Soka Gakkai President Minoru Harada gave the following address at the SoCal Quint Zones representative leaders meeting, held on Oct. 8, 2025, at the World Culture Center in Santa Monica, California. The meeting commemorated the 65th anniversary of Ikeda Sensei’s first visit to the U.S. to spread Nichiren Buddhism around the world.
Many congratulations on the holding of this representative leaders meeting commemorating the 65th anniversary of Ikeda Sensei’s first visit to the United States. First, to all members of the future division, I was deeply moved by your wonderful performance.
Also, thank you very much, Monica Soto Ouchi, the women’s division leader for your fresh and heartfelt determination. When I think of the SGI-USA Women’s Division, a memory comes to mind. It was March 25, 2017, eight years ago, when the first through fourth national women’s division leaders and a former chief secretary—namely, Kazue Elliott, Wendy Clark, Matilda Buck, Linda Johnson and Kazue Zaitsu—visited Japan. Ikeda Sensei and Mrs. Ikeda personally encouraged them, creating a truly moving encounter. If I recall correctly, this was the last time Sensei personally encouraged national leaders. In other words, the first time Sensei encouraged leaders on his worldwide kosen-rufu journey and the last time Sensei personally encouraged leaders were the women’s division of the SGI-USA.
Sensei expressed the joy of this encounter in the following words:
They are all showing actual proof of enjoying long, healthy lives filled with happiness and harmony. And they continue, with a beautiful nurturing spirit, to extend warm care and support to members of younger generations, fostering a steady stream of capable people for the future. What delighted me more than anything was their youthful spirit as they pledged to ensure the great victory of the kosen-rufu movement in America. (April 14, 2017, World Tribune, p. 10)
In these few words, we can truly feel Sensei’s deep affection for America. I believe they also provide a guideline for the women’s division of America to uphold forever. As Sensei said, I hope that all members demonstrate long, healthy lives filled with happiness and harmony through faith, maintain beautiful family-like unity, forge an abundant stream of capable people through encouragement, and, above all, boldly fulfill the pledge “America will have great victory!”
I am confident that with faith, unity, capable people and a vow, the America Sensei built through a lifetime of shared struggle of mentor and disciple will achieve eternal victory. Together with the new leaders, each division, with renewed determination, will surely accomplish the victories of 2030 and 2050. What do you all say?
As you know, Sensei visited the United States 27 times. I had the honor of accompanying Sensei on 10 of these visits, but among them, the North and South America guidance trip in 1993 remains unforgettable. Over 56 days, from January to March, Sensei traveled to Los Angeles, Miami, Colombia, Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, Chile and São Paulo in Brazil, before returning to Miami and finally returning to Japan from San Francisco.
During this period, Sensei accomplished an extraordinary array of public and diplomatic engagements. These included a commemorative lecture at Claremont McKenna College, a moving encounter with Rosa Parks, a visit to the Simon Wiesenthal Center, a meeting with President Cesar Gaviria in Colombia, exchanges with the Brazilian human rights activist Austregésilo de Athayde, meetings with President Carlos Menem in Argentina and President Andres Rodriguez in Paraguay, a reunion with President Patricio Aylwin in Chile and a fourth meeting with Dr. Linus Pauling, a two-time Nobel laureate, in San Francisco. Even considering only these major events, Sensei made remarkable accomplishments equivalent to what most people could accomplish in 10 years.
Yet this journey was not without immense challenges. During the first part of his stay in Miami, a bomb attack occurred in Colombia, resulting in a large number of casualties. Security authorities determined the attack was carried out by a drug trafficking organization. Naturally, international conferences hosted by other groups were immediately canceled, and departures from the country increased rapidly. On top of this, the day before Sensei’s scheduled entry into Colombia, its state of emergency was extended—an extraordinary and dangerous situation indeed.
Through the Colombian presidential office, via the embassy, we in Miami received an inquiry: “Will SGI President Daisaku Ikeda really come to our country?” After all, the country was under a state of emergency. Many suggested, “Perhaps it would be better to postpone until another time.” However, Sensei responded immediately:
Please don’t be worried on my account. I intend to visit Colombia as planned. I will behave as a citizen of Colombia, whose people are so incredibly courageous. (The New Human Revolution, vol. 30, p. 747)
And so, without changing a single plan, he carried out the visit.
At El Dorado International Airport in Colombia, a heavy security presence had been deployed. Armed security personnel secured the corridors, Sensei’s vehicle was equipped with bulletproof protection, and the motorcade included police vehicles, trucks carrying soldiers with machine guns and even an ambulance.
Police dogs, trained to detect every type of ammunition, were dispatched throughout his accommodations. I believed myself prepared, yet I must admit, seeing those big police dogs wandering around the hallways, even I felt my legs weaken.
However, Sensei remained calm, composed and majestic. While traveling by car, Sensei would look out at the streets and say: “I’d love to take a photo. But I suppose I shouldn’t open the window, right?”
Before entering Colombia, Sensei declared with firmness: “Once I decide how I will carry out kosen-rufu, I will accomplish it without fail. I will always keep my word.”
With this unwavering conviction, at each scheduled event, he eased the tension and concern of his hosts with humor and warmth, demonstrating complete sincerity and integrity.
Among the many events, one particularly memorable occasion was the award ceremony at the presidential palace, where Sensei received Colombia’s national honor, the Grand Cross of the Order of San Carlos. Normally, this honor would be conferred by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, but President Gaviria personally presented it to Sensei. It was a moment in which the head of state greeted Sensei’s courageous actions with the highest gratitude and praise.
In Rio de Janeiro, there was another deeply moving encounter. Athayde, the president of the Brazilian Academy of Letters and a key figure in drafting the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights, waited anxiously for Sensei’s arrival. Amazingly, Athayde, who was 94 at the time, had been waiting for Sensei two hours.
When members suggested he rest in a separate room, he replied: “I have waited, and been waiting, for 94 years to meet [President Ikeda]. Therefore, another hour or two is nothing” (The New Human Revolution, vol. 30, p. 749). Immediately after meeting Athayde, Sensei remarked: “What a fascinating person. I felt as though Toda Sensei himself were welcoming me.”
The following day, Sensei said, “I feel as if I have come to Rio together with Toda Sensei.” And on Feb. 11, his mentor’s birthday, after 28 years, Sensei finished writing The Human Revolution, chronicling his mentor’s life. Sensei wrote the following in the afterword to the novel:
What I feel I must do now is fight on in my mentor’s stead for the sake of world peace and the happiness of humankind, survive and fulfill my mission in this life …
As I proceed along this lofty and noble path of the Soka Gakkai, President Toda continues to live on in my heart. (The Human Revolution, p. 1976)
Ikeda Sensei always carried Toda Sensei in his heart. All of Sensei’s struggles were for Toda Sensei. That is why he was strong, unwavering and never retreated even a single step. Every moment of those 56 days was deeply infused with this spirit.
During his North and South America guidance trip, Sensei gave the following guidance in Los Angeles [on Jan. 28, 1993]:
The renewal of the United States is linked to the renewal of the world. …
In terms of kosen-rufu, the new departure of the United States is directly linked to a fresh departure for the worldwide kosen-rufu movement. The magnificent future of global kosen-rufu rests on the shoulders of all of you SGI-USA members. (My Dear Friends in America, fourth edition, p. 225)
Sensei, carrying forward the mission of worldwide kosen-rufu entrusted to him by Toda Sensei, opened its path with complete devotion and entrusted this future to America with his heartfelt commitment. If each member of America, standing firmly on the life philosophy of the Mystic Law, embodies the true values of equality, freedom and happiness in their present place and accomplishes the “revival of America,” they will surely open the door to the renewal of worldwide kosen-rufu.
The key to this victory, I am convinced, lies in three principles: the unwavering faith to carry through every battle for kosen-rufu once decided, the sincerity to always keep to our word and the vow to continue fighting always with our mentor in our hearts.
Now, let us embody Sensei’s philosophy, inherit his ideals, act in unison eternally and resolutely realize world peace and the happiness of humanity.
November 7, 2025 World Tribune, pp. 8–9
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