The building, as the name suggests, was dedicated to a guy named 戸田城聖 Josei Toda (link, warning: may contain religion) by occasionally controversial Japanese Buddhist sect 創価学会 Soka Gakkai, of which he was the second president and co-founder. I wasn't really aware of any of that as I walked into the building, but while nobody tried to hand me a free rosary and bless my nipples with holy tap water, the pictures of sunsets and intercultural happyhugs were enough to remind me of my awkward Sunday school days of thousand year old dinosaurs and holding hands and singing songs that made little sense but made you feel good.You see, Mr. Toda seems to have the idea that the best way to make the world a better place was by writing poems and taking pictures, or printing lyrics on big pictures of trees, the sea, and the occasional shot of some dude thinking something presumably. Whether it work or not I can't say, but whatever, I don't really see anything wrong with trying. It's all a bit cheesy, sure, but let's face it; this guy helped found a religion, and I don't expect him to write like Trent Reznor. After perusing the first floor quickly and taking a few pictures (illegally! but seriously, do they really think I'm going to steal their secrets?) I moved up into the guts of the hall, prepared for anything. There is more old-people-friendly jumbo font text for you to enjoy (if you're into that sort of stuff), and the majority of it is pretty standard fare "peace" stuff:
ここ数年を見ただけでも世界では５０回以上の紛争が起きている。
近年の紛争は、民族や宗教などの対立が原因で勃発し、国境をまたがり、
いままでの国家では対応しきれない場合が多い。
また、難民の急増や民間人に対する攻撃など、人道問題も発生する。
いま、世界で進行中あるいは終結のまもない紛争のうち約７０％の地域で、
１８歳未満の子どもが兵士になっている。
その多くはホームレス、ストリートチルドレン、エイズ孤児など、貧困や
差別、栄養失調といった絶望的な状況にあった子どもたちだ。
「孤児院」という名目で誘拐され、毎日、軍事訓練を強いられる。つかま
ったら最後、子どもたちに選択肢はない。
壮絶な恐怖を味わい、失うものがなくなった子どもたちは、大人たち
がふるえあがるほど残虐な行為に走るようになる。
子どもが戦場に立たされる背景として、子どもでも扱いやすい小型兵器
の問題がある。紛争で命を落とす死傷者の９０％以上がミサイルや戦車
などの大量破壊兵器ではなく、小型兵器によるものなのだ。
[Their translation, not mine!]
Just looking at the last several years, there have been over 50 conflicts in the world. Many recent conflicts have been sparked by racial and religious differences, have spread over country borders, and cannot be handled by current nations.
In approximately 70% of the conflicts that still exist, or show no signs of ending, involve soldiers under the age of 18. Most of these children are either homeless, street children, AIDS orphans, or those stricken with desperate conditions such as poverty, discrimination, and malnutrition.
Along with the issue of children going to war, another problem is small - sized weapons that can be easily handled by children. Over 90% of casualties of conflict are not killed by missiles, tanks, or weapons of mass destruction -- they are killed by small - sized weapons.
Children that were soldiers have done, and seen, brutal things. Many of them cannot rejoin society and construct normal relationships with other people. The reason for this is that many of these ex- soldiers killed people from their village and cannot return to it. Without knowing any type of human relationship except violence, some of these children cannot even communicate as normal people.
Many NGO's are reaching out and helping in fundamental education, job training, and peace education for these children. It is a long road, but steady progress is being made.
Like I said, it's all pretty standard stuff and I can't really criticize anything, other than the fact that the line that says "90% of casualties ... small - sized weapons" could be misunderstood as implying that many of those casualties were perpetrated by children and should have been worded more clearly (in both the Japanese and English versions). The rest of the weirdness can be attributed to careless translation, though I must admit that they did a relatively good job here, obviously borrowing someone who actually understands the language. Soka Gakkai is part of an international organization (Soka Gakkai International; SGI), and they probably have lots of international volunteers they can use (though apparently no native English speakers, or maybe just lazy ones).
As far as the hall's interaction with foreigners goes, they're top notch. I wouldn't expect any less given the location (due to its history, Yokohama has a strong foreign base) and the fact that they probably lose a lot of Japanese traffic due to the Soka Gakkai labels all over the building. Most seem to have heard of Soka Gakkai, and they know it as a 新宗教, "New Religious Movement", or a 新興宗教, "developing religion"; labels that although have been applied to all religious sects founded in modern times, are considered by many (I'm just saying; I haven't actually researched this) as nearly synonymous with "cult", or at least reflective of aggressive recruitment techniques, which must be at least partly true, for a sizable "new religion" can't realistically survive very long without a solid member base, and significant monetary assistance.
How much of the suspicion towards these new religions is well-placed is (as one would expect) impossible to tell, but judging by the various tell-tale signs, SGI isn't trying hard enough if they really expect to be taken seriously. First of all, their (frequently denied) relationship with the Japanese political party 公明党 Komeito (officially "New Komeito Party") is well-known, and highly controversial.
Originally founded in 1964 as 公明政治連盟 Komei Political League (officially "The Komeito"), Komeito was the centrist Nichiren Buddhism inspired political wing of Soka Gakkai. The third (and current) president of Soka Gakkai, Daisaku Ikeda, (according to Wikipedia, he has been awarded a total of 250 honorary degrees and professorships! I'm not even sure if Nelson Mandela has that many; the best figure I can find is somewhere around 100-200. Maybe he's been slacking off lately?) decided to split the religious wing from the political wing in 1964, and Komeito was born. They had a much more socialist agenda initially, and were against the Liberal Democratic Party (which has always been powerful in Japan), but more recently they have formed a coalition with the LDP (as opposed to their rivals, the DPJ), and thus Japan continues to function much as if it had a two party system.
Soka Gakkai, of course, have nothing to do with the current Komeito party. Nope, nothing. They've done with them, they don't do that anymore. Okay?
[G: Soon after I posted this entry it came to my attention that -- and I realize that I may be overdoing it a bit here but -- Soka Gakkai was excommunicated from Nichiren Buddhism, or at least a major part of it, in the 1990s, as was Ikeda, due to his numerous controversies. The major reason for his excommunication seems to be that it was revealed that those close to Ikeda were positioning him as a spiritual superior to the de facto founder of the denomination, Nichiren, which obviously made the authorities at the modern "schools" a little angry. Now, Soka Gakkai is essentially a religion isolate, and as a result of the excommunication Ikeda resigned as the president of Soka Gakkai, although he remains "honorary chairman", and president of SGI. I wonder if he got a pay cut?]
One thing that stands out after glancing at the SGI homepage is their heavy use of the popular Every Single Word In Capital Letters Design Scheme. The phrase "Human Revolution" (the name of one of his many books, I believe), as vague as that sounds, is splattered all over the place. Some of the papers released on the website describing Buddhist concepts beneficial for practitioners in "Todays Living" include:
- Making the Best of Everything: The Ten Factors of Life
- How to Live as Humans: The Six Paths and The Four Noble Worlds
- The Saha World is the Land of Eternally Tranquil Light
- The Five Impurities
- Be Free to Control Yourself
- The Three Powerful Enemies
Thus making it clear that a) SGI knows a lot that you don't and b) you'd better be able to count to at least 20 if you're really serious about becoming a member. There's also a link under "Member Resources" to a separate webpage built for exploring SGI controversies (their words, not mine), including articles titled "Allegations of Involvement in Councilwoman's Death Ruled Groundless" and "Nobuhiras' Accusations of Sexual Assault--Ruled 'An Abuse of the Right of Action'". Sounds like a fun read!
Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, Soka Gakkai practices revolve around the concept of "mentor and disciple" -- kinda like The Force, right? Whatever their original aims were, this has resulted in the practice of, and the observation by outsiders of, something resembling a "personality cult", especially with regards to the most current president Daisaku Ikeda. It's hard to prove anything, but all I know is that after walking up the stairs to the second floor (or first, whichever pleases you) and reading through the articles on discrimination, poverty, and suicide (speaking of suicide, the pre-programmed music coming out of the speakers in the wall seriously made me start contemplating it; I mean does anybody actually think that this kind of shit is relaxing?) I moved to the opposite side of the upper floor, encasing in a room a memorial to the lives of the three former presidents, 牧口常三郎 Tsunesaburo Makiguchi, Josei Toda, and Daisaku Ikeda. There were pictures and more essays on the wall, and a small display in the middle featuring original writings by each of the original founders, as well as Toda's glasses and a few other items of interest to those interested in those items. Obviously, the three presidents are of great significance to the sect; at least 1/4th of the building important.
Here is part of one of the displays describing Ikeda's "legend":
[...] その後、池田は世界５４カ国・地域を訪問。世界の識者との語らいも、１６００回を超えた。
識者だけではない。むしろ無名のけなげな庶民をこよなく愛し、多くの出会いを重ねている。
池田は一回一回の出会いに真剣だった。平和と幸福への祈りをこめた出会いだった。
また創価学園・大学、民主音楽協会、東京富士美術館を創立した。
すべては学問、音楽、美術を一部の特段階級から庶民の手に取り戻すための取り組みだった。
多忙のなか、寸暇を割いて、池田はさまざまな人に贈るために
詩をつくり、美しき自然をカメラに収める。
詩作はすでに１６万行を超えた。
すべては"みなを励ましたい"という、やむにやめれぬ心の表れだった。
世界に平和の橋をかける大事業を、池田は青年に託す。
「たとえ諸君が、自分で自分をだめだと思っても、私はそうは思わない。
全員が使命の人であることを疑わない。
だれが諸君を馬鹿にしようと、私は諸君を尊敬する。諸君を信じる。
いまがどうであれ、すばらしい未来が開けるときを、私は絶対に確信しています」
「平和ほど尊きものはない。平和ほど幸福なものはない。」
いまも、彼は歩みを止めない。
[Again, their translation]
[...] Ikeda then took a world tour, traveling to over 54 countries. His dialogues with the world's inteligentsia exceeded 1600. But he didn't stop with intellectuals; Ikeda loved the noble common man more than any other and he made frequent encounters with them. He took every person he met seriously. Every meeting included a prayer for peace and happiness.
He established SOKA GAKUEN/University, Min - On Concert Association, and the Tokyo Fuji Art Museum. They were created to return academics, music and art from a portion of the privileged class back to the general public.
Ikeda wrote poetry and took beautiful photos of nature to give to a variety of people. Everything was the result of his undying heart which wanted to "inspire everyone."
He leaves in the hands of our youth, the great task of building the bridge of peace throughout the world. "Even if you have given up on yourself, I have not. Everyone has a purpose. Though someone may belittle you, I admire you. I believe in you. I truly believe that no matter what may [be] going on in your life today, there is a wonderful future waiting ahead.
[Last line was omitted from the translation, so this is mine:]
"There is nothing more valuable than peace; nothing more desirable than peace."
Even now, he continues walking (and doesn't appear to be stopping).
OK, so I'm officially creeped out by this dude. I would have definitely hated to have this guy as a teacher in high school. I mean, maybe I'm the only one, but I loathe these guys who say they "respect" and "love" and "want to help me", when I'm like, "Hey, that's OK. I'm kind of fine actually". Does that make sense? This guy, what, he wrote a shit load of poems? He shook hands with Nelson Mandela and agreed with him that peace was rad? He made a couple schools! OK, now that's something to brag about. 1) All of them are private schools? OK... he needs to get funding from somewhere, right? And besides, I think all schools representing religions in Japan are private. 2) A fat chunk of the past graduates have become Komeito party members? Well, maybe that's just a coincidence... 3) At the high school, as motivation the top performers are given gold watches? Erm...? The same high school is considered "extremely harsh" when it comes to "morality" and "relationships", i.e. the kind between 16 year old girls and boys. The lower age-level schools do seem to perform very well nationally, but at the same time a large number of students end themselves up at Soka University (more than half of their student population comes from Soka high schools, and most are also members of the religious sect), and all these schools seem to really be doing is feeding students into a political party that has never held any power in Japan and probably never will. Is that really something to brag about?
This guy isn't even dead yet, and he's already buried himself in his achievements. And not only that, he's going to leave the hard part to "youth"! What!? Come on man, have you really no concrete ideas here? Stop talking to everyone willing to shake hands with you for a photo op and do something! Your mentor's mentor's mentor (I think that qualifies him as a "supreme divine leader of everything") went to prison for years and nearly died for simply speaking up against the emperor, so you gotta give him credit for that, but Japan is now one of the freeest countries in the world and every man and his left sock can voice their opinion about poody-who. Maybe because many Japanese people choose not to speak out that makes him somewhat special? Whatever.
To be honest though, I really didn't care about any of the controversy. I didn't even know about it until after I visited the place. I can separate the history from the message, the means from the ends. I could ignore the odd little room upstairs with the dude's googly-eyes and all that. My real problem (and this is almost always the case, I must admit), is with the translation. No, I don't have any problem with the translations themselves; I don't expect grammatical transcendence of the highest degree, especially not in Japan. It was what was omitted that got on my nerves. Now, sure, this is probably just a coincidence, but even then it's a very convenient one. A lot of foreigners visit the hall, and while some of them can read Japanese, obviously not all of them will be able to. The "young" man at the desk was gracious enough to attempt to ask me (in English) what language I spoke, and I assume that they have translations for a couple of other languages as well. First I should mention that the displays (on both floors) were arranged by topic, each describing a problem that is considered to be a barrier of some sort on the road to peace:
- Terrorism
- Child warfare
- Discrimination
- Suicide
- Bullying
Obviously the list shows influence by the circumstances inside Japan, but nothing odd here, right?
Naturally, most foreigners visiting are going to want to take a look at how Ikeda and friends feel about discrimination:
数え切れない差別問題
- "女のくせに生意気" "女性に重要な役割は与えられない"という女性差別
- "かえって足でまといだから何もしなくていいよ"という高齢者や子どもへの差別
- 生まれた地域、職業によって差別する部落差別
- 文化の多様性、両国の歴史的経緯を学ぶ絶好の機会であるのに、「何を考えているかわからない」と排除してしまう外国人の差別
- "生理的に受け付けられない"という、同性愛者などの性的少数者に対する差別
- 国家がつられる以前から日本に住んでいたのに、先住権をはじめとする権利を剥奪されたアイヌ民族や琉球民族など先住民族への差別
- "どうせ人並みのことはできない"という思いこみによるあらゆる障がい者への無理解
- "感染すると怖い"という恐怖からHIV／エイズなどの病への差別
- "宗教や思想を持つことはどこか精神的におかしい"との特定の思考・宗教を信じる人への差別
- 汚い、怠け者というレッテルを貼り付け、社会のはみ出し物と差別されるホームレス（野宿者）の人々
これらの差別問題は、多くが偏見に基づいている。
差別を被っている人に直接会って、粘り強く話をしてみると、多少の意見の違いはあれ、話し
合った後は不思議と信頼感を持つことができる。正しい認識を持つことができれば、問題は
一歩、解決に近づく。
この話し合いもないままに、多くの人は自分の殻に閉じこもり、被差別者に頑なな偏見を持つ。
それが顕著に出るのが、人生の重大な局面である「結婚」と「就職」である。
差別問題を考えること。それは自分のこと、人間のことを深く見つめることに通じる。政治を含め、自分の生きている社会の正しいあり方も考えさせてくれる。
[Their translation]
Discrimination [Japanese title was "Innumerable types of discrimination"]
- Discrimination against woman with remarks like "you are pushy for a woman" [a better translation would be "cheeky"]
- Discrimination against elderly people or children with remarks like "don't do anything because you're in my way"
- Communal discrimination based on someone's birthplace or occupation [implicit reference to burakumin in original Japanese]
- Discrimination against foreigners with distancing remarks like "I don't understand how they think"
- Discrimination against members of a sexual minority with remarks like "I just cannot accept it" [explicitly "homosexuals" in the Japanese]
- Discrimination against indigenous people such as the Ainu or Ryukyuan through deprivation of rights such as aboriginal rights, despite inhabiting Japan before the nation was built
- Lack of understanding for disabled persons with remarks like "they're different from normal people" [Japanese says "they can't do what normal people do"]
- Discrimination against those with communicable diseases such as HIV/AIDS with prejudices like "I'm afraid they will infect me"
- Discrimination against those with specific beliefs/religion with remarks such as "there must be something mentally wrong with people who believe that kind of stuff"
- People who attach labels to homeless people such as "dirty" and "lazy"
[G: "most of"] The above types of discrimination are based on a number of different prejudices. When talking directly to someone long and hard who doesn't discriminate, you walk away with a strange kind of trust in that person, [G: wtf?] despite having [G: should be "even if you have"] different views than them. By having the correct mindset, we find that we come one step closer to find[ing] a solution to our problems.
Thinking about the problems of discrimination helps you to look deeply at yourself as a human. It also allows you to consider how the society you live in should be, including politics.
Everyone has a part of them that can discriminate. Just by talking to someone, we can become subjected to discriminatory thoughts. [This line was taken from the following paragraph, I guess they felt it was important enough to include in the (shortened) English translation.]
It's a decent writeup, and they hit all the major bases (I'm glad they mentioned the Ryukyuans as well as the Ainu, for they so often tend to miss one in mentioning the other [Note: historically, there were a number of ethnic groups in Japan, such as the Emishi, though they were all exterminated or disappeared]) and I respect that they are dealing with touchy issues here, and translating can be risky business. But still, only one line on racism? Where's the rest of it? Oh, well there's more, and it's probably the only half interesting read in the whole place, you just have to be able to read Japanese to get at it.
差別
幸せな結婚のはずだった。
結婚というゴールに向けて、準備はスムーズに進んでいた。
あるとき、彼女は、自分が被差別部落出身であることを告げた。
「彼女の人間性とは無関係」と、彼はその事実を何の問題にもしなかった。
しかし、両親、親戚、そして「世間」という厚い壁が二人の愛を阻んだ。
「部落の人はお金に汚い」
「部落の人は卑しい職業に就いている」
「どんな親か、先祖かわかったもんじゃない」
どれも根も葉もない偏見だった。
しかし、このような偏見こそ、なかなか改まらない場合が多い。
部落の人であろうとなかろうと、悪い人もいるし、いい人もいる。
そもそも、被差別部落の存在自体、人工的に作り出された身分制度だ。
権力は自らの失政から人々の目をそらすために、あえて弱い存在を作り出す。
その後、二人は一度は結婚をあきらめる。
しかし、本当にこれでよかったのか―。
二人は決断する。結婚しよう。そして闘おう。
きっぱりと一人ひとりに被差別部落出身であることを「宣言」しよう。
その中で、"一個の人間"としてみなと真の友情を築こう。
選んだ道は思った以上に厳しかった。
彼は両親から勘当され、父の葬儀に参列することができなかった。
しかし、固い信頼を結ぶ仲間はたくさんできた。
差別の問題に取り組まなければ、得られなかった、かけがえのない人たちだ。
日本初の人権宣言と言われ、民衆による部落解放運動の始まりになった「水平社宣言」。
その中にある「人の世に熱あれ、人間に光あれ」は不滅の言葉だ。
そうだ、人の世には熱がある、人間の世には光がある。
まずは自分を信じ、そして、友人をありのままに大切にする自分でありたい。
[My translation]
Discrimination
It was supposed to be a happy wedding.
Preparations had been moving forward smoothly, and they were on their way to reach the "goal" called marriage.
Until, that is, she confessed that she was burakumin.
But that didn't matter to him. "The fact that she is burakumin has nothing to do with her as a person" he said.
But his parents, relatives, and all those around them attempted to form a wall between them.
"Burakumin are sneaky with money."
"Burakumin work in awful jobs, do things that no respectable person would do."
"You don't know anything about her parents, her ancestors."
All of it cruel, baseless bigotry.
And what's more, there was no correcting it, for the bigotry ran deep.
Burakumin or not, bad people are bad people and good people are good people.
But the burakumin label itself is a man-made creation, and there can be no truth.
Those who have power are able to blind others' eyes from misgovernment, and as a result they themselves become but weaker.
At first, the couple decided to call it off.
But, was that the right thing to do?
Once again, they became determined to get married, and this time, they would fight.
It was time to come out and tell everyone of her burakumin ancestry.
Then, they would build new, true friendships, with her realized as a human being.
And their choice caused them great troubles.
He was disowned by his family, and not allowed to attend his own father's funeral.
But along the way, they made friends that they could trust.
People that they would have never met, had they not decided to speak out against burakumin discrimination.
Japan's first human rights declaration (the Suiheisha Declaration [1922]; translation here) was the start of the freedom movement of the burakumin peoples. "Let there be warmth in human society, let there be light in all human beings"; these well-known words from the declaration will be remembered forever.
Yes, there is warmth in the hearts of human society. There is light in humanity.
First you must believe in yourself, and you must wish to become a person who respects all you love for who they are.
It's a nice story isn't it? Not really sure how famous it is among the younger generation, though I would be surprised if they don't study it properly at one time during Japanese history class in high school. Most people I talk to know what burakumin are (very occasionally something happens in the news), but unfortunately very few people will admit knowing, or caring, that the problem still exists in a big way. So while it's great that this "essay" about burakumin is there, I feel that it can only have a negative effect, in that it further concretes the ridiculous, and ridiculously common, belief that racism, segregation, and discrimination are things of the past in Japan.
Obviously they didn't translate everything, but they really should have translated this. This is important stuff; that's why it took up half the space on the display, after all. But for some reason, they have instead decided to translate 10 pages or so of cheesy songs, and nothing but a disconnected list of types of discrimination. Who accuses theists of being "mentally wrong" anyway? (The "mentally wrong" comment smells particularly strong of "ulterior motive".) I think this is just one more example of the Japanese "shame" or as I like to call it "sneakiness" whenever it comes to touchy history. It's funny that while they are preaching non-discrimination, they disclose facts to Japanese that may be embarrassing to Japanese, but the non-Japanese get the pretty mosaic treatment. Soka Gakkai appears to be (to me at least), in effect, discriminating based on the type information they deem is appropriate to different demographics. I guess I just think foreigners deserve more than a one line treatment on a giant poster about discrimination, is that too much to ask?
To finish up, I'd like to emphasize that the Toda Peace Memorial Hall is a cute exhibition quietly residing in a cute red building in a nice part of Yokohama, and if you don't really feel like digging any deeper it probably won't appear as much more than that, and you won't be hurting anyone. You might want to bring your own music though. On the other hand, its roots are intertwined with the complicated history of a troubled faction and its members, and it may be careless to assume that the hall stands but in good faith. After all, it does nothing to lower the social image of Soka Gakkai and its founders by existing, and I can't think of any other logical reason why it would be there. Toda didn't really believe that the secret to peace was hidden in a little old red brick house, did he?
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