I believe that from now on you should have a world consciousness. Let me tell you about an interesting episode in connection with this.
One day right after World War 2, an ex-army officer came to see me. With an expression of burning resentment, he said, “I cannot understand why Japan had to surrender in this war, however hard I try to do so. It is truly regrettable.” He was full of indignation as he said this.
Since I did not show the reaction he expected, he asked me in a disgusted tone, “Sir, are you a Japanese?” I immediately said, “No, I am not. ”He was so shocked at my answer he trembled with emotion as he asked, “Then to what country do you belong?” I said,“ I am a citizen of the world.” This too was quite an unexpected reply and he looked at me blankly, then asked me to explain what I meant in words that he could understand. I did so in various ways. This article is based on the answers I gave to that officer at that time.
I believe it is wrong to discriminate between races, but the Japanese People in those days had a strong tendency to do so. After Japan won the Sino-Japanese War and the Russo-Japanese War and suddenly ranked among the greatest powers of the world, the people became so puffed up with pride that they began to think their country was especially favored by God and the leaders encouraged this thought. Such egotism led to the nation’s reckless triggering of World War 2 in the Pacific area. Thus, the Japanese regarded the natives of other countries with contempt, as if they were lower creatures than themselves. They invaded other countries and killed the people there without any self-reproach. It was a natural consequence of this kind of thinking that Japan Experienced such a miserable defeat.
While the people of any nation entertain such self-centered thinking that they do not care what happens to other nations as long as they are benefited, there cannot be peace in this world. You can easily understand this point by applying it to your own region. Suppose there was a conflict between two areas in your country. It would be settled quickly, since such a disagreement would be similar to a family quarrel. We can expand this idea, applying it to the entire world.
There is a famous poem composed by Emperor Meiji* which goes;
If all the people
Who are living upon Earth
Regard each other
As one family, brothers,
How can any strife occur?
If all people would come to accept this way of thinking, world peace could be realized at once. Indeed, if all the people of the world became this broad-minded, war simply could not occur, because we would all truly belong to one family.
There are individuals who form groups based on certain isms or ideas and consider those outside their groups as enemies. There are also individuals who advocate certain national policies, a national spirit, nationalism of a narrow mind, or who have convictions about their own country’s divinity. Such egotism can not only lead a country to disaster, but can also create a great impediment to world peace. In memory of the peace concluded after World War 2, Japanese People at least should become world conscious, entirely discarding the Shojo Way of thinking they had in the past and embracing a completely Daijo attitude,This will be the most progressive and advanced way of thinking in the world from now on, and individuals with this attitude will be the ones who are needed most.
This idea can be applied to religion, also. It is quite archaic to seclude a religion so there is discrimination against other groups. Allow me to compliment our church in this regard. We are not so small-minded as to tell our members that they should not have any contact with other religions. On the contrary, we even welcome their doing so, for one of our tenets is peace; we are striving to bring all the peoples of the world into harmony and make them one big family.
In this sense, we feel that all other religious groups are our friends, and we wish to work side by side with them for the realization of the new world.
