Asaki Libel Suit Dismissed

The Justice Chronicle, provided by Soka Gakkai International-USA, is a free monthly e-mail in support of the Soka Spirit movement. Soka Spirit is the SGI's educational effort to create value and deepen our understanding of Nichiren Buddhism through increased awareness of issues surrounding the Nichiren Shoshu priesthood and the spiritual foundation of the SGI movement.

1) NEWS

ASAKI LIBEL SUIT DISMISSED

On March 28, the Tokyo District Court dismissed a libel suit against monthly magazine Ushio for an article it published in November 1995 on the suicide of Higashi Murayama city councilwoman Akiyo Asaki. According to the article, the councilwoman committed suicide prior to being indicted on shoplifting charges, the publicity of which would have been politically disastrous.

Plaintiffs Daito Asaki, his daughter Naoko, and Hozumi Yano -- the late councilwoman's husband, daughter and a colleague -- claimed that the November 1995 article was libelous. [Daito and Naoko Asaki have accused the Soka Gakkai through various publications of criminal involvement in Councilwoman Asaki's death. Police and investigators for the prosecution, however, ruled the councilwoman's death a suicide.] The district court found the Ushio article to be accurate and credible, reaffirming Akiyo Asaki's death a suicide. Ushio is published by Soka Gakkai affiliate Ushio Publishing Co.

The plaintiffs had filed similar charges against the Soka Gakkai and its daily newspaper the Seikyo Shimbun, none of which have been upheld in court. (See Justice Chronicle issues 85, 86, 103 and 116 for more on this case).

2) FILL THE WORLD WITH THE LIGHT OF WISDOM AND CULTURE

This series contains SGI President Ikeda's 1991 message to commemorate March 16, Kosen-rufu Day, which originally appeared in the May 1991 issue of the Seikyo Times. It was written shortly after the Nichiren Shoshu priesthood began taking action against the Soka Gakkai at the end of 1990.

ONE MUST COMBINE GOODNESS AND STRENGTH

To Prometheus, Lord Byron calls out: What was thy pity's recompense? / A silent suffering, and intense; / The rock, the vulture, and the chain, / All that the proud can feel of pain, / Thy Godlike crime was to be kind, / to render with thy precepts less the sum of human wretchedness, / And strengthen Man with his own mind (Prometheus, 1816).

The English poet, Percy Bysshe Shelley, also felt sympathy for Prometheus, who became his ideal of a fighter for human rights.

When he was 26, Shelley began to write Prometheus Unbound, in which he has the person of forethought remark: Whilst me, who am thy foe, eyeless in hate, / Hast thou made reign and triumph, to thy scorn, / O'er mine own misery and thy vain revenge. / From thine unenvied throne, O mighty God! / Almighty, had I deigned to share the shame of thine ill tyranny, ... (Prometheus Unbound, Act I, lines 9-21).

If Prometheus had been daunted, he says, Zeus would have become all-powerful, and everyone would have had to silently submit to his will. But this was not to be. Prometheus had given the fire of wisdom to humankind, and eventually the tyrant would be overthrown.

Ill deeds, then to thou damned, beholding good, / Both infinite as is the Universe, / And thou, and thy self-torturing solitude (Act I, lines 293-95).

Evil becomes unlimited evil. Prometheus, the person of forethought, says that one must never underestimate the danger of evil's preponderance.

And the tyrant is infinitely lonely. As he descends the slope of evil, he falls unremittingly toward the depths of loneliness.

Shelley also says: Though now thou sittest, let the hour / Come, when thou must appear to be / That which thou art internally; (Act I, lines 297-99).

The person of forethought had been able to foresee Zeus's fall. He knew every detail as to who and by what actions his fall was to occur. Because he knew everything, Zeus feared him. Zeus therefore was impatient to do away with him, and tried to break his spirit by any means.

Zeus tempted Prometheus by saying that if he, Prometheus, would but teach him the least detail about his future, he would forgive his disobedience. However, Prometheus held his peace and refused to speak. In this way, he chose to undergo such suffering. Such was the strength of his determination; such is the greatness of his love for humankind.

It was a contest of good versus evil. It is not an easy manner for kindhearted goodness to defeat great evil. Because he had keenly perceived the nature of human beings, Shelley was also well aware of the fragility of goodness. And this he lamented, saying: The good want power, but to weep barren tears. / The powerful goodness want: worse need for them. / The wise want love, and those who love want wisdom; / And all best things are thus confused to ill (Act I, lines 626-28).

One must combine goodness and strength, and wisdom and compassion. Only then can one truly become a soldier of human rights. It is from the combination of these qualities that a person of courage who can realize ideals is born.

Four in a series.

SOKA SPIRIT IN THE PUBLICATIONS

This section highlights articles published in the World Tribune and Living Buddhism directly related to the Soka Spirit movement.

April 5 World Tribune page 1: In her article entitled Philadelphia Holds Soka Spirit Conference Philadelphia correspondent Mimi Sharp reports on the 2nd annual conference for Philadelphia, whose theme this year was Unleashing the Power of the Human Spirit.

April 5 World Tribune, page 3: In his speech entitled A Foundation for People's Lives, SGI President Ikeda discusses the importance of the Lotus Sutra passage regarding showing respect to the votaries of the Lotus Sutra and how Nichiren Shoshu high priest Nikken has gone against this.

April 5 World Tribune, page 6: President Ikeda writes about the power of SGI-Brazil's youth and their victories for justice in his essay entitled Places Where Youth Are Growing.

April 5 World Tribune page 10: The Spirit To Protect Buddhism, the latest installment of the series Gosho For Discussion Meetings, written by the SGI-USA Study Department, addresses how this spirit pertains to practicing Buddhism.