Soka Gakkai Second President Josei Toda’s Declaration Calling for the Abolition of Nuclear Weapons

“Although a movement calling for a ban on the testing of atomic or nuclear weapons has arisen around the world ……… 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.”

Josei Toda, second President of the Soka Gakkai, made a speech calling for the abolition of nuclear weapons on September 8, 1957, at a meeting of 50,000 Youth Division members of Soka Gakkai at Mitsuzawa Stadium in Yokohama, Japan. President Toda also encouraged the youth members to do their best to spread the anti-nuclear spirit throughout the world.

This declaration became the foundation of the peace movement of Soka Gakkai International (SGI).