[Thanks]
First of all, my profound thanks to Andrea Bartoli and the Sant’Egidio community for their invitation to participate in this conference and this important and fascinating discussion at this crucial time. And my thanks to the previous speakers for their insight and contributions. I am the last speaker before this issue is opened up to the audience, and I hope to build on the points we have heard so far and that this will lead into a rich and fruitful dialogue.
[Introduce Soka Gakkai]
I am here to represent the views of the Buddhist organisation, Soka Gakkai on the question of nuclear weapons abolition and disarmament. I imagine that many of you may not be familiar with us, so if I may take a moment to introduce our organisation, ‘Soka Gakkai’ translates from Japanese into English as ‘society for value creation’. While ‘value’ may often be thought of as being purely economic, for us, we see it in a much broader context, looking at the positive contribution that each of us can make to improve society. We base our activities on the Buddhist principle of respect for the dignity of life and our objective is to nurture the culture of peace through grassroots initiatives, public awareness campaigns and advocacy at different levels, not least at the United Nations. More specifically, a constant theme since the end of the Second World War, after the dropping of atomic bombs on two Japanese cities, has been our work to realise a world without nuclear weapons.
[Aim of this talk]
When we discuss the question of nuclear weapons, because of the nature of the topic it is easy for people’s hearts to be filled with fear. My intention today is, through the points I will be making, to fill our hearts with hope. There is a lot to be done, but as we have seen in the last more than ten years with the steps taken around the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) together we can continue the important work to rid the world of these indiscriminate weapons of mass destruction. I want to show how we can each be agents of change whether we are a single individual or a member of a faith or civil society organisation, and that when we work together in solidarity the effect of every effort is multiplied.
[Toda’s declaration]
Sixty-six years ago, in September 1957, Josei Toda, the second president of the Soka Gakkai made a declaration which has informed our activities for peace ever since. At the time, the nuclear arms race was accelerating, and Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles had been tested successfully. This meant that for the first time there was nowhere on our planet which could not be the target of a nuclear attack. Toda noted that there was a growing movement calling for an end to the testing of nuclear weapons. He went further than just ending testing, and speaking to a stadium filled with Japanese youth, he expressed his determination to ‘expose and rip out the claws that lie hidden in the very depths of such weapons.’ By this he meant that the very existence of nuclear weapons is a threat to humanity and that ways of thinking that justify their being held even by a small number of countries, and the flaws in the argument around their role as a deterrence needed to be exposed to demonstrate that these weapons must be eliminated. His intention was to protect the right of survival of all humanity.
His declaration was aimed at encouraging self-restraint on the part of those in political leadership, especially the leaders of the nuclear weapons states, to recognise the profound responsibility of their actions which could ultimately lead to genocide. He also wished to counter the feeling of ordinary people that ‘there is nothing a single individual can do’, or that even groups of people are too insignificant in the face of powerful states. He sought to demonstrate that ordinary people are and should consider themselves to be the main protagonists in the effort to outlaw nuclear weapons.
Since then, the Soka Gakkai whether in Japan or around the world has taken steps to raise awareness of the nuclear weapons issue. Using exhibitions and other resources Soka Gakkai has worked with other Faith Based Organisations, and Civil Society networks to discuss this issue and ultimately to rid the world of nuclear weapons. Daisaku Ikeda, President of Soka Gakkai International, has for over 40 years written and published Peace Proposals which have consistently examined the question of nuclear weapons abolition and in the 20 months since the start of the conflict in Ukraine, he has emphasised the importance of commitment to No First Use of nuclear weapons. Let’s not forget that in January 2022, the leaders of five nuclear weapons states, (the US, Russia, the UK, France and China) issued a joint statement on preventing nuclear war in which they affirmed that ‘a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought.’ He also sent a message to the G7 leaders who gathered in Hiroshima in May this year reminding the leaders that the countries in the G20 have officially expressed their recognition that the use or threat of use of nuclear weapons is ‘inadmissable’.
[Visionary and practical strategies to advance nuclear disarmament]
There are (as we have heard/or as you may know) mainly two international treaties which concern nuclear weapons. There is the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) which serves as the cornerstone of the nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation regime and has a vital role to play in promoting international peace and security, and now, since its entry into force in January 2021, there is the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, which reinforces, complements, and builds on the NPT. The TPNW has a growing number of states which have ratified it. At the moment, 92 states have signed it, and 68 have ratified it. This treaty is inspired by humanitarian initiatives and is the first international law that comprehensively bans all aspects of nuclear weapons, not limited to their use or threat of use but including their development and possession. While the NPT directly affects five nuclear-weapon states under the treaty and their legal obligations to pursue negotiations in good faith to reduce their nuclear arsenals, the TPNW shows that the rest of the world, the much greater number of non-nuclear states also have a responsibility to take action to prevent a humanitarian catastrophe. In Europe, Austria, the Holy See, Ireland, Malta and San Marino have ratified the TPNW, and Liechtenstein has signed it.
This may sound like slow progress, but for an international treaty this is actually moving at a useful pace. And given that each country that signs the treaty endeavours to encourage other countries to also sign it, the momentum is increasing. Of course, we would all like to see it universally adopted, and today is an important stepping stone in ensuring that this happens.
[Developing a vision of a peaceful world]
With the TPNW having entered into force, now is the time for us to have a vision of the world when there will no longer be any nuclear weapons, and the astronomical sums which are currently being expended on maintaining these weapons of mass destruction can be diverted to other necessary areas, not least to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.
Here I would like to share a reflection which Daisaku Ikeda included in his Peace Proposal in 2020. He refers to a conversation with the peace scholar Elise Boulding, with whom he had a warm friendship.
‘If we concentrate solely on the threats we face, we run the risk that people who feel they are not directly impacted will remain indifferent; even those who recognise the gravity of the threat may be overwhelmed by a sense of powerlessness, concluding that nothing they could do would change the situation.
This brings to mind something the peace scholar Elise Boulding (1920-2010) shared with me. In the 1960s, while attending a conference on disarmament, Dr Boulding asked the participating specialists how they envisioned a totally disarmed world would function. To her surprise, they responded that they had no idea – their job was merely to describe how disarmament is possible. Based on this experience, Dr Boulding came to realise that unless one has a clear and specific vision of what a peaceful society looks like, it will be close to impossible to effectively bring people together in pursuit of peace.’
Our role, I am convinced, is to have a personal and also a shared vision of what peace looks like. If we don’t know where we are going, it is very difficult to set out on the journey. We can all ask ourselves this question, what does peace mean to me? Yes, it means a world without war, but it also means a world without coercion, the sort of coercion that occurs when some countries have nuclear weapons and others don’t. It means a world where principles of equality and respect are acknowledged and put into practice. It means a world where financial resources that are currently expended on an arms race can be usefully deployed in future-focussed areas such as education, health and well-being and protecting the environment (or at least adapting and mitigating the effects of climate change).
[Disarmament education and awareness-raising]
An example of how Soka Gakkai International has contributed to creating a vision of a peaceful world has been through the exhibition created together with the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), called ‘Everything You Treasure – For a World Free From Nuclear Weapons’. The exhibition encourages viewers to reflect on what is most important to them. By encouraging people to consider how to build a world that safeguards not only the things they themselves treasure, but also what others regard as important and irreplaceable, it seeks to nurture a shared desire for constructive action.
Exhibitions such as this one come under the banner of what we term disarmament education. By using this term, we don’t just focus on school based education but rather life-long opportunities to raise awareness of the dignity of life, and how individuals can take action for themselves, their communities, the wider world and the planet which is our home. It includes sharing information and perspectives, and engaging people in dialogues. It involves hearing the stories of survivors of the atomic bombings, the hibakusha (and this term is also often used to identify those affected by such as the testing of nuclear weapons). Many of the hibakusha from Hiroshima and Nagasaki are now in their 80s or older, so recording their testimony is also an important project for the future. The aim of this exhibition, ‘Everything You Treasure …’ which from my experience is successfully achieved, results in a feeling of empowerment, and confidence that arises from a sense of solidarity with others, a feeling that ‘I am an important agent for change and I can and will make a difference.’
Perhaps we can say that one of the most important things that needs to change is awareness about nuclear weapons in the first place (their horrific destructive impact, long-term health consequences and the effects of a nuclear winter on all life on our planet) and also awareness that there is a growing movement to do something about it. People who care about this issue are growing in number. I mentioned the European countries that have ratified the TPNW but if we look at the list of other countries who have also done so, then it becomes clear that this Treaty is being taken very seriously all around the world.
[Youth]
Another key aspect of our activities is to focus on youth so that they can become future-oriented successors and ensure that humanity never forgets the importance of maintaining the dignity of all life. For this reason, as well as the exhibitions I mentioned earlier, Soka Gakkai has launched youth initiatives such as the People’s Decade for Nuclear Abolition (2007 to 2017) which ended in the year the TPNW was adopted by the UN, as well as petitions and signature campaigns by young people in many different countries around the world.
[Conclusion]
We are at a very important point. Annual global spending on the military is in excess of $2.2 trillion. We are vividly aware that there have been threats from one nuclear weapon state which demonstrate that there is a high risk of use. Yet at the same time no further steps have been taken (but we can’t assume that this status quo will continue). On the positive side, an increasing number of states are involved in or investigating the TPNW. This treaty provides us with a great momentum. If you have never read it, it is worth reading the preamble to the Treaty, which is full of hope and a vision of a world that respects everyone. There are lots of resources that people can access: we have our website which highlights actions Soka Gakkai members are taking for peace: https://sgi-peace.org/
The ICAN website is a great resource for getting both a clear picture of the danger of nuclear weapons as well as materials for how individuals and other civil society organisations can work together to make a difference. Many faith organisations are realising our role as grassroots organisations to share information on this issue, in the context of however we interpret the dignity of life. And also networks of organisations are getting stronger promoting campaigns around divestment in nuclear weapons industries, which is something we can all do as individuals (and the Pax Christi ‘Don’t Bank on the Bomb’ reports are a useful source of information on this).
So to conclude, let’s determine that we will each raise our own awareness of the issues, create a vision of a peaceful world, and use the powerful tools of dialogue to weave together a people’s movement which declares that nuclear weapons have had their time, and that we are going into a new phase of human history, based on equality, respect and cherishing the dignity of life.
Thank you very much.