A Profile of Soka Gakkai

6. Founding of Soka

Soka was founded in 1930 by Makiguchi (1871-1944) and Toda (1900-1958) as a lay organisation of Nichiren Shoshu. At that time, Makiguchi was already a member of Nichiren Shoshu for 2 years and Soka was known as Soka Education then. Makiguchi became its first president.

In the Constitution of Soka , it takes the doctrine of Tai-seki Temple as its doctrine and takes the wooden Dai-Gohonzon as its Object of Worship. It also vows to protect the Three Treasures of Nichiren Shoshu.

During WW2, the Japanese Militarist Government promoted Shinto as a state religion in order to rally its people to its war cause. Some religious bodies objected to the war, but most, including Nichiren Shoshu and Soka , were forced to support it. When the Militarist Government further put all religions under state control, many religious leaders resisted and refused to buy amulets from the Grand Shrine of Ise which were distributed with government backing, resulting in the arrest of over 2,000 religious leaders during that time. Makiguchi and Toda were arrested towards the end of the War in November 1944. Makiguchi died in the jail but Toda was released in July 1945. Makiguchi is now depicted by Soka as a martyr who opposed the War; however, the facts do not necessarily support this.

Toda reconstructed the organisation after WW2 and gave it the present name. He also became the second president in May 1951. At that time, Soka had only a few thousand members and Toda vowed that if he could not achieve a membership of 750,000 families before he died, he would rather his ashes be thrown into Shinagawa River. A fanatical and successful shaku-buku program was then undertaken.

At that time, defeat in WW2 (1945) brought great and sudden shifts to Japan and the State Shinto was abolished by the American Occupation Forces. The Japanese were confused, disillusioned and demoralised. When the Korean War (1950) broke out and General MacArthur subsequently vowed to use atomic bombs on China, many Japanese saw WW3 as imminent, and Soka cleverly hinted that if Japanese did not embrace the 'True Law' this time, Japan would again be punished with more atomic bombs. The Korean War also accelerated the economic development of Japan and increasing numbers of Japanese started to move to the cities. The bonding of groups familiar to the common Japanese had suddenly disappeared. Soka therefore catered to the spiritual needs of those at the lower end of Japanese society and helped them to overcome their isolation vis-à-vis the giant unions and corporations and gave them something to look forward to.

Since the Japanese Emperor was forced to deny his own divinity by General MacArthur and become a human being, Toda vowed that the Emperor should also be shaku-buku-ed one day to the 'True Buddhism'; meaning that the Emperor, whom has been looked upon by the Japanese people as their spiritual god for centuries, should now look upon the High Priest of Tai-seki Temple for his own eternal salvation.

Toda's goal was said to have been achieved one year before he passed away, when Soka claimed a membership of 760,000 families in 1957.