but we
also quietly convert some of our friends and family members while we practice in
China.” Some Chinese members became acquainted with the Soka Gakkai while
visiting Hong Kong or Taiwan or in the case of the member quoted above, from
having encountered Soka Gakkai members while studying in Australia.
The Soka Gakkai—China relationship remains close today. When I was
on a Fulbright seminar trip in China in 2006, I met several Chinese faculty at
universities in Beijing and Shanghai who expressed some deep affection for the
Soka Gakkai and Ikeda, citing Ikeda’s work in fostering peaceful relation between
Japan and China. The Soka Gakkai has a deep vested interest in its relations with
China and the Komeito often sends missions which, according to notices I have
read in the English-language Chinese press, are warmly received by the Chinese.
One of the major projects of SGI-Taiwan has been promoting student
exchanges between Taiwan and the Chinese mainland. The idea for this grassroots project, which began several years ago, is that if the children of Taiwan and
the mainland learn to understand the differences between their respective societies
through direct experience when they are still young, a bridge of peace between the
two neighbors will be created.
The Soka Gakkai in Korea
After normalization of relations with Japan in the 1960s, some Japanese
new religious movements entered Korea, notably Tenri-kyo and Soka Gakkai.
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Despite a long history of poor relations between the two neighboring countries,
these religions have flourished and have created important personal and cultural
links. Much of the growth occurred in the late 1990s and early years of the new
century.
The Soka Gakkai has dug deep roots in South Korea. According to a
recent SGI publication, “SGI is now a flourishing organization, despite the fact
that in its early years it faced significant opposition and discrimination, being seen
as a ‘Japanese religion.’ It has around 1 million members and a significant
program of volunteer activities to benefit the community, from presenting books
to schools and libraries to bringing musical performances to remote islands and
holding large-scale environmental clean-up activities.”13 There had been Soka
Gakkai members in Korea since at least the 1970s, but SGI Korea was not
officially incorporated until April of 2000.
If this figure of a million members is accurate, it would mean that two
percent of the population of the Republic of Korea has some bond or affiliation
with the Soka Gakkai. While significantly smaller than the seven or eight percent
of Japanese who are associated with the Soka Gakkai, a million followers in
South Korea would make it by far the largest of any of SGI’s affiliated
organizations outside of Japan. What makes this development even more
astounding is the fact that Japan brutally seized Korea as a colony in the early
1900s and held it as a virtual slave state until the end of World War II in 1945.
The Soka Gakkai is very frank about the sour history of the Japan-Korean
relationship over the past century:
The recent history of relations between Japan and Korea has been
fraught with conflict. The Korean Peninsula was colonized by
Japan from 1910 to 1945. During this time, land was confiscated
and given to Japanese who were encouraged to settle in Korea, and
over five million Koreans were subject to forced labor, both in
Korea and Japan. Korean language, history and culture were
deliberately suppressed. School children were penalized if they
13
“South Korea—Bridging a Gulf of History,” SGI Quarterly, October 2007.
119
spoke Korean, and from 1939 Korean people were forced to take
Japanese names. Hundreds of thousands of Koreans were forcibly
conscripted into the Japanese Imperial Army. The history left
better scars and deep resentment toward Japan. Until 1999,
Japanese culture, even including pop songs, was forbidden in
Korea. The 2002 World Cup, jointly hosted by the Republic of
Korea and Japan, was a breakthrough event, and recent years have
seen a boom in Korean popular culture in Japan, but dissatisfaction
at Japanese attitudes toward Korea has not yet disappeared.
SGI President Daisaku Ikeda heard from his father as a child about
the oppression of the Korean people. In his writing he reflects also
on the human suffering caused by the partitioning of the country
and the tragic losses of the Korean War. “How deep must be the
scars that were left on the Korean people by Japan’s barbarous
invasion of their land! Why, though united by race, did they have
to suffer the tragedy of division.”
Such sentiments have been the driving force of an active
commitment to create ties of friendship between the peoples of
Korea and Japan and links in the fields of culture and education.
Mr. Ikeda’s unequivocal apologies for Japan’s historic cruelty
toward the Korean people and his consistent demonstration of
respect toward Korean culture form the basic of these efforts.14
The Soka Gakkai, despite its phenomenal growth in South Korea since
2000, is not without controversy. When I introduced the topic of Soka Gakkai in
Korea to some non-member university professors in Seoul in 2009, they were all
quite familiar with Soka Gakkai. They were concerned that so many young
Koreans had flocked to an inherently Japanese religious organization, but
admitted that SGI was offering Koreans a slick modern form of Buddhism that
emphasized self-empowerment. There was also concern that the Soka Gakkai
might use its huge wealth and political power to interfere in Korean politics, but
they admitted that they knew of no actual incidence of SGI political activities or
influence in Korea. They admired SGI Korea’s ability to attract so many members
and yet to remain quiet and well out of the public eye.
14
Ibid.
120
I wanted very much to go to Korea to get a first-hand look at SGI Korea,
but my request was politely turned down because of the political sensitivity of
Soka Gakkai in Korea. But I did get s chance to talk to some SGI Korea youth
division members who were visiting Nagoya a few years ago. They confirmed
that SGI in Korea was growing rapidly among many Koreans, especially young
educated Koreans, because of its positive message. According to one young
Korean member, “Korean Buddhism is really dying. Very few Koreans today are
devout Buddhists, but we want some form of spirituality in our lives. Soka Gakkai
Buddhism is a modern form of a Buddhist tradition that we here understand very
well. This Buddhism gives us a great deal of self-confidence—the feeling that we
can accomplish anything in life if we put our true devotion to it.”
I met with members of a Korean dance group that performed at the
November 1997 Soka Gakkai World Peace Youth Peace Culture Festival in
Osaka. One of the participants, Oh Wonky, then a 24-year-old psychology major
at Yonsei University in Seoul, explained why he had come to Japan and how he
conducted his life as an SGI member at home.
What attracted me to this 1997 World Youth Peace Festival is the
fact that young people from all over the world are here. My secret
wish is to have exchanges with young Japanese people. We are
creating a special bond because we are working hard and making
something worthwhile together. The past history of our two
countries is full of negative feelings and connotations, but we can
conduct our own person-to-person diplomacy even if we have
continued friction between our two governments.
I wish to share the inner message of this Buddhism with all of my
compatriots. The experience of preparing a dance number, the
traditional dance pungmil, at the festival with dozens of other
Koreans has been an extraordinary experience. I am a student at an
excellent university, but now I have a chance to work with some
Koreans who have not attended university and who have very
ordinary jobs. It was hard to find time away from my studies to
practice, but the effort has enabled me to forge new relationships
and to focus more on the needs of others. Before the festival the
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focus was often on my own future and on my own needs and
frustrations, but now there is a greater perspective.
Oh’s dance troupe, all amateurs, performed their dance routine flawlessly.
Like their Japanese counterparts, the Korean performers and stage crew were
modern young Koreans with little knowledge of their own cultural history. Heir
commitment to the project and to each other created strong bonds among
themselves and provided them with an opportunity to meet fellow believers in
Japan.
My impression when talking to the young Korean SG members in Osaka
is that they feel little if any hostility to Japan and that their participation in SGI
has created a special bond between them and Japanese members that transcends
the hostility that older citizens of both countries feel for each other. My own
institution, Mary Baldwin College, in 2009 has 6 Japanese and 9 Korean students
who get along famously with each other. Perhaps there is hope that the youth of
Korea and Japan will build stronger bonds between the two countries.