newp: How did this affect you personally?
Keiko-san: Even though my hometown of Tokushima was not close to the bombings, like all of Japan, we suffered the poverty and destruction of society that came with the war. But in my town, no one talked about Hiroshima or Nagasaki. Never. Not even my mother and father talked about it behind closed doors. It was only taught in school.
So it wasn't until 1982 when I met with 50 representatives from Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the United Nations in New York, that their personal experiences really touched my heart, and made me realize just how much the survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki truly suffered in a way my family never did - emotionally and physically - from the hell of war.
I will never forget the words of one woman, a 10 year old girl in 1945, who told how she ran through the streets of Hiroshima surrounded by charred bodies and the screams of the wounded and dying. She survived, but suffered her entire life from the radiation sickness caused by the bombing. I can't imagine any mythical hell being worse than the hell of war.
newp: What exactly happened at the United Nations in 1982?
Keiko-san: The Soka Gakkai International, a Buddhist lay organization of which I am a member, hosted an exhibit as an NGO called, Nuclear Arms: Threat to Our World, which was first exhibited at the UN headquarters, and since then has been exhibited in major cities around the world. More than 12 million people in 16 countries have visited and viewed displays presenting the horrors of nuclear weapons and war. The most emotional part of that experience was when the 50 representatives met with the scientists of the Manhattan Project. All of the scientists in attendance expressed their deep regrets and apologies to the surviving representatives, and I will never forget that meeting.
newp: That meeting was 28 years ago. For you, what has changed since then?
Keiko-san: Changed? What a silly question! For me, we're living in a world at least a thousand times more dangerous because there are even more nuclear weapons, and it seems that humanity is intent on self-destructing. I don't have the exact numbers, but I believe we have the capability of destroying the world 500 times over. It is complete insanity, and it appears that political leaders remember nothing of history and her cruel lessons.
Here in the U.S., if you kill another human being then you are jailed for life or even executed, but if the U.S. government kills 250,000 Japanese, or one million Iraqis, then we are heroes? What the hell is that? Hiroshima and Nagasaki are still happening - just because the bombs are not nuclear, they kill just the same - so many more have died in Iraq and Afghanistan than in Japan in 1945. The insanity has only been escalated.
newp: Your words are sobering. And I can see from your tears that this affects you deeply. I'm so sorry.
Keiko-san: Please do not apologize. I need to talk about this. We all need to be talking about this, no matter how painful. For me, as global citizens, it's our responsibility to discuss the reality of war, the hell of war, the suffering and death of war. There is nothing heroic about it. And then we have no choice but to discuss how to end war. And after discussing we must take action, no matter what it takes.
newp: I admire your fighting spirit so much. Can you share with us another defining moment in your anti-war activism?
Keiko-san: A mentor of my youth, second president of the Soka Gakkai, Josei Toda, gave a speech against nuclear weapons on September 8, 1957, and he said in part -
"Although a movement calling for a ban on the testing of nuclear weapons has arisen around the world, it is my wish to go further, to attack the problem at its root. I want to expose and rip out the claws that lie hidden in the very depths of such weapons. I wish to declare that anyone who ventures to use nuclear weapons, irrespective of their nationality or whether their country is victorious or defeated, should be sentenced to death without exception.
Why do I say this? Because we, the citizens of the world, have an inviolable right to live. Anyone who jeopardizes that right is a devil incarnate, a fiend, a monster."
This may sound harsh to some, but even after all these years these words are engraved in my heart and I agree with them completely. Every word. And I would go even further - as I already said, I believe Hiroshima and Nagasaki are still happening, and anyone who uses any weapon of war that threatens the lives of innocent civilians is "a devil incarnate, a fiend, a monster." I want to scream each time I hear the phrase, "collateral damage", as if human lives are collateral and their deaths are simply damage. It evokes the same emotions in me as remembering the name they gave to the bomb that destroyed the lives in Hiroshima, "Little Boy", and the bomb that destroyed the lives in Nagasaki, "Fat Man". And a phrase that makes me just as angry is, "Shock and Awe". how dare Bush and his administration get away with such callous destruction of human lives? How dare they?
I believe in the Law of Cause and Effect. And because I believe in this universal Law, I can't help but believe that all of us here in the U.S., as well as so many around the world, will be suffering the effects of the unbelievably horrible causes made by the devil, the fiend, the monster George W. Bush, for years to come.
newp: Bush is no longer President, but the wars and deaths continue. What about President Obama?
Keiko-san: As you know, we met candidate Obama when he was here in PR, and I personally gave him 2 of Ikeda Sensei's books - A Quest for Global Peace, a dialogue between Ikeda Sensei and Joseph Rotblat, and Moral Lessons of the Twentieth Century, a dialogue between Ikeda Sensei and Mikhail Gorbachev. I had such high hopes, just like every other liberal on the planet, especially after the nightmare of the Bush administration. And even though the wars and deaths continue, and so many are still suffering in this horrible economy, I still have hope because after all I've lived through, it takes too much for me to get really discouraged, especially because of any politician.
Even so, he has to come back to the prime point of caring for the suffering of the people, and the spirit of a real revolutionary. I think he's lost the fighting spirit he had during the campaign. He promised hope and change, but without the guts and revolutionary spirit necessary to bring real change in such times of upheaval, then he will not be the leader that these crucial times call for, but a mere follower. Besides, a politician can promise all the change he wants, but until there is a change in the hearts of the people, then nothing will ever really change. That's why I continue to speak out, and try to reach people's hearts with the truth. I believe that truth and sincerity will break through even the coldest hearts.
newp: I know it's getting late, so any final words?
Keiko-san: No matter who is president, no matter who is governor, no matter who is in congress - it's up to each of us to give hope to all those around us.
In conclusion, I would like to share a poem by Daisaku Ikeda:
People who live in the 21st century
don't aspire only for outer revolution
they also aspire for sound inner revolution
an individual's peaceful and moderate revolution
with their philosophy and thought
newp: thanks from the heart, Keiko-san, and let's continue this dialogue tomorrow.
so fireflies... what are your reflections for today? |
