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Ryoko Nishioka
Tendai Buddhist Denomination, Japan
It is my honor to give a speech, titled �The Future of Japan: Between War and Peace� at this panel discussion as a representative of Tendai School Denomination of Japanese Buddhism. Thank you very much for this opportunity. Tendai has carried over the �Seed of Peace� from the dialogues and prayers at Assisi to Mt. Hiei. Since 1987, we have invited representatives of world religious leaders and hosted the Mt. Hiei Religious Summit sixteen times. With the World Federation of Religious Committee in Japan, we invited Harav Yisrael Meir Lau, Former Chief of Rabbi of Israel, and Sheikh Talal Sider, Religious Counselor to Yasar Arafat, leader of the Palestinian people. Together, we all had dialogue and prayers for peace at this year�s event. When we think of the current Middle East situation, it is an epoch-making event for us to meet and have a dialogue with representatives from the Jewish and Moslem religions. If this Religious Summit could make a small contribution to world peace, there would be no other joy greater than that. I also believe that the event provided a hope not only to Japanese clergy but also to all of us who pray for peace. When we think of the future of Japan, the top priority of our agenda is how to maintain peace. In order to do so, we must consider war, which is the opposite of peace. We, Japanese inflicted injuries and harmed so many people before and during the World War II. Moreover, there were movements in Japan to justify that war. It is required of us to act with deep repentance and true reflection on the fact that we caused such a deep indignation and sorrow, especially to people in Asia. Because of our reflections and repentance, after the war, we have maintained the position of a non-combatant, which rejects war. When we look at the world, after the Cold War, we see the emergence of racial discrimination and oppression, the lids of which were kept in place by oppressive means until the fall of totalitarian governments. All over the world we see conflict. Control by plutocratic capitalism created greater inequality among people. And it is now clear that it has lead to the creation of more nations that are suffering from poverty and hunger. Like the situation that you see between India and Pakistan and nations in Middle East, it seems that the deep-rooted hatred is being emphasized as the self-justification by exterminating opposition. It shows that the movement of Peace and Dialogue has been moving too slow and or interrupted altogether. The Iraqi invasion, which we feared and dreaded, started, and so many precious lives were lost. Behind the Just Cause of each side, you can not ignore the existence of biased and tinted religious views of the other side. We, as spiritual people, need to continue dialogues for these problems with determination. I believe it is the only way to achieve peace. I have been thinking that it is again the time for us to be the bridge for dialogues among religions. The basis of peace in Japan is the maintenance of the Peace Constitution by holding and keeping the constitution and protecting the Nuclear Free Three Principles; namely, Not to Manufacture, Not to Bring into Japan and, Not to Use Nuclear Weapons. It is important for Japanese clergy to engrave this fundamental rule in our hearts. Last month, on August 6th and 9th, the 58th memorial services for the victims of the atomic bombs were held at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. We are the only nation to have experienced nuclear bombs in the world. Please let me use this opportunity to appeal to all the people in the world that no nation should use the nuclear weapons nor to posses them. Currently, there is a world threat that a nation might threaten others by using nuclear weapons as their tool. It is such a dreadful danger to the world. We, religious leaders have a responsibility to prevent this crisis. The founder of Japanese Tendai, Dengyo Daishi, Saicho, said in his dying instruction, �Hatred will not stop if you match hatred with hatred. Hatred will vanish if you match hatred with virtue.� In order to create Peace actively, it is necessary to understand the meaning of this word: We can not stop the hatred by the repeated use of arms with hatred; however, we can stop hatred by working together to build Peace. In Buddhism, we teach peace and compassion, and the first precept is the precept of non-violence. This fundamental idea of Shakyamuni Buddha is the most important teaching to Tendai. When we think about peace in the future in Japan, we believe that the most important factor is that Japanese religious leaders continue this dialogue and pray together with mutual understanding and respect for each other, and realize that we need to act as servants for Peace. Therefore, we will continue the Mt. Hiei Religious Summit and do our very best for it to be the basis of Peace not only for Japan but also for the Whole World.
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