SGIQuarterlyOctober 2010

Number 62A Buddhist Forum for Peace, Culture and Education

S o k a G a k k a i I n t e r n a t i o n a l

TAKING RESPONSIBILITY FOR FUTURE GENERATIONS Christopher Weeramantry

A GREEN LIGHT FOR A NUCLEAR WEAPONS CONVENTION Rebecca Johnson

THE NUCLEAR TABOO Nina Tannenwald

A New Era of Nuclear Abolition

The development, use and proliferation of nuclear weapons in the last century has shaped our age. When they were first used in World War II against the cities of

Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan, the vast scale of destruction and suffering unleashed by a relatively small amount of fissile material was something without parallel in human history.

For the next four decades, the nuclear arms race held the world’s people hostage to the political imperatives of Cold War competition. At its height, tens of thousands of nuclear warheads were deployed by the rival blocs—said to be enough to destroy the world many times over. Even today, the real possibility of nuclear catastrophe continues to hang over humanity.

From the earliest stages of the rush to acquire these weapons of mass destruction, there was also a groundswell of grassroots movements attempting to halt their further development and spread. Some of the greatest figures of the age have lent their name to antinuclear campaigns. Bertrand Russell and Albert Einstein wrote, in 1955, in the wake of a hydrogen bomb test, “Shall we put an end to the human race

or shall we renounce war?” After years of widespread tests, court cases and

medical studies, the truly horrific, intergenerational health and environmental consequences of nuclear weapons can be more accurately assessed. But whereas chemical and biological weapons—as well as land mines and cluster munitions—have been banned under International Law as excessively cruel and indiscriminate, billions of dollars are still spent annually on the continued development, maintenance and deployment of nuclear weapons.

In September 2009, SGI President Daisaku Ikeda offered this analysis of the underlying challenge of nuclear abolition: “The real enemy that we must confront is the ways of thinking that justify nuclear weapons; the readiness to annihilate others when they are seen as a threat or as a hindrance to the realization of our objectives.”

This issue of the SGI Quarterly brings together renowned antinuclear activists and experts who, from a wide range of perspectives, explore the dramatic developments of recent years and the next steps toward a world finally free of nuclear weapons. ❖

A New Era of Nuclear Abolition

FEATURE1 A New Era of Nuclear Abolition

2 Taking Responsibility for Future GenerationsBy Christopher Weeramantry

4 The Health and Environmental Effects of Nuclear WeaponsBy Tilman Ruff

6 A Green Light for a Nuclear Weapons ConventionBy Rebecca Johnson

8 The Nuclear Taboo Interview with Nina Tannenwald

10 Human Security and Nuclear DisarmamentBy Ray Acheson

12 Building Global Solidarity Toward a Nuclear-Free WorldBy Kimiaki Kawai

14 SGI Youth Initiatives for Nuclear AbolitionInterview with Takahisa Miyao and Kenji Shiratsuchi

15 Nuclear Abolition Facts and Figures

16 A Timeline of Events in the Nuclear Age

18 Hiroshima and Nagasaki Survivors Speak Out

PEOPLE19 A Passion for Peace Studies

By Enza Pellecchia

ESSAY 20 Emerging from the Nuclear Shadow

By Daisaku Ikeda

AROUND THE WORLD22 Petitions Support Calls for an NWC; “Seeds

of Hope” in the Netherlands; Interfaith

Activities in Cuba and Australia; “Rock

the Era” Festivals in the USA; Peace Events

in Spain; SGI-Australia Sponsors Peace

Workshop

Plus news in brief from USA, Korea,

Canada, Indonesia, Malaysia, Hong

Kong, New Zealand, Japan

HISTORY OF THE SOKA GAKKAI 26 Part 4

BUDDHISM IN DAILY LIFE28 The World of Anger

ContentsEditorial Team:

Anthony George Joan Anderson Julie Kazumi KakiuchiKeiko KishinoMarisa StensonMotoki KawamoritaRichard WalkerSatoko SuzukiTomoaki NoyamaYoshinori Miyagawa

Published by Soka Gakkai International

Art Direction & Design by Modis Design Printed by Japan Print Co., Ltd.

© 2010 Soka Gakkai International All rights reserved. Printed in Japan.

Printed on FSC certified paper, supporting responsible forest management.

ISSN 1341-6510

SGI Quarterly 1October 2010

108 18

The SGI Quarterly aims to highlight initiatives and perspectives on peace, education and culture and to provide

information about the Soka Gakkai International’s activities around the world. The views expressed in the SGI Quarterly

are not necessarily those of the SGI. The editorial team (see above) welcomes ideas and comments from readers.

Soka Gakkai International Quarterly Magazine

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SGIQuarterly

A Buddhist Forum for Peace, Culture and Education

October 2010

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Humanity is now in a terrible plight. It is in danger of the possibility of the destruction in one millisecond of all that has been built up over millennia

of effort. If nuclear weapons were used anywhere in the world today, this would unleash the use of dozens of nuclear weapons, letting loose a “nuclear winter,” which could even exterminate all life on Earth. Everything we have worked for over hundreds of thousands of years would come to an end.

The situation has been perilous ever since Hiroshima and Nagasaki, but the powers that be have propagated the myth of nuclear deterrence—that if you have nuclear weapons in your armory, you will not be attacked. This is one of the myths of the nuclear age, that the nuclear weapon has kept the nuclear weapon from being used for the last 60 years. In fact we have been on the verge of nuclear war time and again. All sorts of crises have occurred where it was divine providence, rather than human intervention, which saved us from what might have been the destruction of the entire human race.

However, after 400 years, there is no reason for this to continue because, as modern researchers have pointed out, there is a huge amount of coincidence in religious teachings on the fundamentals of human conduct, including the way we carry out our wars. All religions agree about the dignity of the human person, the peaceful settlement of disputes, protection of the environment and the preservation of the rights of future generations.

Hinduism, Judaism, Christianity, Buddhism and Islam, for example, all teach us about our duties to the environment and the future. They convey the message that we have to respect the environment and protect the rights of future generations; the opposite of what we do when we go to war using nuclear

weapons. Religious teaching is a tremendous reservoir of global wisdom, and we need to resort to it as an enriching source for International Law.

In fact I used my knowledge of world religions to support my decisions at the ICJ, arguing that religion has been an inspiring force for ideas about government, humanity and the parliament of man. Hindu philosophy claims that the “ultimate sovereign of the world will not be Chakravarti, a physical ruler, but the kingless authority of the Law.” What better description of International Law than the “kingless authority of the Law”?

Living Under the Shadow of the Bomb

In the nuclear weapons case, the judges were divided. I said that the use of nuclear weapons is illegal in all circumstances whatsoever. I wrote a long dissenting opinion, which is often referred to, on the illegality of the nuclear weapon, citing religious teachings. For instance, in Hindu tradition, there are two epic wars described in the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. Rama was told by his generals that a hyper-destructive weapon was available which could devastate the enemy’s countryside and decimate his population, but he was told, “Don’t use it without first consulting the sages of the law.” So Rama consulted the sages of the law, who told him:

“You cannot use this weapon because the purpose of war is to subjugate your enemy and live in peace with him thereafter, not to ravage his countryside and devastate his population.” So Rama did not use the weapon. I cited this as a reinforcing argument to show the leaders of the world that they should listen to the advice of their legal advisers, and not just pay lip service to them.

In all religions you get the same view. Buddhism outlaws war completely. In Islamic Law, you can’t even use a poisoned arrow. The same is true if you look at customary law systems across the world; African systems are very consistent, as are systems in the

International Court of JusticeI had the privilege to be on the International Court

of Justice (ICJ) in 1996, when it was asked by the United Nations General Assembly to give an opinion on the legality or otherwise of the use of nuclear weapons. This was probably the biggest case the International Court of Justice has ever heard. Many states were represented, and the court’s sitting lasted for weeks.

Witnesses came from many places to tell us about the bomb’s effects. One of the lawyers from a state which argued against the legality of nuclear weapons asked what we would say if Stone Age man had been able to devastate the environment in such a manner as to affect us 25,000 years later. Our response would surely be, “what brutes, what savages, what barbarians.”

We are doing the same thing for posterity, not just for 25,000 years but for multiples of 25,000 years, with a total unconcern for our responsibility to pass on the environment in, at least, the same condition in which we received it. We are knowingly perpetrating that on future generations.

The terrible damage to the present generation was described by a delegation from the Marshall Islands who offered heartrending testimony about the effects of radiation from nuclear weapons testing on their children who were being born terribly deformed; children with two heads, no knees, three toes on each foot and so on. What greater act of wrongdoing can there be than inflicting such damage on children yet unborn?

International LawThroughout history, the worlds of

philosophy, religion and morality have been seen as one thing and the worlds of power and authority as another.

The separation of International Law from religion began when modern International Law took shape in the 17th century. Then, there was a prevailing feeling that religion had been a cause of wars. The Thirty Years’ War (1618–48) was ravaging Europe. The Dutch jurist Hugo Grotius started the modern discipline of International Law with On the Law of War and Peace, written in 1625. He thought it would be better to distance this new discipline from religion, so he decided to base International Law on human experience rather than on divine revelation. So there are valid historical reasons for International Law becoming distanced from religion in the past.

The International Court of Justice Advisory Opinion on the Legality of the Threat or Use of Nuclear Weapons was handed down in 1996. It states:

“The threat or use of nuclear weapons would generally be contrary to the rules of international law applicable in armed conflict, and in particular the principles and rules of humanitarian law . . .

“There exists an obligation to pursue in good faith and bring to a conclusion negotiations leading to nuclear disarmament in all its aspects under strict and effective international control.”

Judge Christopher Weeramantry

was a Judge of the International Court

of Justice (ICJ) from 1991 to 2000,

serving as its Vice President from

1997 to 2000. He is President of the

International Association of Lawyers

against Nuclear Arms and a Councillor

of the World Future Council. He

holds the title Sri Lankabhimanya (Sri

Lanka’s highest national honor), and is

the recipient of the UNESCO Prize for

Peace Education (2006) and the Right

Livelihood Award (2007).

Taking Responsibility for Future GenerationsBy Christopher Weeramantry

“We are not, in fact, living under the protection of the nuclear bomb; we are living under its shadow.”

The ICJ Advisory Opinion

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Pacific: cruel and unnecessary suffering is prohibited.

In Christianity, at the Second Lateran Council in 1139, it was determined that the crossbow and the siege engine were too cruel to be used in warfare among Christian nations. In the 19th century, when the dumdum bullet, which explodes when it enters the human body, was invented, statesmen outlawed it as being too cruel to be used among civilized nations. But the same civilized nations do not see the absurdity of saying that the use of the nuclear weapon is permissible.

In the ICJ opinion on the legality of nuclear weapons in 1996, all the judges without exception agreed that the use of nuclear weapons offended every principle of humanitarian law, but there was slight disagreement on one point: What is the position if a nation is under attack and its very survival is at stake?

The court could not pronounce on illegality in this extreme situation, and this is where I disagreed with the majority and held nuclear weapons to be illegal in all circumstances whatsoever.

However, all 14 judges unanimously agreed that there existed a responsibility on the part of all the nuclear powers to take meaningful steps, starting forthwith, to abandon their nuclear arsenals. There can be no more binding legal opinion than a unanimous decision of the ICJ. However, far from reducing their arsenals, they are perfecting their arsenals, improving their bombs and refining their techniques.

We are not, in fact, living under the protection of the nuclear bomb; we are living under its shadow. Nuclear weapons are the greatest threat humanity has ever faced, and we are passing that on to future generations. We must stimulate the conscience of the general public, as well as stimulating activism so that we can tell the rulers of this world that they must listen to public opinion. Eliminating nuclear weapons is the greatest responsibility that has ever rested on the shoulders of any generation. We are bearing that responsibility, and we must discharge it. ❖

This article is based on a speech Judge Weeramantry gave at the Parliament of the World’s Religions in Melbourne, Australia, on December 6, 2009.

What happens to people, other living things and land, water and air when a nuclear weapon explodes? Nuclear

weapons literally bring the same magnitude of power that drives the stars into the midst of our fragile interdependent world. It is a power which in scale, persistence and nature of the damage inflicted is without parallel. Apart from a collision with a large celestial body, there is nothing but nuclear weapons that, at any moment, could end human civilization and life on our Earth in the space of a few hours.

Nuclear Weapons and HealthThe World Health Organization has

determined that no health service anywhere in the world would be capable of dealing with those injured by blast, burns and radiation from a single nuclear explosion over a city. The largest nuclear weapons currently deployed each contain as much explosive power as all the bombs used during World War II put together. Nuclear weapons have been built and tested that contained several times more explosive power than the sum of all weapons used in all wars fought throughout human history.

One unique aspect of nuclear technology including weapons is ionizing radiation, an unseen poison produced by many different isotopes. Some important isotopes persist only for hours, days or weeks; others for decades or centuries; yet others for billions of years—time frames which render any current human institution irrelevant. Some are concentrated in plants and animals and mimic normal elements in different parts of our bodies; some in fetal tissues. Young children and females are most sensitive to harm from radiation. The most injurious feature of radiation is its bundling of energy in a form which is particularly damaging to

would combine to reduce or eliminate agricultural production around the world over several successive years. Global grain stocks would feed the world’s population for only about two months, and trade in food would cease. It could conservatively be expected that the more than one billion people who are chronically malnourished today, and the several hundred million more highly dependent on grain imports, would not survive long. Even the warheads on one nuclear-armed submarine could produce, in addition to tens of millions of immediate casualties, a global environmental disaster.

These findings have clear policy implications. Vulnerability to nuclear catastrophe unites us all wherever we live. Any use of nuclear weapons risks escalation in unpredictable and uncontrollable ways. Any use of nuclear weapons would not only be an unconscionable crime, but suicidal. Abolishing nuclear weapons is the only practical, sustainable solution—urgently, before they are ever again used. ❖

our genetic blueprint—our DNA. These long molecular chains quite literally make us, and are our most precious inheritance and legacy to the next generation. An acutely lethal dose of radiation may contain no more energy than the heat in a cup of coffee. Damage to our genetic blueprint can injure and kill cells, be passed to the next generation, or give rise to cancer, even decades later.

New data continue to emerge which demonstrate that there is much about radiation health effects that is poorly understood; and that these effects have consistently been underestimated. Cancer rates among the survivors of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki nuclear bombings are still rising. A recent study of New Zealand veterans 50 years after they participated in 1950s British nuclear tests in the Pacific identified an almost threefold increase in the rate of abnormal

chromosomal rearrangements compared with service personnel who had not participated in nuclear tests. Research on veterans of British nuclear tests in Australia found rates of cancer far higher than expected on the basis of their estimated radiation doses. A major recent study of cancer in German children between 1980 and 2003 conclusively demonstrated a more than doubling of the rate of leukemia in children living within 5 km of a nuclear power reactor, with increased risk extending beyond 50 km—again, way beyond rates expected on the basis of conventional understanding of the exposures involved.

Nuclear WinterIn the 1980s, international teams of

scientists discovered that even 100 of the then 70,000 nuclear weapons, if targeted at cities and industrial sites, would ignite vast fires, generating huge amounts of sooty dark smoke. This smoke would envelop the whole

planet and cause a “nuclear winter,” absorbing so much of the incoming sunlight that the Earth’s surface would quickly become dark, cold and dry. Recent studies by some of the world’s foremost atmospheric scientists have confirmed not only that these effects would be more severe and prolonged than previously thought, but that abrupt global cooling, unprecedented in recorded human history, would follow a regional nuclear war involving 100 Hiroshima-size nuclear weapons. The millions of tons of smoke from such a war would spread around the whole world within a few weeks, and heated and lofted by the sun, persist in the upper atmosphere beyond the reach of rain and weather, blocking sunlight for at least 10 years.

Reduced sunlight; cooling, with shorter growing seasons, summer cold spells and frosts; reduced rainfall, by as much as 40 percent in the Asian monsoon regions; more ultraviolet radiation because of depletion of protective ozone in the upper atmosphere; and disruption of supplies of fuel, fertilizer and seed

The Health and Environmental Effects of Nuclear WeaponsBy Tilman Ruff

Tilman Ruff is a public health

physician specializing in infectious

diseases, with a particular

commitment to the public health

imperative to abolish nuclear weapons.

He is the Chair of the International

Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons

(ICAN) Australia.

“Vulnerability to nuclear catastrophe unites us all wherever we live.”

A radiation victim in Sarzhal, Kazakhstan, near the Semipalatinsk test site, remembers her mother, who died of cancer caused by radiation; almost all the 2,400 inhabitants suffer from the effects of nuclear testing

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among most governments and much of civil society to support President Obama’s initiatives and demonstrate that the non-proliferation regime is still relevant. The basis for the consensus was a set of modest steps, but they failed to mask the fact that the 2010 NPT Conference proved incapable of dealing with the tough decisions on compliance and implementation. Despite strong advocacy from across the political and geographic spectrum, the NPT Conference proved unable to adopt concrete commitments to devalue nuclear weapons or make the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Additional Protocol a verification standard, let alone to undertake multilateral negotiations on nuclear abolition.

International Humanitarian LawWhile a large number of delegations tried

to push the disarmament agenda forward with proposals for nuclear weapons to be progressively marginalized in preparation for negotiations that would totally prohibit and eliminate them, the nuclear-weapon states gave little ground.

The final document recognized that, in view of the “catastrophic humanitarian consequences of any use of nuclear weapons” all states at all times should “comply with applicable international law, including international humanitarian law.” Adopted by consensus, this recognition could boost efforts by countries such as Bangladesh, Switzerland, Mexico and others to get the use of nuclear weapons outlawed altogether. As the Obama Administration’s 2010 Nuclear Posture Review demonstrated, the leaders might share the world’s vision and political will, but their nuclear establishments do not. If it is left to the nuclear-weapon states to determine the rights and wrongs of nuclear use and when and how they can deploy their arsenals, they will continue to cling to nuclear doctrines that rely on threatening to use nuclear weapons in a range of destabilizing and inappropriate scenarios.

1. Nuclear-weapon states to fulfill

their obligations to undertake

negotiations in good faith toward nuclear

disarmament (possibly in the form of a

nuclear weapons convention).

2. UN Security Council to meet

at summit level to discuss

disarmament issues.

3. Entry into force of the

Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban

Treaty, ratification of all existing regional

nuclear-weapon-free zone treaties,

the establishment of such a zone in

the Middle East, strengthened IAEA

safeguards standards and recognition

that the nuclear fuel cycle shapes

prospects for disarmament.

4. Nuclear-weapon states to

provide the UN Secretariat

with regular accounts of actions on

disarmament commitments.

5. New progress in eliminating

other types of weapons of mass

destruction (chemical and biological),

and new weapons bans.

Therefore, civil society and some key governments are considering initiatives to gain recognition through the International Criminal Court, the Geneva Protocols or the United Nations that the indiscriminate and long-term effects of nuclear weapons mean that all uses should be outlawed and classified as a crime against humanity and a war crime. Prohibiting the use of nuclear weapons would enhance global security and be consistent with existing international humanitarian law, and it would also greatly diminish any perceived military benefits that a nuclear terrorist or aggressor might hope to gain. Now it is up to civil society and key governments to develop effective strategies and promote public campaigns to make it impossible for anyone to use nuclear weapons ever again.

Mobilize for a Nuclear Weapons Convention

We have to use the 2010 NPT outcome as a base on which to build coalitions between traditional disarmament campaigns and organizations working on

international humanitarian law, human rights and environmental protection, and lay the groundwork for negotiations on a universal, comprehensive nuclear weapons convention. The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) played an important role in mainstreaming the concept of a nuclear weapons convention and getting it accepted into the NPT outcome. We are now developing a strategy to take the campaign to the next stage, networking with all sectors of civil society to bring their governments to the negotiating table.

It won’t be quick or easy, but it will be possible and practical. For those that want to rid the world of the scourge of nuclear weapons, it is time to put maximum energy and resources into banning the use and deployment of these inhumane weapons and getting negotiations for a comprehensive nuclear weapons convention under way by 2015. ❖

When the representatives of 190 states gave their consensus to the outcome document of the 2010

Review Conference of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) on May 28, they celebrated a rare success for the NPT since it entered into force in 1970. What does this outcome signify? The assessment is mixed, especially for those who believe that the two-tier NPT system that gives privileges to five nuclear-weapon possessors (Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States) is actually impeding global efforts to achieve nuclear disarmament.

During the conference there had been serious and heated debates on initiatives relating to devaluing nuclear weapons, nuclear doctrines and use, NATO’s nuclear sharing arrangements and eliminating tactical nuclear weapons. Although the final document issued by the conference saw a watering-down of language regarding these issues, the conference outcome should be welcomed because, for the first time, consensus was given to the view that there is a need to consider comprehensive negotiations as well as incremental steps. The NPT final document cited the UN Secretary-General’s 2008 Five-Point Disarmament Plan and made clear that preventing nuclear threats and stemming proliferation requires not only incremental steps but also the establishment of “the necessary framework to achieve and maintain a world without nuclear weapons.” Although shorn of any target dates, timelines or commitments to negotiate, there was consensus on including a nuclear weapons convention, which would comprehensively ban nuclear weapons, as a framing objective for the future.

For the media, the most important NPT story was agreement on ways to take forward the goal of making the Middle East a zone

free of nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction, particularly the commitment to hold a regional conference in 2012. If this regional process is implemented, it will mark an important milestone, but on many other long-standing challenges the non-proliferation regime is still stuck in the Cold War. The key debates at the NPT Review Conference concerned the need to change security doctrines so that nuclear weapons’ perceived political and military value is diminished. A new, humanitarian approach is needed to draw in countries outside the NPT (India, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea) and formally stigmatize all nuclear weapons as inhumane instruments of mass murder and environmental destruction, thereby paving the way for their use and deployment to be outlawed. By taking on the challenges of abolishing nuclear weapons, it will become easier to establish stronger verification

and safeguard mechanisms to prohibit and prevent nuclear proliferation, use and terrorism. Because of the limitations of the current NPT regime, it was not possible to make progress on these problems in 2010, but it is increasingly recognized that multilateral negotiations to abolish nuclear weapons will help the international community strengthen all aspects of nuclear safety and security.

NPT Challenges and Limitations Among the issues debated in the 2010

Review Conference were proposals for deterring states from withdrawing from this treaty, plans by the nuclear-weapon states to replace, update and modernize their current arsenals and failure to adequately implement past agreements.

The breakthrough on the Middle East facilitated the success of the NPT Conference, but the real impetus was a collective desire

UN Secretary-General’s 2008 Five-Point Plan for Nuclear Disarmament

A Green Light for a Nuclear Weapons ConventionBy Rebecca Johnson

Lighting a memorial candle in a ceremony organized by the Pakistan-India Peace Forum, Islamabad, 2003

“Prohibiting the use of nuclear weapons would enhance global security and be consistent with existing international humanitarian law.”

Rebecca Johnson is Executive Director and Cofounder

of the Acronym Institute and editor of Disarmament Diplomacy. She is also special adviser to the Middle

Powers Initiative, the Nobel Women’s Initiative, Peace

Depot (Japan), Center for Policy Studies (PIR, Moscow)

and the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear

Weapons (ICAN). Her book, Unfinished Business, was

published by the United Nations in 2009.

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SGI Quarterly: In your book, you write of a “nuclear taboo.” Can you explain what is meant by that? Nina Tannenwald: I argue that a taboo against the use of nuclear weapons has developed since 1945. The taboo is a normative prohibition on the use of nuclear weapons. It is associated with a sense of moral opprobrium regarding such weapons. This taboo has helped restrain the resort to the use of nuclear weapons. I focus primarily on the United States, but I do argue that this taboo has now become more widespread. The book focuses on how the taboo arose and how it influenced US leaders when they were thinking about using nuclear weapons during crises during the Cold War, but I also look at how it has influenced international politics more broadly. The central question is why nuclear weapons were not used during the Cold War and why they haven’t been used since 1945. The conventional argument is deterrence—that fear of nuclear reprisal kept states from using these weapons.

history of nuclear weapons but of other weapons as well—chemical weapons, land mines, cluster bombs—most of this kind of arms control has come from civil society movements and the pressure they exert. The global antinuclear movement, starting in the 1950s, was a disarmament movement. In fact, however, there was no disarmament to speak of until the end of the Cold War, and in that sense they weren’t successful. But the antinuclear movement made it impossible to think of nuclear weapons as just another weapon, and that is its single most important contribution to nuclear history. This pattern is not unique to nuclear weapons but evident in other cases where weapons have been stigmatized. Citizens’ movements have not always been successful in the short run, but over time these movements have had significant successes in getting arms control achieved and getting states to change their policies in regard to various kinds of weapons. This is very important, and it is echoed by the histories of other weapons as well.

SGIQ: Is there continuity between a taboo on use and a prohibition on all aspects of production, possession, deployment and so on? NT: I see a progression, and many antinuclear groups do see the ultimate goal as a legally binding prohibition. At present,

there is no specific legal ban on the use of nuclear weapons (though there are some legal constraints). We already have norms against the possession and production of nuclear weapons that apply to most of the world. The Non-Proliferation Treaty, which is sometimes criticized as codifying the inequalities between the nuclear “haves” and “have-nots,” in fact includes a clear legal obligation for the nuclear-weapon states to negotiate toward full disarmament. It thus enshrines a norm of non-possession for everyone, including the nuclear powers. So

these norms already exist. The problem is that, like membership in the NPT, they aren’t universal yet, nor have adequate steps been taken to implement them.

For both realist and normative reasons, the utility of nuclear weapons has been circumscribed. Now, even the defenders of nuclear deterrence argue that this is limited to deterring others from using nuclear weapons. I think it has become easier to move to things like, for example, a declared no-first use policy, then from a declared no-first use policy to a legal prohibition

Deterrence is an important part of the explanation, but it is insufficient. The taboo helps explain why nuclear weapons haven’t been used as weapons even in cases where deterrence wasn’t operating.

SGIQ: How did the taboo develop? NT: I identify three primary factors: First is a global grassroots antinuclear weapons movement which made it impossible to think about nuclear weapons as just another weapon; the second element was antinuclear politics at the United Nations; and a third element was strategic pressures and the risks of escalation. I might add a fourth element, which is the conscience of individual leaders who really felt that nuclear weapons were morally repugnant and that we had to do something to delegitimize them. So, when you look at how this taboo arose—the change from 1945, when it was assumed that nuclear weapons would be used in war like any other weapons, to today,

on use. I think this is the likely trajectory of incremental progress. It is not going to happen tomorrow, however.

SGIQ: What role do you see for religions and spiritual traditions in promoting nuclear abolition? NT: I think there is a very important role for religions in the antinuclear weapons argument. There is room to bring religion more centrally into our thinking about nuclear weapons. For example, the Catholic bishops were quite influential in the 1980s when

they came out with their encyclical that use of nuclear weapons was immoral and that deterrence was only acceptable as a temporary point on the road ultimately to abolition. This is possibly an area where we could engage Iran, as Iranian leaders have said that nuclear weapons are un-Islamic, and so far I know of no leaders of any other country who have said that nuclear weapons are either un-Christian or un-Jewish. It seems to me that this offers an opening for a dialogue on religious conceptions and how they might inform our policy regarding nuclear weapons. ❖

when nuclear weapons use by states is almost unthinkable—it reflects both morality and self-interest. That is, you have a convergence of realist interest and the moral interest—the sense that these are unacceptable, morally abhorrent weapons—and that creates a fairly large constituency, perhaps larger than we have had for a long time, for actually moving toward abolition.

SGIQ: The Nuclear Taboo is designed to speak to International Relations specialists, a field where a certain style of “realism” has long prevailed. Have you seen a shift in that field over the years? NT: Oh absolutely: even the hard-core realpolitik people, the realists, talk about a taboo now. They don’t necessarily buy the whole argument I make, but it is on the table and they have to deal with it. Even the realists now take the taboo into account. SGIQ: Could you speak more about grass-roots opposition to nuclear weapons? NT: When you look at not only the

The Nuclear TabooAn interview with Nina Tannenwald

“The central question is why nuclear weapons were not used during the Cold War and why they haven’t been used since 1945.”

“The antinuclear movement made it impossible to think of nuclear weapons as just another weapon.”

Young people marching for the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) in the UK, 1958

Nina Tannenwald is an Associate Research

Professor at Brown University’s Watson Institute

for International Studies. She holds a Ph.D. from

Cornell University, and has taught and lectured

in a wide range of institutions on international

relations, international security, weapons of mass

destruction, international institutions, law and

organization, human rights and ethical issues in

the use of force. Her book, The Nuclear Taboo: The United States and the Non-Use of Nuclear Weapons Since 1945 (Cambridge University Press,

2007), won the 2009 Lepgold Prize for best book in

international relations.

Mannequins inside a wooden frame house on the Nevada Test Site,USA, used to evaluate nuclear blast and thermal effects (1953)

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Why do nuclear weapons still exist in a modern, information-saturated and supposedly

interdependent world? What purpose do they serve? What are they used for? And what is their relationship to security?

The answer to these questions can be found by rephrasing: Whose purpose do nuclear weapons serve? Who uses them? Whose security benefits from them?

Nuclear weapons have material, institutional, cultural and psychological bases and consequences. A state’s interest in acquiring and retaining nuclear weapons is the product of multiple institutions and constituencies dispersed throughout its government, corporate, academic and political spheres of power. Nuclear-armed states wield these weapons because specific constituents benefit from investment in the weapons’ production and maintenance. The general term “the military-industrial complex,” when actually broken down, consists of elite constituents benefiting from and sustaining the hyper-militarism of the 21st century, of which nuclear weapons are symptomatic. This also includes academia, politics and the entertainment industry.

The Military-Industrial Complex

Whether the so-called complex referred to is in the United States or India, the political economies of nuclear-armed states are entrenched in the development and maintenance of nuclear weapons programs and infrastructure. The “complex” benefits economically from the research, production and stockpiling of nuclear weapons, which in turn economically and politically supports a state structure which actively sustains the international and domestic environment necessary

the military-industrial-academic complexes that in turn help keep the governments that feed them in power, resulting in a vicious cycle of weapons, war, global insecurity and inequality.

Nuclear Weapons and Human SecurityTo break this cycle, a new understanding of the

relationship of nuclear weapons to elite structures and political economy is necessary. The economic connections between nuclear weapons and the rest of the world come into sharper focus once we understand whose security nuclear weapons are for. If the money the nuclear states spend per year on nuclear weapons were spent on social programs, infrastructure, education, health care or renewable energy projects, local and national economies could be retooled to build sustainable and equitable living conditions for a greater majority of the world’s people.

People interested in promoting true and sustainable human security need to ask ourselves: Are we interested in promoting collective security, equality and the rule of law, or continuing down the path of hyper-militarized inequality and collective insecurity? Are we interested in creating the real conditions for a nuclear-weapon-free world? If so, we need to create a new discourse about the uselessness of nuclear weapons as a tool to prevent or deter the converging crises facing our world today and point out how they perpetuate the status quo of inequality and insecurity. This discourse also needs to be connected to the work of others who are striving for a more just and secure

global system based on dignity for all, so that efforts to decrease militarism inspire broader conceptions about human security and foster a more cooperative and equitable world order.

To start with, concerted international, national and local action is needed to halt the continued production, modernization and proliferation of nuclear weapons and to stigmatize the possession and development of weapons. People everywhere need to renounce nuclear weapons as a legitimate tool of national or international security and make it clear that not only their use but also their possession is unacceptable. Governments that neither possess nuclear weapons nor shelter under security relationships with nuclear-armed states have a big role to play in isolating and putting pressure on such states. Governments could negotiate a nuclear weapon convention that makes the development and possession of nuclear weapons illegal. Governments and NGOs can use international humanitarian law to argue that the use, and therefore possession, of nuclear weapons is illegal. They can also conduct inquiries into nuclear modernization programs, to question how they are compatible with their “vision” of a nuclear-weapon-free world.

There are countless ways in which active and engaged citizens in all countries can help change the game. The starting point for any strategy is to understand the relationship between nuclear weapons and the power structures that maintain them and to recognize the incompatibility of nuclear weapons with true human security. ❖

geostrategic and economic allies and even some of their nongovernmental organizations—continues to emphasize the importance of maintaining an “effective nuclear deterrent” until the achievement of the appropriate “international security environment” that could permit the elimination of nuclear weapons. Unfortunately, the nuclear-armed states simultaneously engage in activities that will indefinitely postpone this international security environment, by continuing to invest heavily in their militaries and weaponry—thus sustaining

to keep the “complex” in business. As Andrew Lichterman, a lawyer and policy analyst at a California-based NGO called the Western States Legal Foundation, noted in an address on August 6, 2009: “The nuclear weapons establishment constitutes a formidable set of institutions. And they are part of a far broader constellation of powerful institutions and organizations, never far, if at all, out of power, that see their interests as being well served by a mode of . . . military dominance ultimately underwritten by nuclear weapons.”

Nuclear weapons are a powerful tool for the governments that possess them—even if they are not dropped or detonated, they are used to coerce or deter actions by others. In fact, nuclear weapons are not about security, either global or national; they are antithetical to security and irrelevant to the perceived threats facing the world today—such as terrorism, climate change, food, water and energy shortages and increasing global economic disparity. Nuclear weapons exacerbate these converging crises, as the weapons’ development, deployment and proliferation increases global tensions, disparities, polarizations and environmental degradation and squanders the economic, political and human resources that could otherwise be used to confront and solve these crises. Instead of deterring threats, nuclear weapons in fact only deter disarmament, peace, equity, justice and security.

Yet the mainstream discourse of nuclear weapons—vocalized by political elites from the nuclear-armed states and echoed in large part by their

Human Security and Nuclear DisarmamentBy Ray Acheson

Ray Acheson is the Director of

Reaching Critical Will, the nuclear

disarmament project of the Women’s

International League for Peace and

Freedom. She monitors and reports on

nuclear weapons issues at the United

Nations and maintains the online

archive and information resource at

www.reachingcriticalwill.org. She

recently edited and coordinated a

collaborative book, Beyond Arms Control: Challenges and Choices for Nuclear Disarmament.School children in Kansas, USA, practice surviving a nuclear attack, 1960

Ban Ki-moon at Semipalatinsk test site, once the Soviet Union’s primary nuclear test site, during an official UN visit to Kazakhstan, April 2010

“People everywhere need to renounce nuclear weapons as a legitimate tool of national or international security.”

“There are countless ways in which active and engaged citizens in all countries can help change the game.”

SGI Quarterly SGI Quarterly10 11October 2010 October 2010

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How do you get ordinary people, immersed in the complexities of day-to-day life, to pay attention to an issue that is seemingly abstract and distant, but

which actually has paramount relevance to their lives?Since the end of the Cold War, people no longer

seem to feel the imminent threat and personal relevance of nuclear issues. Rather, they seem passively to accept the notion that nuclear weapons are a “necessary evil.” They feel hopeless and powerless in the face of this gigantic and complex problem, which, it seems to them, can only be addressed by governments.

But resignation is a luxury we cannot afford. With thousands of nuclear warheads still in existence, together with the threat of nuclear terrorism, the current situation is untenable. Humanity is, in the words of former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, “sleepwalking towards disaster.” We need to find more creative ways of presenting nuclear issues not as something beyond our reach and control, but as something relevant to everyone.

But how can we best communicate the message to effectively reach a wide range of people? This is

the challenge that the SGI has taken on throughout the history of its commitment to the cause of nuclear abolition over the last half-century.

We have organized petition drives, staged awareness-raising exhibitions, hosted and co-organized symposiums and produced DVDs and websites. Many of these activities are organized by and targeted toward young people.

And, at the heart of all these efforts, is a simple belief in the efficacy of dialogue. People learn and are empowered through dialogue because they are in the presence of another human being who shares their interests and concerns.

Dialogue is something anyone can do. We consider dialogue and encounter as the prime tools for empowering people to care about things beyond their immediate experience, including people in distant countries and the members of future generations. Thus, the focus of the SGI’s activities has been to create forums for encounter where people, especially youth, can exchange views, share ideas and experiences, and inspire each other.

Exhibitions in particular create a kind of public space where people can learn and think together about

fundamental human needs first—is necessary for national, regional and global stability. It also presents the personal and spiritual dimensions of disarmament. One viewer remarked, “I realized that what is needed is a change in the human heart if we are to triumph over violence. In the end, the nuclear issue is up to each and every one of us. A change in attitude can change the world.”

“Transforming the Human Spirit” has been viewed in over 200 cities in 24 countries and territories in five languages including English, Spanish and Chinese. It has also been partially translated into Serbian and Macedonian.

Through these various initiatives, the SGI has always focused on communicating the personal and spiritual dimensions of disarmament based on its understanding of the nature of nuclear weapons: that they are a complete offense against and negation of life because of their devastating effects on human beings and the natural environment for generations to come.

Nuclear weapons can be understood from a Buddhist perspective as the ultimate expression of self-centeredness stemming from our blindness to our interconnection and interdependence, the delusion that we can protect our own self-interest and build our own security by terrorizing others.

Buddhism teaches that this kind of destructive self-centeredness is in fact a

function of the “fundamental darkness” inherent in human life. Only by restoring a sense of our mutual relatedness—the fact that your happiness is absolutely necessary to mine—can we overcome what SGI President Daisaku Ikeda has termed the “real enemy.”

It was from this Buddhist perspective that second Soka Gakkai president Josei Toda (1900-58) issued his declaration calling for the abolition of nuclear weapons at the height of the Cold War in 1957. He asserted that everyone on our planet has “an inviolable right to live” and condemned anyone who jeopardizes that right as “a devil incarnate.”

Among those listening that day was Daisaku Ikeda, who succeeded Toda as third Soka Gakkai president. Ikeda has campaigned tirelessly for nuclear disarmament for half a century, constantly citing the example and inspiration of his mentor.

Today, SGI members in 192 countries and territories around the world are working to create a world free from the threat of nuclear weapons based on a Buddhist appreciation of the sanctity of all life. SGI members are from all economic, cultural and educational backgrounds, enabling them to reach a wide range of social strata.

We now have a unique opportunity to make a change, as never before. The NPT final document this year refers, for the first time ever, to proposals for a Nuclear Weapons Convention. Meanwhile, military experts like Henry Kissinger and William Perry have begun to talk about a world without nuclear weapons. There is the possibility of bringing together traditional peace advocates and realists to work for a nuclear-weapon-free world.

We need to seize this opportunity, generating a groundswell demanding an NWC to get such voices of conscience heard by policy makers. I believe that the SGI’s network has the potential to contribute to this in a unique way.

Today, more and more people are becoming aware of the obscene folly of holding all life on this planet hostage to political or ideological goals that are not even relevant anymore. The key challenge now is to build global solidarity, bringing together people of all religious and political persuasions to focus on the common cause of human survival. The SGI will continue to work to initiate and expand forums for encounter and dialogue toward this shared goal. ❖

critical issues. On many occasions, I have seen complete strangers viewing one of our SGI exhibition panels spontaneously strike up a conversation. Whatever the medium, we try to provide people with opportunities to share their views and feelings and to learn about actions they can take in their daily lives.

Transforming the Human Spirit The “People’s Decade of Action for

Nuclear Abolition” is the latest of the SGI’s initiatives. Launched in 2007, it aims to increase the number of people who reject nuclear weapons as an “absolute evil” and to expand a global grassroots network, which is aimed specifically at the complete ban of nuclear weapons through a Nuclear Weapons Convention (NWC).

Together with international antinuclear movements such as the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) initiated by International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW), the SGI will continue to promote the network of global citizens toward this shared goal.

As part of the “People’s Decade” initiative, the SGI launched an antinuclear exhibition, “From a Culture of Violence to a Culture of Peace: Transforming the Human Spirit.” This exhibition highlights how our daily lives are impacted by nuclear weapons. It introduces the idea of “human security” which holds that a people-centered view of security—securing

Building Global Solidarity Toward a Nuclear-Free WorldBy Kimiaki Kawai

SGI’s nuclear abolition activities around the world

Kimiaki Kawai is Program Director

for Peace Affairs at the Soka Gakkai

International.

SGI Quarterly SGI Quarterly12 13October 2010 October 2010

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SGI Quarterly: What do you think this survey shows? Takahisa Miyao: I believe that this survey has helped reveal how young people view nuclear weapons, one of the most formidable threats to humanity. The results show us that there is a persistent tendency for young people to think that the abolition of nuclear weapons is very difficult, even though a majority of them in most countries have strongly negative feelings about nuclear weapons. Almost 70 percent of respondents said the use of nuclear weapons was not acceptable under any circumstances. This is encouraging for us in our efforts to promote the adoption of a Nuclear Weapons Convention comprehensively banning these weapons of mass slaughter. Building on the widespread rejection of nuclear weapons by youth is key to efforts toward their abolition.

It was also clear that the more people have a concrete and detailed awareness of the threat posed by nuclear weapons, the more strongly they reject them. This speaks to the importance of informing people about the nature of nuclear weapons as a key means of strengthening public opinion for their abolition. The results of this survey have deepened our confidence that, by working to raise awareness among the members of our

own generation about the horrors of nuclear weapons use, we can build robust public support for their abolition.

With the passage of time, the collective memory of what happened at Hiroshima and Nagasaki has begun to fade. We have responded by creating a five-language DVD

recording the testimonies of hibakusha, nuclear survivors. The youth members of the Soka Gakkai in Japan also regularly create opportunities for people to hear the experiences of hibakusha.

SGIQ: Would you consider extending your survey to interview youth in all 192 UN member states in order to get a worldwide sample?Kenji Shiratsuchi: We feel this survey gave a good snapshot of the views of youth around the world. So at this point, our priority goal is to make people more aware of the findings. For example, while a majority of young people want nuclear abolition, more than half also think this is impossible. We want to find ways of closing the “hope deficit,” the gap between what young people think should happen and what they believe is possible. Over the long term, we want to continue to build global solidarity among young people for peace and nuclear abolition in creative ways and in collaboration with different civil society partners. ❖

For more information on the SGI’s efforts in support of nuclear abolition, please visit www.peoplesdecade.org

From January to March 2010, student members of the SGI conducted a survey of attitudes to nuclear weapons in six countries (Japan, South Korea, the Philippines, New Zealand, the US, the UK), with interviews of 4,362 young people.

Nuclear AbolitionFacts and Figures

Resources available on the InternetUN and civil society organizations:

❉ www.acronym.org.uk❉ www.cnduk.org❉ www.gsinstitute.org❉ www.icanw.org❉ www.peoplesdecade.org

❉ www.reachingcriticalwill.org❉ www.thebulletin.org❉ www.un.org/disarmament❉ www.wagingpeace.org

General information and news:

❉ www.fas.org/programs/ssp/nukes/index.html❉ www.nti.org❉ www.nuclearabolition.net

Nuclear Stockpiles Russia 12,000 US 9,600 France 300 China 240 Britain 225

Israel 80 Pakistan 70–90 India 60–80 North Korea 6–10

❉ Estimate of worldwide nuclear weapons: 23,000

Terrorism Risk ❉ Natural uranium must be “enriched” before it becomes

nuclear-weapons grade, an extremely complex and costly task; acquiring the highly enriched uranium (HEU) or plutonium is the most difficult part of making a nuclear weapon.

❉ It would be possible for terrorist organizations to construct a crude nuclear bomb with 25 kg of HEU. The global stockpile of HEU is 1,600,000 kg.

❉ There are hundreds of locations holding nuclear weapons or weapons-grade material and no binding global standards for how well these weapons and materials should be secured.

❉ The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has documented 18 cases of theft involving weapons-usable plutonium or HEU. All of the “known” lost or stolen fissile material has been recovered, although there are indications that this represents only a sample of larger quantities available for illegal purchase or theft.

Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zones❉ Antarctica, Seabed, Outer Space, Latin America, Mongolia,

New Zealand, South Pacific, Southeast Asia, Central Asia (including Kazakhstan, Kyrgyststan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan) and Africa.

Consequences of a Nuclear War❉ The physical effects of nuclear weapons include a heat

(thermal) wave, a blast wave, an electromagnetic pulse, the release of ionizing radiation by the production of radioactive isotopes, and the induction of radioactivity in materials not normally radioactive. The effects of ionizing radiation can last for generations.

❉ At the center of the blast there is sufficient explosive power to destroy all but the skeletons of reinforced concrete structures. Winds from the center of the blast cause the air to rush back to fan the fires produced by thermal radiation, causing a fire storm and consuming most of the oxygen in the air over a large area.

❉ The effects of even a regional nuclear war involving less than 0.07% of the explosive yield of the world’s current nuclear arsenal and just 0.4% of the total number of nuclear weapons would be catastrophic for the Earth. The resultant firestorms would cause massive amounts of smoke to rise into the upper atmosphere. Particles would remain there for years, blocking the sun. Global temperatures would drop, and there would be an increase in ultraviolet radiation reaching the Earth’s surface, threatening crops worldwide.

An interview with Takahisa Miyao, Soka Gakkai Student Division Leader, and Kenji Shiratsuchi, Chair of the Soka Gakkai Youth Peace Conference

SGI Youth Initiatives for Nuclear Abolition

Survey Results*:

© Survey results, all rights reserved, Soka Gakkai.

*In the original survey there were nine questions in all, and there were more options for responses. For the sake of brevity here we have reprinted only the affirmative and negative responses from the original survey.

Yes NoAre you aware of the fact that atomic bombs were used during World War II?

87% 13%Do you think the use of nuclear weapons is acceptable under any circumstances?

18%(I accept the use of nuclear weapons as a last resort for self-defense if a coun-try’s survival is threatened)

67%(I do not accept their use under any circumstances)

Concerning the abolition of nuclear weapons, is abolition possible? 37%

(Abolition is possible)40%(Abolition is impossible, but nuclear arms reduction is possible)

If nuclear weapons no longer existed in the world, would you feel safer or less safe?

59%(I would feel safer)

10%(I would feel less safe)

Left: Takahisa Miyao; Right: Kenji Shiratsuchi presenting an antinuclear petition to Ambassador Leslie B. Gatan, adviser to the President of the NPT Review Conference

SGI Quarterly14 October 2010 SGI Quarterly 15October 2010

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Manhattan Project to develop atomic bomb begins.

Soviet Union launches Earth’s first artificial satellite. First Pugwash Conference on Science and World Affairs is held.

Treaty on Prohibition of Emplacement of Nuclear Weapons on Seabed.

International Physicians for Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW) receives Nobel Peace Prize.

South Africa completes disarmament of nuclear weapons.

Hydrogen bomb detonated by US in Pacific contaminating Japanese fishing boat and residents of Rongelap and Utirik.

Treaty of Tlatelolco establishes Latin American NWFZ.

US submarine carrying 160 nuclear warheads collides with Japanese freighter in East China Sea.

George Bush and Boris Yeltsin sign Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START II).

US and Soviet Union sign Partial Test Ban Treaty (PTBT).

First resolution of UN General Assembly calls for elimination of atomic weapons.

India conducts underground nuclear test.

Terror attacks in United States. Russian television reports that police arrested seven people accused of trying to sell weapons-grade uranium.

Explosion at Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev discuss elimination of nuclear weapons at Reykjavík.

International Commission on Nuclear Nonproliferation and Disarmament (ICNND), led by Australia and Japan, is established.

India and Pakistan conduct nuclear tests within three weeks of one another. SGI collects 13 million signatures as part of Abolition 2000 petition drive and presents them to UN.

Barack Obama’s Prague Speech seeks “peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons.”

Barack Obama and Dmitri Medvedev sign agreement to replace expired Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty. NPT Review Conference notes proposals from UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to consider a nuclear weapons convention.

10 million signatures supporting nuclear abolition collected by Soka Gakkai members in Japan are presented to UN Secretary-General.

Antarctic Treaty makes Antarctica first Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone (NWFZ).

France conducts first nuclear test.

UN conference on Middle East NWFZ.

NPT Review conference.

Nuclear weapons used against Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Soviet Union conducts first nuclear tests.

Ronald Reagan’s Star Wars speech outlines plans for new antimissile defense technology.

Reagan and Gorbachev sign Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF).

Linus and Eva Helen Pauling present petition against testing of nuclear bombs. UK’s Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament begins.

China explodes first atomic bomb.

Richard Nixon and Leonid Brezhnev sign Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT I ) Accord and Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty.

International Court of Justice judges “the use of nuclear weapons to be generally contrary to rules of international law.” UN General Assembly adopts Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT). Canberra Commission on Elimination of Nuclear Weapons finds that nuclear weapons diminish security of all states, including nuclear-weapon states.

North Korea conducts a nuclear test. Many in international community worry that Iran plans to acquire bomb.

NGOs adopt Abolition 2000. Joseph Rotblat and Pugwash Conferences receive Nobel Peace Prize.

North Korea announces withdrawal from NPT; rigorous six-month search of Iraq for weapons of mass destruction fails to disclose evidence.

China conducts last known nuclear weapon test in the atmosphere.

Berlin Wall falls, symbolizing end of Cold War.

World’s first nuclear power plant opens at Calder Hall, UK.

Cuban Missile Crisis brings world to brink of nuclear war.

Treaty on Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) is signed. B-52 bomber crashes on sea ice off Thule, Greenland, scattering plutonium.

A Timeline of Events in the Nuclear Age

Left: First UN General Assembly, London, 1946 (Photo: UN Photo) Below: First Sputnik orbits Earth, 1957 (Photo: NASA)

Above: Prep Com to NPT first meeting, Geneva, 1974 (Photo: UN Photo) Right: Calder Hall opens, UK, 1956 (Photo: Popperfoto/Getty Images)

Left: Badge from Manhattan Project

Below: Nuclear missiles returning to USSR from Cuba, 1962 (Photo: AP)

Above: First Pugwash Conference, 1957 (Photo: Pugwash Archives)

Left: Berlin Wall falls, 1989 (Photo: AP)

Below: Weapons inspections in Iraq, 1991 (Photo: UN Photo)

Right: Barack Obama and Dmitri Medvedev (Photo: AP)

Right: Relative at grave of man who fought Chernobyl fire, 1986 (Photo: AP)

Left: South Korean protestors rally against North Korea’s nuclear program (Photo: Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images)

Top: Nikita Khrushchev signs Partial Test Ban Treaty, Moscow, 1963 (Photo: UN Photo)Above: IPPNW receives Nobel Peace Prize, 1985 (Photo: AP)

SGI Quarterly SGI Quarterly16 17October 2010 October 2010

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I was born in the 1960s, and although it is quite normal for people of my generation to get involved in politics, I would never have imagined that social

engagement would form such an essential part of my work and life.

I am a lecturer in the faculty of law at the University of Pisa, where I have been teaching since 1995. In 2001, I was invited by colleagues to get involved in an interdisciplinary Center for Peace Studies. The aim of this project was to establish a Peace Studies graduate program at Pisa, while advancing research and developing teaching methods for peace studies at the university level. This was the first such attempt in Italy.

Soon afterwards, in 2002, one of my students introduced me to Nichiren Buddhism, the SGI and its peace activities and SGI President Daisaku Ikeda. With this, it seemed as if the various pieces of my life fell into place: I had found a spirituality that matched and enhanced my activism, academic life and sense of social responsibility.

The simple, yet vital, basis of the Peace Studies department is that while scientific inquiry has contributed greatly to war over the centuries—for example, with the development of nuclear weapons—the time

has come for us to ask what such inquiry can do for peace.

The Peace Studies degree has a number of objectives including development of methodology and research to analyze and manage conflicts and the nurturing of experts with specific skills to work in various fields to address situations of conflict. These may be

international conflicts, but also local, cultural, educational, religious, environmental and interpersonal conflicts.

From the beginning there were challenges to the work of the department—objection and ridicule from within the university as well as a severe lack of funding. Some conservative politicians have openly opposed our efforts, claiming that a Peace Studies department of this kind is useless and purely utopian. All these challenges have, however, only made our determination stronger, and our efforts have been increasingly successful,

as graduates have received job offers from nongovernmental organizations and became involved in overseas projects run by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (for example, in Kabul, Morocco and Darfur).

Recently, we have taken part in a scientific committee preparing an SGI nuclear abolition exhibition. This exhibition looks at nuclear weapons as a manifestation of a way of thinking that embraces total annihilation as a reasonable option for resolving conflict.

The threat of nuclear weapons is not a thing of the past: it is a crisis of the present. With the end of the Cold War it appeared as if the threat of nuclear war had receded. However, the existence of 23,000 nuclear weapons around the world continues to threaten the end of all life on our planet.

My experience in the Peace Studies program became very useful in enabling me to translate the exhibition, as well as develop educational materials for visitors on important themes such as the social responsibility of science, responsibility for the future, the impact of nuclear weapon testing on environmental pollution and the cost of nuclear weapons.

Moreover, these themes will also serve as the main subjects for seminars and conferences to be held throughout the country, sponsored by SGI-Italy and various universities and organizations working toward nuclear abolition.

In addition, as a legal expert, I am focusing my research on the empowerment of legal instruments for disarmament that are laid out in the UN Charter. My goal is to work in

cooperation with the International Association of Lawyers Against Nuclear Arms (IALANA) to hold an international conference in Italy.

My encounter with the SGI has enabled me to integrate my faith, work and social activism—all the various aspects of my life. Each supports the other, and I cannot see them as separate things. This in itself is a profound source of satisfaction. I feel a deep sense of appreciation that I can utilize my skills and passions to contribute to the realization of the vision of a world without nuclear weapons. ❖

A Passion for Peace StudiesBy Enza Pellecchia, Italy

“While scientific inquiry has contributed greatly to war over the centuries, the time has come for us to ask what such inquiry can do for peace.”

Hiroshima and Nagasaki Survivors Speak OutA 12.5-kiloton atomic bomb detonated in the air over Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. There were over 100,000 deaths in a population of about 250,000. Three days later, on August 9, 1945, a 21-kiloton atomic bomb detonated over Nagasaki causing around 75,000 deaths and 75,000 injuries. Women from Hiroshima and Nagasaki were recently invited by the Soka Gakkai Women’s Peace Committee to talk about the reality of living as a hibakusha, or A-bomb survivor. Here are extracts from the interviews:

Copies of the DVD “Testimonies of Hiroshima and Nagasaki” are available free of charge from www.peoplesdecade.org.

Kikue Shiota was 21 years old at the time of the bombing. She lived 2 km from the A-bomb center. Her 14-year-old sister was killed, and her 10-year-old brother died.

“I tried to understand why this happened to me. On behalf of thousands of A-bomb victims of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, I wondered what I could do as a survivor. I came to realize the nuclear devastation I had first-hand experience of and the folly of human beings killing each other must never be repeated. I realized that it was my mission to convey this message to the world, and I think that is why I have survived until now.”

Sueko Takada was six years old at the time of the bombing. She was exposed to the A-bomb in her home in Hirabayashi-cho, 3.5 km from the hypocenter. For 60 years since then, she has battled with numerous potentially fatal diseases and health problems.

“When I was around 22, we discussed how we could do something for peace. We formed a paper crane group. Folding paper cranes is a Japanese tradition, a symbolic gesture, a way in which people wish for good health. We proposed to build a statue of a girl holding an origami-style crane and to have it in the Peace Park. We also collected signatures. We brought the petition to the prefectural office, and we had a peace fountain built in Nagasaki . . . Since I was exposed to the bomb, my life has been a living hell. I don’t want anyone else to experience such a hell.”

Kazumi Niwa is engaged in an effort to make people aware of the terror of nuclear weapons, which can exert harmful effects, generation after generation.

“As a 17-year-old, I heard that my mother was a hibakusha. I was enraged and hated my family. After marriage, finally I became pregnant with a healthy baby boy. He had weak hip joints like me. Then I became pregnant with my second son, and I was in the hospital during my pregnancy. My grandchildren are hibakusha. On September 27, 1984, there was a peace conference for women against war, held at the Kyoto International Conference Center, attended by women from 27 countries. I spoke to representatives from around the world. Even though I was born a second-generation hibakusha, I no longer feel that is a stigma because I believe it has given me a mission to convey to the world, through my experience and my life, the suffering the A-bomb has caused us.”

Pok Soon Kwak is a second-generation Korean living in Japan. She was just 16 years old at the time of the A-bombing and witnessed the horrors.

“Hiroshima is a city with many rivers. Army workers on rafts were using something like a rake made of green bamboo to pull floating corpses out of the river on to wooden boards. Four men shouldered the bodies and brought them up out of the river. They made some space in a burned-out site. Corpses were placed in line. Oil was sprinkled over them. Then the bodies were set alight. The remains from each body, just a small pile of ashes no bigger than one’s palm, were placed on a small roof tile. On the tile, descriptions of the deceased’s gender, estimated age, approximate height and so forth were written. The remains placed on roof tiles were then arranged in rows. Those searching for their families went there to search the remains, but all they could find were piles of ashes because the bodies had been burned. There was no way they could identify their relatives from the ashes.

In my case, the following month, I started to bleed. It was something like a period, but it didn’t stop. It continued for over 30 to 40 days. After stopping for five days, it began again. This continued for three to four months. On top of that I started to feel pain in my bones. I was always saying, ‘My bones hurt!’”

Hiroshima

Nagasaki

SGI Quarterly 19October 2010SGI Quarterly18 October 2010

PEOPLEFEATURE

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“At any given moment in history, precious few voices are heard crying out for justice. But, now more than ever, those voices must rise above the

din of violence and hatred.” These are the memorable words of Dr. Joseph

Rotblat, who for many years led the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs, a global organization working for peace and for the abolition of nuclear weapons. Rotblat passed away in August 2005, the month that marked the 60th anniversary of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. He was 96. In the final phase of his life, he consistently voiced his strong sense of foreboding about the chronic lack of progress toward nuclear disarmament and the growing threat of nuclear proliferation.

The startling development of military technology has entirely insulated acts of war from human realities and feelings. In an instant, irreplaceable lives are lost and beloved homelands reduced to ruin. The anguished cries of victims and their families are silenced or ignored. Within this vast system of

violence—at the peak of which are poised nuclear weapons—humans are no longer seen as embodiments of life. They are reduced to the status of mere things.

Peace is a competition between despair and hope, between disempowerment and committed persistence. To the degree that powerlessness takes root in people’s consciousness, there is a greater tendency to resort to force. Powerlessness breeds violence.

But it was human beings that gave birth to these instruments of hellish destruction. It cannot be beyond the power of human wisdom to eliminate them.

The Pugwash Conferences that were Rotblat’s base of action were first held in 1957, a year that saw a rapid acceleration in the nuclear arms race that came to engulf the entire planet. On September 8 of the same year, my mentor, Josei Toda, issued a call for the abolition of nuclear weapons. The day was blessed with the kind of beautiful clear sky that follows a typhoon, as Toda made his declaration at a gathering of some 50,000 young people in Yokohama:

“Today a global movement calling for a ban on the testing of atomic or nuclear weapons has arisen.

It is my wish to go further; I want to expose and remove the claws that lie hidden in the depths of such weapons . . . Even if a certain country should conquer the world using nuclear weapons, the people who used those weapons should be condemned as demons and devils.”

Toda chose to denounce nuclear weapons in such harsh, even strident, terms because he was determined to expose their essential nature as an absolute evil—one that denies and undermines humankind’s collective right to live.

Toda’s impassioned call issued from a philosophical understanding of life’s inner workings: He was warning against the demonic egotism that seeks to bend others to our will. He saw this writ large in the desire of states to possess these weapons of ultimate destruction.

The idea that nuclear weapons function to deter war and are therefore a

“necessary evil” is a core impediment to their elimination; it must be challenged and dismantled.

Because Toda saw nuclear weapons as an absolute evil, he was able to transcend ideology and national interest; he was never confused by the arguments of power politics. Today, half a century later, the language of nuclear deterrence and “limited” nuclear war is again in currency. I am convinced that Toda’s soul-felt cry, rooted in the deepest dimensions of life, now shines with an even brighter universal brilliance.

If we are to eliminate nuclear weapons, a fundamental transformation of the human spirit is essential. Since the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki more than 60 years ago, the survivors have transformed despair into a sense of mission as they have continued to call out for nuclear abolition. As people living today, it is our shared responsibility—our duty and our right—to

Daisaku Ikeda is the president of

the SGI. The following is an excerpt

from an essay originally published in

September 2006, one of 12 essays

carried in The Japan Times. The

poem “Peace—The Foundation for

Lasting Happiness,” from which the

accompanying extract was taken,

was originally published in 2007

in Japanese in the Seikyo Shimbun

newspaper.

If winter comes, can spring be far behind? Now is the time to vigorously sing a song of the springtime of peace.The deeper the darkness, the closer the dawn. Now is the time to sound the bell heralding the dawn of peace with all our might.

There is a path that birds followas they fly through the sky. There is a path that fish follow as they swim through the sea. There is a path that the stars follow as they travel the heavens. And there is a path of principle that human beings should follow. This is none other than the path of peace.

act as heirs to this lofty work of inner transformation, to expand and elevate it into a struggle to eliminate war itself.

Crying out in opposition to war and nuclear weapons is neither emotionalism nor self-pity. It is the highest expression of human reason based on an unflinching perception of the dignity of life.

Faced with the horrifying facts of nuclear proliferation, we must call forth the power of hope from within the depths of each individual’s life. This is the power that can transform even the most intractable reality.

To emerge from the shadow of nuclear weapons we need a revolution in the consciousness of countless individuals—a revolution that gives rise to the heartfelt confidence that “There is something I can do.” Then, finally, we will see a coming together of the world’s people, and hear their common voice, their cry for an end to this terrible madness of destruction. ❖

Let’s begin with what we can do.Let’s move forward, even if just an inch.

Do not remain silent. Speak out courageously. Peace spreads where voices resound in song. Peace deepens through friendly dialogue. Peace endures when we are willing to learn from each other.

Come, let’s make our way toward the future.Let’s shake the hand of the person next to us.Let’s look into their eyes and share honest dialogue.

Let’s sing a joyous song together. That’s the first great step toward peace.

Let’s build a land of peace. Let’s connect with others who love peace.Peace is the brilliant light that humanity seeks.Peace is the sure path to a life of true humanity and dignity.

Peace! Peace! Here we find the foundationfor lasting human happinessand the joy of true human victory.

SGI President Ikeda with Joseph Rotblat in Osaka, 1989, and (right) with Josei Toda in 1958

Emerging from the Nuclear ShadowBy Daisaku Ikeda

Peace—The Foundation for Lasting Happiness

SGI Quarterly SGI Quarterly20 21October 2010 October 2010

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The International Committee of Artists for Peace (ICAP) performed a musical titled “iChoose” at 21 junior and senior high schools throughout the US during the months of April to June. The musical addresses issues of self-doubt, depression and violence and how to empower people to choose to make a positive difference. In conjunction with the performance, SGI-USA’s “Victory Over Violence” exhibition was displayed.

SGI-Canada held the “Youth Fest 2010” festival in Toronto on May 15. In addition to performances of song, dance and music, the festival included a multimedia show that explored how to achieve a more meaningful and rich life through challenging and overcoming difficulties. Two organizations, Free the Children and Me to We, were partners in the event, and some 800 youth were involved in the festival.

SGI-Mexico General Director Roberto Rios and SGI-Cuba General Director Joannet Delgado de la Guardia were among some 150 religious scholars and academics from 13 countries taking part in an interfaith conference in Havana, Cuba, from July 5-8.

The Sixth International Meeting on Socio-Religious Studies at the Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment was held at the ministry’s Center for Psychological and Sociological Research.

The conference attempted to address the role of religion in helping create unity between people and civilizations within modern society where there is a diversity of values and cultures.

Mr. Rios and Ms. Delgado attended as representatives of Buddhism. Mr. Rios spoke about the dignity of all life and the concept of dependent origination, explaining how the

“Seeds of Hope: Visions of Sustainability, Steps Toward Change,” an exhibition jointly produced by the SGI and the Earth Charter International, was on display during the “Earth Charter +10” celebrations and conference held at the Peace Palace Academy in The Hague, the Netherlands, on June 29.

Held 10 years to the day after the launch of the Earth Charter at the Peace Palace on June 29, 2000, the event was attended by Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands, who was also the guest of honor at the original launch. It was cohosted by Earth Charter Commissioner and former Prime Minister of the Netherlands Ruud Lubbers.

Some 130 people gathered for a full day of discussions. Presenters reviewed the 10 years of the Earth Charter and looked forward, focusing on engaging business and youth.

philosophy and practice of Buddhism upheld by the SGI is capable of breaking through egoism and nihilism.

Meanwhile, 28 SGI-Australia (SGIA) youth leaders from the newly formed SGIA Peace Culture Education Department (PCE) joined 26 Muslim leaders from the Young Muslim Leadership Program at La Trobe University’s Center for Dialogue for an interfaith exchange titled “Celebrating the Dignity of Life,” on July 17. This was the third such dialogue held between the Young Muslim Leadership Program and SGIA.

The day’s activities included Muslim youth representatives from Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand sharing their experiences of the Young Muslim Leadership Program and their personal challenges and determinations as leaders. SGIA youth

Speakers included Karen Armstrong, renowned writer on religion and founder of the Charter for Compassion. Observations from participants were “tweeted” by youth representatives and directly viewed online.

Children from a local school presented a puppet show created using waste materials, together with a live video linkup to a similar show from a school in Uganda, and Earth Charter Commissioner Rabbi Awraham Soetendorp introduced “The Feather Project,” a method for intergenerational sharing of wisdom and dreams drawn from Native American ritual.

Recurring themes were the need for humanity to change our hearts, and that, in the words of the slogan adopted for Earth Charter +10, “It Starts With One”; both messages resonate with the “Seeds of Hope” exhibition, which was widely admired by the participants.

SGI-Korea Student Group members throughout the country organized their 13th “Campus Peace Culture Activity” from May 3 to June 6. As part of the activity, the exhibition “A World Without Nuclear Weapons” was displayed at 173 venues in 154 universities in South Korea. The exhibition consists of photo panels showing the process of nuclear disarmament and dismantling.

A petition calling for the adoption of a Nuclear Weapons Convention (NWC) was presented to Ambassador Leslie Gatan, adviser to the president of the Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference, and UN High Representative for Disarmament Affairs Sergio Duarte on May 11. The event was held at the SGI-USA Culture Center in New York City.

A total of 2,276,167 signatures calling for an NWC were collected between January and March by youth members of the Soka Gakkai in Japan. The results of an international survey of young people’s attitudes toward nuclear weapons conducted by youth members of the SGI in eight countries were also presented.

Ambassador Duarte expressed his appreciation for the SGI’s initiative, adding: “Widespread support from civil society is the strongest possible foundation for future disarmament initiatives.”

Ambassador Gatan conveyed a message from NPT Review Conference President Libran Cabactulan, in which he noted that the efforts undertaken by the SGI are “enormously helpful in registering the degree of public understanding of nuclear disarmament efforts, in promoting greater support where support is weak, and in signaling to national leaders that this is a real priority for action.”

In a message to the ceremony, SGI President Daisaku Ikeda stressed that the signatures represent valuable dialogues for peace and symbolize the immense power that lies hidden in the depths of “seemingly ordinary people.”

Following the presentation, a number of survivors of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki shared their experiences. Mrs. Toshiko Tanaka, who for many decades has been expressing her desire for peace through her ceramic arts, said that she and the other survivors had come to New York to help people understand what actually happens when a

nuclear weapon is used and to ensure that no one else ever experiences the same horror.

In a message to the World Conference against Atomic and Hydrogen Bombs, held in Hiroshima from August 2-9, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon commended the SGI and other groups conducting similar petition campaigns. “Together, these petitions symbolize a growing commitment by citizens around the world to achieve the elimination of nuclear weapons.”

On June 11, meanwhile, Soka Gakkai Malaysia (SGM) and Malaysian Physicians for Social Responsibility (MPSR) presented a petition of 127,357 signatures from Malaysians calling for the abolition of nuclear weapons to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Wisma Putra), Putrajaya, Malaysia.

The petition was in support of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), a global grassroots movement for total nuclear disarmament through an NWC initiated by International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW).

Mr. Liu Cheng Choong, Deputy President of SGM, and Dato’ Dr. Ronald S. McCoy, President of MPSR, jointly presented the signatures to Dato’ Zainol Abidin Omar, Deputy Secretary-General II of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs at Wisma Putra.

Commending the efforts made by SGM and MPSR, Dato’ Zainol said that Malaysian citizens’ support for the petition clearly demonstrates a shared desire for the abolition of weapons of mass destruction.

representatives introduced SGIA’s various activities and the PCE’s aim to actualize SGI President Daisaku Ikeda’s annual Peace Proposals through engaging with the community to help foster a culture of humanism.

SGI-Indonesia women and young women members sponsored a fourth Women’s Peace Conference in Jakarta from May 15-16. Ms. Linda Amalia Sari Gumelar, the State Minister at Indonesia’s Ministry of Women Empowerment and Child Protection, expressed her appreciation for the women of the SGI and their significant contributions to the promotion of peace. More than 1,000 attended.

Interfaith Activities in Cuba and Australia

The Sixth International Meeting on Socio-Religious Studies, Cuba

Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands (left) and Earth Charter International Council Cochair Brendan Mackey (right) viewing the “Seeds of Hope” exhibition

“Seeds of Hope” in the Netherlands

Youth Fest 2010 in Toronto“iChoose” Performance Tours US “A World Without Nuclear Weapons”

Petitions Support Calls for an NWC

Ambassadors Sergio Duarte (second from right) and Leslie B. Gatan (third from right) receive the petition

Women’s Peace Conference in Indonesia

SGI Quarterly SGI Quarterly22 23October 2010 October 2010

AROUND the WORLD AROUND the WORLD

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SGI’s global activities for peace, education and culture

The Min-On Concert Association in Tokyo, Japan, opened an exhibition showcasing various folk instruments from around the world on July 18. The collection consists of approximately 100 instruments and panels describing the origins and characteristics of the instruments and includes a corner where visitors can handle and try playing some of the instruments.

SGI-New Zealand organized a “Victory Over Violence” (VOV) workshop for 160 high school students from Reporoa College, New Zealand, on June 25. The event took place during the school’s “Respect Week.” Students, including 16 peer mediators and staff from the school, discussed action plans for how to promote peace and dialogue within their school and the local community.

The SGI-Hong Kong Culture Center hosted a painting exhibition containing works from the Lijian River School, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, China, from June 11 to 20. The show, which was also on display in Macau from July 8 to 11, was co-organized by the Guangxi Art Institute, Lijian Painting Style Promotion Association and SGI organizations in Hong Kong and Macau. Approximately 4,000 viewed the exhibition.

In conjunction with the International Peace Research Association (IPRA), SGI-Australia sponsored a workshop with peace scholar Johan Galtung in Sydney, Australia, on July 7. The workshop was held at Customs House, one of the city’s historic landmarks.

Professor Galtung, the founder of modern international peace studies and of IPRA, shared his vast experience of conflict resolution and related anecdotes of working as a peace mediator in conflict-ridden regions. The audience of 120 included participants from an IPRA conference taking place at the same time as well as members of the public, SGI-Australia youth representatives and the media.

Prior to Professor Galtung’s address, Professor Stephen Zunes of the University of San Francisco spoke about a case study of ongoing conflict transformation work being undertaken in sub-Saharan Africa. The evening closed with a question-and-answer session with the scholars.

In his response to questions regarding conflicts around the world, Professor Galtung expressed his belief in the need to manifest creative responses to the recurring issues that inhibit progress toward peace.

The IPRA conference, which was held at the University of Sydney from July 6 to 10, was titled “Connecting Peace” and addressed issues pertaining to peacebuilding, human rights and nonviolence. Representatives from the Toda Institute for Global Peace and Policy Research including General Director Professor Kevin Clements were among the invited participants.

Toda Institute Director Dr. Olivier Urbain led a session on religion and peace on July 8, introducing SGI President Daisaku Ikeda’s philosophy of peace and the current influence of Mahayana Buddhism on society, as well as the Buddhist principles of respecting the dignity of life and tolerance.

In the month of July, thousands of SGI-USA youth gathered throughout the country to participate in the “Rock the Era” culture festivals held in four locations. On July 10, festivals were held in Long Beach, California, and Chicago, Illinois, and on July 25, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Honolulu, Hawaii. The festivals marked a historic milestone symbolizing youth taking the lead in promoting world peace, as well as commemorating the 50th anniversary of SGI-USA. Some traveled from the Caribbean islands and Puerto Rico to attend the events.

The festival at the Long Beach Arena was attended by some 16,000 SGI-USA members and guests, while 8,000 came from 20 states to join that held at the University of Illinois at Chicago Pavilion. Temple University’s Liacouras Center hosted some 11,700 people in Philadelphia, and 2,600 converged at the Neal S. Blaisdell Concert Hall in Honolulu.

All the events included explosive performances from groups such as taiko drummers, gymnastics and hip-hop performers, with Korean drummers and Tall Flags a feature in Chicago, and a performance of the Maori haka dance as well as more traditional hula and ukulele numbers in Hawaii.

SGI-USA General Director Danny Nagashima, who attended the Long Beach and Philadelphia events, called on the youth to create their own dreams for the future. He also shared words from SGI President Daisaku Ikeda encouraging the youth to become individuals who can help guide society toward peace and security.

In Long Beach, the festival opened with welcoming words from Long Beach City Councilmember Suja Lowenthal, who expressed her appreciation for the diversity reflected in the festival. Performances there included the Theater Group portraying different enduring human questions such as “What is the meaning of struggle?” In total, 2,700 youth performed during the day.

With the same intensity, the Philadelphia festival opened with 250 taiko drummers blanketing the arena floor. The festival’s theme, “Dream Big, Change the World,” was depicted in a short video clip featuring peace activists Mahatma Gandhi, Rosa Parks and Mr. Ikeda, who each inspired ordinary citizens to foster peace through nonviolent means in their daily lives.

Screens around the arena then flashed video clips of young men and women answering the question, “What is your big dream?”

At all of the festivals, representatives read from a poem created by the youth of SGI-USA, “The Vow of America,” which reads in part:

America! Do you hear our future’s song?A future in which our children and grandchildren all equally

have the chanceto pursue their dreams and fulfill their mission in this lifetime.A future free of the demonic threat of nuclear weapons.A future in which our homes and streets, towns and cities, overflow with creativity and dialogue, laughter and shared

purpose, bound by mutual respect.

respective contributions to peace, followed by a question-and-answer session. The event was part of an ongoing series of forums, which have been attended by around 2,000 people so far.

In addition to the forum, SGI-Spain youth also hosted the exhibition “From a Culture of Violence to a Culture of Peace: Transforming the Human Spirit” throughout the country during May and June. The exhibition was shown at three different venues in the city of Calatayud, in Aragon, with approximately 1,300 attending.

On June 13, the SGI-Spain Arts Group organized a concert in Madrid, with over 200 attending. The concert included opera and dance performances.

SGI-Spain youth members sponsored a peace forum at the Can Fabra public library in Barcelona, Spain, on May 12. The event was based on A Dialogue Between East and West: Looking to a Human Revolution, a dialogue between Ricardo Díez-Hochleitner, honorary president of the Club of Rome, and SGI President Daisaku Ikeda.

Dr. Díez-Hochleitner and Mr. Ikeda first met in 1991 and began their dialogue 10 years later, covering a wide range of topics from politics, economics and the environment to education, as well as problems facing global society. The dialogue was first published in 2005.

SGI-Spain youth representatives gave an overview of the dialogue as well as the authors’

SGI-Malaysia Selangor co-organized an exhibition entitled “The 40th Taiwanese Travelling Exhibition of International Children’s Paintings” at the SGM Selangor Culture Center, Klang, from May 30 to June 6. The exhibition featured 150 paintings by children from 54 countries. Through art and cultural exchange, the exhibition organizers aim to deepen friendships, strengthen collaborations and further mutual understanding of different cultures.

Chinese Painting Exhibition Folk Instruments Exhibition“Victory Over Violence” Workshop

“Rock the Era” Festivals

SGI-Australia Sponsors Peace Workshop

Professor Galtung (right) with Professor Zunes

Performers at the “Rock the Era” culture festival in Chicago, Illinois

Peace Events in Spain

At the Can Fabra public library in Barcelona, Spain

Children’s Painting Exhibition in Malaysia

SGI Quarterly SGI Quarterly24 25October 2010 October 2010

AROUND the WORLD AROUND the WORLDSGI’s global activities for peace, education and culture

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The SGI’s activities in support of nuclear abolition trace their roots back to 1957 when, at the height of the Cold War, second Soka

Gakkai president Josei Toda made a public declaration calling for the outlawing of all nuclear weapons at a gathering of 50,000 young people in Yokohama, Japan.

Drawing on his conviction and insight as a Buddhist, Toda asserted that all people have “an inviolable right to live” and condemned anyone who would jeopardize that right as “a devil incarnate.” In taking such a stark moral stance and seeking to stigmatize nuclear weapons as an absolute evil, he was articulating the idea that the indiscriminate nature and scale of destruction wrought by nuclear weapons crossed any reasonable bounds of legitimacy as a military weapon. The only way to protect humanity from this destructiveness was to eliminate them completely.

Daisaku Ikeda, who succeeded Toda as third Soka Gakkai president and is now

Soka GakkaiHistory Timeline:1957 Sep. 8 Second president Josei

Toda issues his “Declaration Calling for the Abolition of Nuclear Weapons” in Yokohama, Japan.

1972 May 5 Daisaku Ikeda meets for the first time with British historian Arnold J. Toynbee at his home in London; the two collaborate on a dialogue later published as Choose Life.

1983 Sep. 14 The “Nuclear Arms: Threat to Our World” exhibition opens in Vienna, Austria.

1993 Aug. 6 Ikeda commences writing The New Human Revolution.

1993 Sep. 24 Boston Research Center for the 21st Century is founded in Boston, Massachusetts, USA (renamed the Ikeda Center for Peace, Learning, and Dialogue in 2009).

1996 Feb. 11 Toda Institute for Global Peace and Policy Research is established in Tokyo, Japan.

1998 Oct. 26 SGI presents a petition with more than 13 million signatures in support of “Abolition 2000,” a campaign to eliminate nuclear weapons led by the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, to the United Nations Deputy Secretary-General.

2001 May 3 Soka University of America founded in Aliso Viejo, California, USA.

2002 Jul. 26 Ikeda issues “The Challenge of Global Empowerment: Education for a Sustainable Future” proposal.

2006 Aug. 30 Ikeda issues “Fulfilling the Mission: Empowering the UN to Live Up to the World’s Expectations” proposal.

2006 Nov. 9 Minoru Harada inaugurated as sixth Soka Gakkai president.

2009 Sep. 8 Ikeda issues the antinuclear proposal “Building Global Solidarity Toward Nuclear Abolition.”

2010 May 11 Soka Gakkai Youth Division presents a petition calling for a Nuclear Weapons Convention to UN officials in New York, USA.

president of the SGI, was present at that gathering and was deeply inspired and moved by Toda’s declaration. Under Ikeda’s leadership, the SGI has for decades been engaged in an extensive range of grassroots activities designed to communicate to the public the inhumane character of nuclear weapons and the profound peril they pose.

In 1973, youth members of the Soka Gakkai in Japan launched a petition drive for nuclear abolition; they gathered 10 million signatures, which were presented to the United Nations in January 1975. In 1997 and 1998, SGI youth in Japan and around the world collected 13 million signatures in support of the “Abolition 2000” campaign, presenting these to the UN in October 1998.

Working with relevant UN agencies and other NGOs, the SGI has also organized a series of antinuclear exhibitions. “Nuclear Arms: Threat to Our World” and “Nuclear Arms: Threat to Humanity” were seen by over 1.6 million people in 24 countries between

1982 and 2002, while “From a Culture of Violence to a Culture of Peace: Transforming the Human Spirit,” launched in 2007, has visited more than 200 cities.

In Pursuit of DialogueIkeda has long asserted that dialogue,

open exchanges of ideas and perspectives, is the most certain way to build the foundations of peace. “The true value of dialogue is not to be found solely in the results it produces but also in the process of dialogue itself, as two human spirits engage with and elevate each other to a higher realm.”

In 1972 and 1973, he traveled to London to meet with the 80-year-old British historian Arnold Toynbee to discuss a wide range of problems facing humankind. Their dialogue was published in English in 1975 as Choose Life, and has since been published in 28 languages.

Since that time, Ikeda has exchanged views with representatives of cultural, political, educational and artistic fields from

develop a network of educational exchange and collaboration. His efforts to promote peace and humanistic education have been recognized through the receipt of some 300 honorary doctorates and professorships.

Since 1983, Ikeda has authored an annual Peace Proposal, published on January 26, the anniversary of the establishment of the SGI. These proposals offer analysis of the issues facing humanity, suggesting solutions and responses grounded in Ikeda’s Buddhist philosophy. They include specific agendas for strengthening the functions of the UN, including expanded civil society involvement, which Ikeda regards as essential to enhancing the democratic functioning of the world body.

Many of the themes raised in these proposals are taken up and developed by the SGI and its constituent national organizations. They also inspire the programs of the Ikeda Center for Peace, Learning, and Dialogue in Cambridge, Massachusetts (originally founded as the Boston Research Center for the 21st Century in 1993), and the Toda Institute for Global Peace and Policy Research (established in 1996).

The peace proposals also provide a focus for the activities of SGI members around the world, who address specific themes through symposiums and conferences, campaigns to promote nonviolence and interfaith dialogue, to protect their local environment or provide humanitarian relief in times of crisis.

All such activities provide opportunities for SGI members to actively engage with the pressing issues of our times, developing a concrete awareness of their responsibilities and potential as global citizens. Reaching out to conduct dialogue with friends, family and neighbors enables individual members to exercise the qualities of courage, compassion and wisdom that embody the Buddha nature inherent in each individual, facilitating their own process of inner transformation while contributing to their local society and the global community.

In addition to their regular discussion meetings and Buddhist study sessions, as different SGI organizations develop their own distinctive activities—be they cultural events, campaigns to combat school violence, reforestation programs, literacy training programs, or public education and awareness exhibitions—the spirit of Buddhist humanism takes root and develops in communities around the world, adding to a groundswell of empowered citizens dedicated to creating a better world for all humankind. ❖

around the world. Many of these meetings have led to the publication of collaborative dialogues on a diverse range of topics, including history, economics, peace studies, astronomy and the healing arts. Among the individuals with whom Ikeda has published dialogues are former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev, Brazilian champion of human rights Austregésilo de Athayde, Indonesian Muslim leader Abdurrahman Wahid and Chinese literary giant Jin Yong.

As international recognition for Ikeda’s contributions to cultural exchange and the promotion of education and peace grew, he accepted invitations to deliver lectures at some 30 universities throughout Asia, America and Europe, starting with the University of California, Los Angeles, in 1974 and Moscow State University the next year.

In his exchanges with educational institutions, which include numerous dialogues with educators around the world, one of Ikeda’s primary concerns has been to

History of the Soka Gakkai—Part 4This year marks the 80th anniversary of the foundation of the Soka Gakkai. This issue of the SGI Quarterly features the last of a four-part series examining the history of the Soka Gakkai and its efforts to revitalize Buddhism by creating a global humanistic movement which can contribute to the happiness and empowerment of all people.

Left to Right: Josei Toda delivers antinuclear declaration, Yokohama, 1957; Visiting the “Nuclear Arms Threat to Our World” exhibition, New Delhi, 1986; Mr. Ikeda with Arnold Toynbee, London, 1973

SGI Quarterly SGI Quarterly26 27October 2010 October 2010

HISTORY HISTORY

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The willingness to learn from others and the readiness to self-reflect are qualities that define us as human beings, the means by which we develop ourselves and become

happier. What happens when we lose or neglect these abilities? The frightful consequences of this are what Buddhism describes as the world of Anger.

The word “anger” is likely to make us think of someone losing their temper or becoming enraged or furious. This is a natural and sometimes necessary reaction to situations we encounter. Such anger can often function positively, when it is directed against injustice or irresponsibility, for example.

There is a difference between this and the ego-obsessed world of Anger described in Buddhist theory. Anger here is one of ten “worlds” or conditions of life, which, according to the Buddhist concept of the Ten Worlds, are inherent in all people. We experience these at different times in different ways depending on our responses to our circumstances and the strength or weakness of our inner-motivated efforts to improve ourselves. They are: Hell, Hunger, Animality, Anger, Humanity, Rapture, Learning, Realization, Bodhisattva and Buddhahood.

The chief characteristic of the world of Anger is envy, the kind where one cannot tolerate the thought of anyone being in any way better than oneself. It is a burning need to be superior to others, a belief that one is fundamentally better than other people.

As a Buddhist text describes it: “Since those in the world of Anger desire in every instance to be superior to everyone else and cannot bear to be inferior to anyone, they belittle and despise others and exalt themselves, like a hawk flying high and looking down on the world. At the same time, outwardly they seek to display the virtues of benevolence, justice, propriety, wisdom and fidelity.”

Nichiren, the 13th-century founder of the Buddhism practiced by members of the SGI, characterizes Anger as “perversity.” This is because of the great disjuncture between the inner and outer worlds of someone in the state of Anger. One’s intense competitiveness is masked by a show of virtue and by obsequious behavior designed to elicit the acknowledgment from others that is so essential to one’s sense of superiority. The aggressiveness of people in this state belies their insecurity. Arrogance, contempt for others, a highly critical streak and a powerful, conflictual or competitive urge are all aspects of the world of Anger as it manifests in our lives.

When people in positions of power and authority become caught up in the snares of Anger, or when this world begins to predominate in society, the consequences can be catastrophic. As SGI President Ikeda describes, to one in this state, “everything appears as a means or a tool to the fulfillment of egotistical desires and impulses. In inverse proportion to the scale of this inflated arrogance, the existence of others—people, cultures, nature—appears infinitely small and insignificant. It becomes a matter of no concern to harm or even kill others trivialized in this way. It is this state of mind that would countenance the use of nuclear weapons. . . People in such a state of life are blinded, not only to the horrific suffering their actions wreak, but to human life itself.”

The SGI movement aims to bring about a transformation in society through the transformation of the heart of the individual, based on an understanding of the dynamics of the human heart and the profound interconnection of the individual, society and the cosmos itself.

While every person strives to be happy, the misguided efforts of people in the world of Anger only drive them deeper into misery and a sense of isolation. Paradoxically, however, the sense of self-awareness and self-importance characteristic of the world of Anger is also a gateway to empathy with others. The acute sense of one’s ego can be a basis for the realization of how important and precious each person’s life is to them, and of the shared difficulties of existing happily in the world.

The key to the transformation of the world of Anger lies in self-mastery—channeling the energy that has formerly been directed toward winning over others into winning over oneself. This begins simply with the humility to respect and admire what is praiseworthy in others. ❖

The World of Anger

“While every person strives to be happy, the misguided efforts of people in the world of Anger only drive them deeper into misery and a sense of isolation.”

New features include:

Perspectives on Buddhism by SGI President Daisaku Ikeda

Resource center featuring introductory and study materials

Archive of SGI’s community initiatives around the worldSelection of short videos and downloadable resources

… and much more!

Empowering People at the Grassroots

Visit the renewed SGI website:www.sgi.org

SGI Quarterly28 October 2010

BUDDHISM in DAILY LIFE

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A New Era of Nuclear Abolition© AFLO

SGIQuarterly

A Buddhist Forum for Peace, Culture and Education

The Soka Gakkai International (SGI) is a

worldwide association of 84 constituent

organizations with membership in 192

countries and territories. In the service of

its members and of society at large, the

SGI centers its activities on developing

positive human potentialities for hope,

courage and altruistic action.

Rooted in the life-affirming philosophy of

Nichiren Buddhism, members of the SGI

share a commitment to the promotion of

peace, culture and education. The scope

and nature of the activities conducted in

each country vary in accordance with the

culture and characteristics of that society.

They all grow, however, from a shared

understanding of the inseparable linkages

that exist between individual happiness

and the peace and development of

all humanity.

As a nongovernmental organization (NGO)

with formal ties to the United Nations, the

SGI is active in the fields of humanitarian

relief and public education, with a focus

on peace, sustainable development and

human rights.

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