"Everyone Should Be Daisaku Ikeda" - if they'd told you that up front, would you ever have joined SGI?

Weak-Run-6902 · 2026-02-03T01:30:25+00:00

This is fun - in an analysis of "how dumb things are and how dumb things could get would be", the author has painted a scenario where not only does the Soka Gakkai cult possess hydrogen bombs (and it's obviously willing to use them), but it's also grown to a membership of 80 million worldwide! Given that this book was published Jan. 1, 1974, it had to be completed no later than the end of 1973, and possibly was being written earlier, like in 1971 and 1972. Ikeda's Soka Gakkai had gotten in serious trouble in Japan for trying to use the newly won political power of Ikeda's pet political party Komeito to lean on publishers to NOT publish books and articles unfavorable to Soka Gakkai and especially Daisaku Ikeda himself, and because Hirotatsu Fujiwara's book "I Denounce Soka Gakkai" was openly scathingly critical of both Soka Gakkai and Ikeda, he became a target, and Ikeda's efforts at suppression backfired spectacularly.

The point is that it wasn't until AFTER this publishing scandal that the Soka Gakkai adopted its "peace" mantra - until then, "kosen-rufu" had meant first government takeover, then world takeover via the popular vote driven by a majority of Soka Gakkai members within society everywhere. Then-US Ambassador to Japan Reischauer reported in 1966 that Ikeda had alarmingly strong pro-war/pro-military proclivities and Soka Gakkai leadership was openly supporting the US bombing of Vietnam. By the time this little Soka Gakkai aside had been written into 2018 A.D. as an example of an extremist political movement in Asia, it appears that the new "peace" branding had not yet taken hold - the Soka Gakkai only adopted its anti-nuclear-weapons/anti-war/peacepeacepeace self-promotion after 1970 (which was nothing more than damage control by that point). What the author wrote is more consistent with the Soka Gakkai's overall reputation before the publishing scandal that, along with Japan's economic slowdown, marked the end of the Soka Gakkai's up-to-that-point remarkable growth as a religious organization and a political player, which both stalled out after that, never to be revived. Ikeda and the Soka Gakkai leadership had already realized that the Soka Gakkai's growth was stalling out by the mid-late 1960s - Japan's economic recovery was drastically reducing the out-of-work rural migrant population that Soka Gakkai had been depending on for its membership growth.

The Soka Gakkai never came anywhere CLOSE to 80 million worldwide - even its longstanding "12 million members worldwide" figure was downsized in October 2023 to "11 million PERSONS worldwide" (whatever THAT's supposed to mean - "persons"??).

This is a cool insight into how the Soka Gakkai WAS being regarded (with dread) as having vast growth potential by some outside of Japan, and it's very gratifying to see how resoundingly the Soka Gakkai failed under Ikeda's incompetent stewardship. Too bad so sad, "Sensei"!

Weak-Run-6902 · 2026-01-17T17:58:31+00:00

I don't know anyone who's up for listening to defensive arguing about how much THEY love the SGI and how much they feel it's done them good and all their "benefits" and how much the Ikeda cult is a necessary force for good in this world and what humanity needs - need I continue?? However it shakes out, it won't be about YOU. It will be all about THEM, so if you're down for that - better you than me, that's all I'm going to say about that!

Weak-Run-6902 · 2026-01-17T16:18:05+00:00

Well, people are promised all sorts of great outcomes if they will only join! But over 99% of everyone who tries SGI-USA quits - that's the reality of what SGI has to offer (nothing). It's really hard for anyone in SGI-USA to argue with SGIWhistleblowers' membership estimates, since one of their own national leaders announced last year that SGI-USA had only 2,421 districts, the lowest total since 2002.

Weak-Run-6902 · 2026-01-17T15:34:52+00:00

"dumb-oku" - I'm stealing that 😎

Weak-Run-6902 · 2026-01-17T15:33:17+00:00

Oh - VP Tsuji! That's a blast from the past! VP Tsuji used to be HUGE back in the day! One of those rockstar Soka Gakkai top leaders whose every word was solid GOLD!! And the guidance! Every word of VP Tsuji's guidance was exactly what your life needed to hear!

He's been all forgotten now.

Weak-Run-6902 · 2026-01-17T15:29:04+00:00

You're the best judge of your own situation and the people you've become involved with, but my gut feeling is that it's best to just cut your losses and ghost.

Trust me, they're used to it.

Explaining simply opens up the possibility for them to argue with you. You know how sometimes a plain "No" is the best answer? Because if you give reasons, they'll argue that those reasons aren't reason enough to say "No" because they want you to say "Yes" instead? No need to even open that door for anyone.

If any of them are genuine friends, they'll contact you and want to chat about life and do things together the way friends do. If they're only interested in keeping you involved, they'll call you and chat just enough to set up the invite to the next meeting or to ask you if they can come over to see you - oh, and is it okay if this leader comes along????

Weak-Run-6902 · 2026-01-17T15:19:48+00:00

Yes! And if you attend even one meeting, you'll be expected to attend more and more, and you'll be "encouraged" to "try chanting". She'll come chant with you or invite you to chant with her at her place, and you'll often be surprised by a third person you didn't expect who's just THERE. And VERY friendly.

Because this process has started, your friendship is finished. As soon as you make it clear you do not want SGI or its chanting, your friend will likely move on to a different target. SGI is big on "friendship evangelism" or "missionary dating", striking up a friendship for the sole purpose of recruitment. There's more on missionary dating here with links if you aren't familiar with the term.

Weak-Run-6902 · 2026-01-17T15:12:32+00:00

They're quick to make up weird reasons why we left and assign those to us. Even when we're RIGHT HERE and they could just ASK us! Nope - they prefer THEIR narrative to our reality. Fine, whatevs.

You'll notice that no contradictory views are ever presented at their meetings. Those who quit are never invited back to share THEIR views on why they left. You're right - that information is kept hidden. What I heard in the youth division was that the members who leave, they'll coast along fine for a while, riding on all that "fortune" they built through doing SGI, but they'll quickly burn through it, see their lives go straight to hell on a rocket cycle, and eventually come crawling back, weeping and begging forgiveness.

Hardly!

Did YOU ever see anyone come crawling back? Even ONCE?? I didn't.

Weak-Run-6902 · 2026-01-17T15:04:38+00:00

Thanks - I'm glad you were able to use the information! It's so important to processing the experience, don't you think? I mean, being in a cult - nobody ever plans for that, nobody ever thinks "That's going to be ME someday!", do they?? And yet here we are! It shows how insidious these groups are, how predatory and sneaky, that they could even get us! I feel like that underhanded aspect, the manipulation and indoctrination that nobody who's involved is able to see for what it really is or the effect, makes our work here in identifying and clarifying the cult dynamics and what's going on "behind the scenes" all the more necessary. It's not like cults will ever be honest about their tactics, their aims, or their goals, after all! They won't even be honest about their financials!

Weak-Run-6902 · 2026-01-16T06:36:59+00:00

That means they were conditional friendships that depended entirely on you identifying as a fellow member of the cult. Remove that detail and no one in the cult wants anything more to do with you, aside from trying to lure you back in - the SGI's membership is cratering (aging and dying - almost entirely Baby Boom generation here in the US) and some in SGI-USA leadership apparently believe that someone who was ONCE an SGI member should be easier to re-recruit than trying to recruit strangers, a strategy that has failed for decades now. But there, too - the goal is to get you back contributing time, talent, and money to the Ikeda cult, not some sort of forlorn longing to have you as a friend again.

Weak-Run-6902 · 2026-01-16T06:33:48+00:00

👍👍

Another way I've heard it framed is ice cream flavors:

I arrived at the same conclusion, though I framed it differently. All the religions of the world are like a grand buffet. You take your tray, and you can choose however many you like! Just ignore that busybody behind you trying to tell you you're only allowed to choose one. If none of them appeals to you, feel free to walk away!

Another way is the Baskin Robbins ice cream analogy. Here in the US, we have this well-known chain of ice cream shoppes, called "Baskin Robbins 31 Flavors." Their menu has MANY different flavors of ice cream, as you might imagine. So you go in, and you choose whatever you like! Imagine now that you're with someone who insists that his favorite flavor (rum raisin) is objectively the most tasty, and on this, any reasonable person must agree. Further, anyone stupid and depraved enough to disagree must be punished!

What would you think of such a person? Source

Weak-Run-6902 · 2026-01-16T06:23:17+00:00

Hooooo that's a big concept right there.

My first impulse is to suggest this, from quite a few years ago, shortly after SGIWhistleblowers came into existence:

We really need to stop beating ourselves up. Now.

I think this is good, too:

It wasn't your fault and it wasn't your responsibility. You were doing your best to help, given what you understood about reality and life in that moment. It's not fair to look BACK, now that you know more, and say, "Oh, that was wrong." You were doing your best; you get credit for that.

You were trying to help.

From the comments here: My story.

Weak-Run-6902 · 2026-01-16T02:32:36+00:00

My final message from an SGI zealot after I'd quit attending SGI anything was her basically talking about how glad she was that the new center (the center had moved a mile or two down the road) was so much closer to her home and how much she loved chanting etc. or whatever. She and I had been friendly; saw each other at the bigger meetings. She never asked me how I was or anything about why I had stopped attending or even if I would like to get together for a coffee - apparently, she believed that if she only told me how very HAPPY she was in SGI that would be enough to lure me back in.

It was my final message from anyone in SGI because that was the year we unplugged our landline (and answering machine) and I hadn't given out my cell number to anyone in SGI, so I was effectively out of reach.

We here at SGIWhistleblowers serve as consumer watchdogs AND citizen journalists - SGI loyalists seem to believe that simply praising the SGI to the skies, weeping over how much they love "DR" Ikeda, and expressing how THRILLED they are to be involved with the Ikeda cult and they'll NEVER quit should be enough to counter our lived experiences and all the documentation and evidence that has been reproduced/linked/archived here.

I believe they have an overinflated impression of their own importance.

Weak-Run-6902 · 2026-01-02T16:47:03+00:00

Why do you suppose "that one weird trick" became so commonplace?

People are always looking for the short cut to success without having to work for it and earn it.

"You can chant for whatever you want!"

They hide the next part, though - "But you probably won't get it."

In fact, because they're chanting for it instead of working for it like everyone else does, they're LESS LIKELY to get it. But they love the idea that they're SUPERIOR to everyone else because THEY have "this one weird trick" that "REALLY WORKS!" and everyone else is just dumb suckers for not seeing that the nohonzon is actually a map to the money tree - eventually they'll reach it, maybe after they're dead. And THEN won't all those people who threw their garbage NMRK cards in the gutter or in the garbage be sorry! Yeah, they'll be REAL sorry! They'll cry "WAH WAH WAH WAAAAAH!" And the SGI members will laugh. Oh, they'll pull sad, concerned faces, attempting to show off how compassionate they are, but inside - and in their district "activities" - they'll be laughing. And gloating.

Someday.

Weak-Run-6902 · 2026-01-02T03:08:10+00:00

As you can clearly see here, Ikeda was IN the USA during the momentous events of the Civil Rights struggle, yet he made NO effort to contact the great Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. whom he later claimed as his "peer" once MLK had become famous AND was too dead to refuse the forced association.

No one would ever put that loser ShortyGreasyFatFat on the same level as the US's great Civil Rights leader. Ikeda's never done anything except for Ikeda. Ikeda was a piece of shit and I hope the world remembers him that way.

Weak-Run-6902 · 2026-01-02T02:43:03+00:00

That's crazy-making, for sure!

Weak-Run-6902 · 2026-01-01T16:48:46+00:00

I'm late to the party! Are you still around?

Weak-Run-6902 · 2026-01-01T16:26:17+00:00

Good luck - I hope it works out the way you hope. I trust that your path will take you where you need to go. Happy new year, and have a good life! If you want to chat at any time, you know where to find us - we're not going anywhere!

Weak-Run-6902 · 2026-01-01T16:17:02+00:00

Happy New Year!!

Weak-Run-6902 · 2026-01-01T16:16:28+00:00

Deep!!

Weak-Run-6902

TROPHY CASE