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Subject: Japan’s Rush Hour of The Gods
All Follow-Up: Re: Japan’s Rush Hour of The Gods
Date: Sat, 03 Jan 1998 19:33:17 GMT
Japan’s Rush Hour of The Gods
THE AUSTRALIAN MAGAZINE
2, Holt Street, Surry Hills, Sydney 2010.
Tel: (02) 9288-2442 Fax: (02) 9288-3371
September 28-29, 1996.
Pg.30-35
By Robert Garran
Even before Aum Supreme Truth launched its deadly gas
attack on the Tokyo subway last year, many in Japan
were concerned about the power of the country's
religious sects. Now with the largest claiming l0
million adherents, there is growing alarm about
Japan’s spiritual climate.
The Japanese sometimes say they are born Shinto,
married Christian and die Buddhist. It is a sign of
their practical approach to religion that there have
long been Shinto rituals that go with birth, and
Buddhist rituals for funerals. The Christian marriage
ceremony, captivating and glamorous, is a more recent
innovation.
Yet even as they often claim allegiance to several
traditional religious and ardently join in the rites
of passage and festivals like New Year, many Japanese
complain that the old religions are stale and worn
out. Buddhism is sometimes called the religion of
death --- useful for funerals, but little else. The
decline of the old religions has left a gap. To fill
it, the so-called “new religions” are booming --- the
myriad of religions that have sprung forth since the
epochal Meiji Restoration of 1868, the revolution that
sent Japan leaping into the modern world. From the
viewpoint of the West, where religion is usually
regarded as an exclusive set of doctrines about the
deepest meanings of life, this is strange. But the
recent behaviour of some of the new religions is
stranger still. It is estimated there are 3000 new
religions in Japan, population 125 million, ranging
from the tiny to the politically potent to the
murderous Aum Supreme Truth. These new religions are
thought to claim the allegiance of up to one in five
Japanese.
Last year’s subway gas attack in Tokyo shocked Japan.
Before the March attack, there had been growing
questions about Japan’s propensity to generate new
religions. But the stream of news about the horrors
perpetrated by Shoko Asahara’s cult, Aum Supreme
Truth, suggested a more deeply-rooted problem.
What is it about Japan that led to the growth of the
mad, sadistic Aum cult, with the brutal treatment of
its members, its crazy plans for world domination?
Was Aum just an aberration, the rotten fruit of a few
social misfits? Or does it foretell a broader, deeper
malaise in this most affluent of nations? And what
does Aum, which had 10,000 members before the subway
attack, have in common with any of the other of the
abundance of new religions?
The biggest is Soka Gakkai. It claims to have 10
million members --- almost one in 12 Japanese --- who
are active in seeking new recruits and doing good
works. It operates numerous educational institutions
and international cultural exchanges. It is also much
maligned and feared by many Japanese.
To its members it is only path to true happiness, but
Soka Gakkai’s efforts over the years to portray itself
as a benign and benevolent institution have failed
dismally: it is widely reviled for what many
outsiders regard as its malevolent responses to its
critics and deserters. Those who try to leave,
especially the more senior members, are frequently
harassed, and there are stories that opponents have
been murdered.
Soka Gakkai was formed in 1930 as a lay arm of the
Nichiren Shoshu Buddhist sect, one of the 30 groups
following the teachings of Nichiren, a monk who lived
from 1222 to 1282. Thousands of members left Soka
Gakkai in 1991, complaining that the group was being
taken over by its leader, Daisaku Ikeda, for his own
political purposes. The split led to bitter
recriminations between remaining and former members.
One former member, Tomiichi Yamada, claimed he was
harassed for two years after he left. “I was an
executive responsible for looking after 4000 members,”
he says. “After I quit, I received phone calls every
day. They either hung up without speaking or said,
‘You will be killed’. Early on the calls came every
day, morning and night; later they became
intermittent. It wasn’t just me, it happens to all
former members. Sometimes they followed me home from
work, or left frightening messages saying, ‘Watch out
what happens to your kids’. I had Soka Gakkai members
piss on me. Others have had dead cats, rats and dogs
thrown over the fence into their gardens, or fires set
against their houses.”
Soka Gakkai denies all this, saying such stories are
the invention of irresponsible tabloid journalists.
“I can categorically deny that any kind of pressure
like that exists in our organisation, because people
can come and go,” says Yoko Kaitani, 46, a member for
40 years. “There is absolutely no pressure from the
organisation.”
“In this group we don’t want human relationship to be
based on gains and interest. However, there may be
members who are there because of self-interest,
selfish motives, and they can’t keep up with the
practice and the philosophy. They feel out of it, and
they don’t want to stay. Those people, they are free
to leave if they want to. But unfortunately some of
them do not really understand what the group stands
for, and in order to defend themselves will criticise
Soka Gakkai.”
Michiko Watanabe (as did Yamada, she asked that her
real names not be used), also left at the time of the
split, after being a member since her birth 32 years
before. “When I left, my family and I were harassed by
members of the Soka Gakkai division,” she says. “They
tried to chase us when my sisters went out. They came
to our home to try to harass us. My former friends
told lies to get my phone number. When they called,
they said,‘You will go to hell, you will be unhappy’.
Some were subjected to physical violence. There was an
order by Ikeda to harass members who leave the cult.”
Neither the accusations nor the evidence suggest Soka
Gakkai’s behaviour is as extreme as that of Aum
Supreme Truth. What they do share is a propensity for
self-righteousness and intolerance of their critics.
In the main courtroom at Tokyo District Court on April
24, Shoko Asahara faced the world for the first time
since his arrest a year before. Squinting, round-
faced, with a dark ragged beard and long black hair,
it was hard to imagine him as a guru.
Yet Asahara’s cult in recent years has been the
fastest-growing in Japan. “No,” Asahara told the
court, he would not plead one way or the other to the
charges : the murder of 11 people and attempted murder
of 3796 others in the March 1995 Tokyo subway nerve
gas attack, the 1994 killing of a cult member, and the
illegal production of thiopental, a “true scrim”
(sic, "truth serum"). More charges are pending.
“Before and since my arrest, I have kept one important
purpose in mind. I have tried to help people grasp
absolute truth, absolute freedom and absolute
happiness,” Asahara told the court.
This from a man who routinely called on his followers
to murder critics and deserters from the cult, who had
built up an enormous cache of weapons of mass murder,
including chemical and biological agents, and who with
the subway gas attack showed he was well on the way to
using them to try to fulfil his prophecies of
Armageddon.
What Soka Gakkai and Aum Supreme Truth share is
doctrines that make a sharp distinction between good
and evil, between heaven and hell. By following
Ikeda’s precepts, or Asahara’s, the followers will be
led to enlightenment, and eventually to heaven. Where
they differ is in how prescriptive their moral codes
are, how strictly they are enforced, and how much
freedom their members have to make their own
judgements.
What makes Aum Supreme Truth especially reprehensible
are the techniques it used to enforce its code. After
enticing members through promise of salvation using
“special techniques” --- for which they were charged
vast sums --- their minds were numbed with drugs,
sleeping-deprivation and poor diets, and they were
kept isolated. Critics or malcontents were tortured
and murdered.
Academic Kelvin Crawley of The University of Iowa
lists some of the indoctrination techniques that mark
cults from other groups: subjection to stress and
fatigue; social disruption, isolation and pressure;
self-criticism and humiliation; fear, anxiety and
paranoia; control of information; escalating levels of
commitment; and use of auto-hypnosis to induce “peak”
experiences. Aum Supreme Truth probably qualifies
under every one of those headings, Soka Gakkai under
most of them, and another of the cults, Happiness
Science (see box above), under a few.
Another theme common to Japan’s new religions is their
polarised view of society, the division into good and
evil. Others are evil, we are good. This polarisation,
this strict division into good and bad, permeates Soka
Gakkai’s view of politics and education. It gives its
members a zeal that other political groups envy. It
also makes them a potent weapon in what critics say is
the personal quest for power by Soka Gakkai leader
Ikeda.
“Soka Gakkai is always the key force in Japanese
politics,” says one senior Japanese political
journalist. “Once I heard a story from a
parliamentarian who quit the LDP and switched to
Shinshinto. When he was a member of the LDP he was a
weak candidate who had a hard time raising money and
gathering supporters ... ‘ But with the support of
Soka Gakkai, I gathered thousands of people to a
campaign rally. When I went onto the stage, it was
exciting. But I am afraid. I am frightened that this
party will dominate Japanese politics’.”
The journalist quotes figures showing that Soka
Gakkai’s de facto political party Komeito, now a key
faction in the main opposition party Shinshinto, has a
consistently better record than any other at winning
the seats it contests. “We have no hard evidence,”
says the journalist, “but we have heard from many
politicians that Soka Gakkai shifts members from one
district to another so as to maximise the vote for a
candidate who is in favour.”
Soka Gakkai’s influence reaches into the Japanese
media. Late last year the Japan Times Weekly, an
English-language newspaper, which had been running
articles on the cult, stopped the stories. Its
management says the change had nothing to do with
Soka Gakkai.
Hirohisa Kitano, Professor of Law at Nihon University,
Tokyo, claims Soka Gakkai leader Ikeda wants to take
over Japanese politics: “This could lead to a kind
of Nazism; he could be another Hitler.”
Soka Gakkai members are furious at this kind of talk.
Spokeswoman Rie Tsumura uses another analogy. Soka
Gakkai, she says, suffers the same sort of persecution
and intolerance as the Jews in pre-war Germany.
Says member Hirokazu Shimizu, 34, an accountant, “I
know there are many negative criticisms about Soka
Gakkai and Ikeda in the media. But my question is, how
much evidence is there in those stories? It’s very
true that the reason that Soka Gakkai is heavily
criticised in society is because of our involvement in
politics, which is understandable because Soka Gakkai
has grown to become a very large organisation with
many members, and we do endorse political parties.
“But I really would like to clarify any
misunderstanding. This kind of participation in
politics is not coerced or enforced upon the members.
Only those who feel motivated to participate will
participate. My view is that established parties fear
ordinary people becoming empowered. Ordinary people
are becoming wiser because of Soka Gakkai’s teachings,
and because Soka Gakkai stands for common people and
their happiness it will make it more and more
difficult for authority to keep control of the masses.
In other words, empowered individuals will start to
question the politicians.”
“Soka Gakkai is just a gathering of ordinary people,”
says long-term member Yoko Kaitani. “And we believe
that to be responsible citizens we have to keep an eye
on politics. I can say with pride that as an
individual I am proud to be involved in politics,
because I want politics to improve. However, there are
people who can’t understand and grasp these kind of
ideals. It’s is too lofty for some people.”
Kaitani joined Soka Gakkai with her parents at age
seven, amid the strains of building a new Japan after
the end of World War II. “Those were the pioneering
days of Soka Gakkai. Japan was going through turmoil.
There were many poor people and a lot of confusion in
society. This was also reflected in Soka Gakkai, which
had many poor people and sick people. My parents were
not well-off, but as a child I would match them in
running around, encouraging other members and caring
for them. I thought to myself, maybe Soka Gakkai is a
great organisation. Its principle is contributing to
other people’s happiness, to society, then I thought
that the way my parents are living their lives was a
truly noble way of life.”
Soka Gakkai says its goal is to save mankind in an age
when the true Buddhist Dharma, or teaching, has been
forgotten. It campaigns aggressively to eradicate all
vestiges of false religions --- and for Soka Gakkai,
all other religions are false religions.
“The extermination of false beliefs --- which
misguided the people, plunged the nation into despair,
and ultimately brought about the country’s defeat in
World War II --- is the battle cry of Soka Gakkai
members as it was of Nichiren himself,” Noah Brannen,
formerly associate Professor of Linguistics at the
International Christian University in Tokyo, wrote in
his book on Soka Gakkai published in 1968.
Tomiichi Yamada says nothing has changed since Brannen
wrote his book. “The strength of Soka Gakkai comes
from its organisation into many local branches. Its
ethos of shakubuku means to tell people to abandon
bad, wrong messages and accept Nichiren’s correct
message,” he days.
Shintoism gained a distinct doctrine when the leaders
of the Meiji Restoration remoulded it to provide an
ideology for the developmental nationalism they needed
to transform Japan into a modern society. It did not
win universal appeal. Dissatisfied with the ossified
traditional religions, new religions sprang up, most
of them based on the officially sanctioned Shinto
practices and on Buddhism. With the growth of
militarism in the thirties the new religions were
increasingly persecuted and Shintoism was again
promoted as a tool of the State, this time to support
the military effort by elevating the emperor as the
symbol of Japan’s nationhood and to help demand
unquestioned loyalty.
After World War II the American occupying forces were
determined to suppress the ultra-nationalism they
regarded as a key factor behind the growth of
militarism. They dissolved State-sponsored Shintoism
and imposed freedom of religion.
Shintoism declined, but did not disappear. For many
Japanese it was replaced by the philosophy of
developmentalism, a pre-occupation with economic
growth above all else. Yet development was not a
universal panacea either. Those left behind or
alienated by the Japanese miracle formed the first
wave of post-war new religions amid the social and
cultural tumult of post-war reconstruction, a time
called the “rush hour of the gods”. This was the
period of Soka Gakkai’s fastest growth.
Japan’s rapid industrialisation brought the collapse
of the traditional extended family --- large families
and their relatives all working together in the highly
cooperative business of rice growing. It was replaced
with small nuclear families of the cities. With the
loss of extended family worship at Buddhist and Shinto
shrines, with all their festivals and routines.
The seventies brought a new breed of so-called “new
new religions”. It was a time of growing affluence, a
time of growing urbanisation and a decline in the old
rural lifestyle. Journalist Shoichi Okawa says the
appeal of the “new new” religions stems from the
disintegration of the nuclear family that came with
Japan’s rapid economic growth.
“Both parents and children are still living under the
same roof, but their lives have become separate:
workaholic father leaves house early in the morning
and comes back late after kids are gone to sleep;
mother takes a part-time job to supplement family
income to pay for the housing loan; and children go
to cram school to enter a better school or for a
better job. They live together, but no longer share
the time together.”
“About 30 years ago,” says Professor Kitano, “when
Japan achieved strong economic growth, ordinary people
lost their sense of purpose. People’s incomes are
high, people are well educated, but their hearts are
empty. This is the point Asahara and Ikeda have
utilised.”
Michio Ochi, Professor of English at Meiji University
in Tokyo, says the spiritual vacuum is the result of
Japan’s high -tech society. “Because of high
technology, making use of fax and telephones and
watching TV, we no longer have direct relationships
with other people ... In Japan we have been used to a
group culture. Because rice-growing involves community
cooperation, we are very good at doing things with a
group. At first, when Japan modernised, we just loved
the be able to live in the highly industrialised
society because of its indirect relationships. We were
fed up with the direct relationships of rural
communities --- when you were always being watched by
other people you couldn’t feel free.”
“When we had children we suddenly found that they
were seriously lacking in community spirit. But we
couldn’t do anything to stop it. Some hippies and New
Left people tried to stop it in the sixties and
towards the end of the Vietnam War but the counter-
culture collapsed. The appeal of the new religions is
that they meet the need for a sense of community.”
Susuma Oda, Professor of Psychiatry at Tsukuba
University in Chiba, says new religions serve as
surrogate families and their leaders as substitute
fathers in the “fatherless” society of modern Japan,
“where the paternal authority of the past has been
eroded”.
Another view is that science and rationalism have
failed in their quest to answer people’s deepest
questions. If religion is seen in its broadest sense,
as a way of explaining fundamental truths, then the
religion of modernity is science, with rationalism its
reed. The growth of cults in Japan, that most modern
of States, seems to be telling us that rationalism and
science don’t fully satisfy the human need for
ultimate answers.
***********************************
Another "tabloid" joins forces with the - OOOOH MYYYY GODDD!! -
3 powerful enemies???
Or just plain ol' CAUSE AND EFFECT????
You be the judge.
Craig Bratcher
The Soka Gakkai also has begun a campaign of harassment
against the priests. Rumors have been spread that the Taisekiji
Temple grounds are in disarray, with stray dogs wandering
about and robbers lurking in the shadows. Right-wing groups
park their sound trucks outside the temple and blast out their
criticism of the priests..."
Los Angeles Times, 12/16/91
"I know what the group does to people whom it
regards as its enemies. It's not safe for anyone
who dares to criticize it."
TIME - THE POWER OF SOKA GAKKAI
http://pathfinder.com/@@cQhxKQUA1N@02C68/time/international/1995/951120/japan.html
Ms. U witnessed four SGI senior leaders storm Bukkenji Temple.
She attempted to take a photograph of the vehicle that they
had arrived in. The four persons turned their attention on her
and charged her, knocking her into the air. When she hit the
ground, they brutally kicked and assaulted her. She suffered
multiple serious injuries, a broken hip and spinal fractures.
Shukan Jitsuwa 12/02/93
The list showed this powerful
nonprofit group, which has been involved in several other scandals
this year, received slightly more than $3 million from
Kokusai Securities...
New York Times - THURSDAY, AUGUST 1, 1991
But as the police have begun to unravel puzzle of the Yokohama safe
....the money has been linked to a powerful, militant Buddhist religious
sect, the Soka Gakkai. The sect, in turn, controls the Komeito or Clean
Government party.."
New York Times 7/20/ 89 - - Japan Finds Latest Scandal in a Dump
One member of the group of four monks and six followers
said they were verbally abused and punched by local members of
the Singapore Nichiren Shoshu Buddhist Association
(SNSBA) [Soka Gakkai Singapore].
The Straits Times - TUESDAY, JUNE 25, 1991
"They tried to chase us when my sisters
went out. They came to our home to try to harass us. My former
friends told lies to get my phone number. When they called,
they said,‘You will go to hell, you will be unhappy’. Some were
subjected to physical violence. There was an order by Ikeda to
harass members who leave the cult."
Japan’s Rush Hour of The Gods
THE AUSTRALIAN MAGAZINE
http://www.cebunet.com/sgi/rushour.htm
...."a mob of Soka Gakkai members, marched into the Kaishinji temple during a
religious service. Shoving aside worshippers, they seized Yahiro and
Kashiwazaki. I thought I was going to die, recalls Yahiro, an
asthmatic. He almost did. A large man grabbed Yahiro by his necktie and lifted
him off the floor, and others took turns punching him until he passed out."
TIME Magazine November 20, 1995 Volume 146, No. 21
http://pathfinder.com/@@S4Ji*gUAlYDFN9mI/time/international/1995/951120/TIDE.HTM
"...several hundred Soka Gakkai members invaded his temple during a
service and beat him so severely that he was hospitalized for three months.
Yahiro's hospitalization in April 1991 brought to light a brewing battle..."
San Francisco Chronicle: - Japan Fears Another Religious Sect
http://www.sfgate.com/programs/srch_archive/srch_archive_wrap?unregistered=true&WAISdocFile=/WAISlink/chronicle/archive/1995/12/27/MN62956.DTL&WAISdbName=/doc_root/wais/chronicle/1995&WAISaction=retrieve&WAISdocID=0666914397+0+0+0&WAISheadline=PAGE
SGI corporate charter:
3.SGI shall respect and protect the freedom of religion and religious
expression.
7.SGI shall, based on the Buddhist spirit of tolerance, respect other
religions...
SOURCE: SGI Homepage
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