Words of Wisdom: Guiding Your Life and the World
A Report on Master Ryuho Okawa's Recent Lectures and Spiritual Messages
Is the American View on Pre-WW2 Japan and Modern Day Islam Correct? "Establishing God's Justice"
Islamic nations are in conflict with America and Europe in the Middle East, and in Asia, China and Korea have been in conflict with Japan over the narratives of the Greater East Asia War (大東亜戦争, Dai Tō-A Sensō). The core of these international conflicts comes from friction that varying ideas over religious and historical ‘justice’ have created.
Happy Science has been defining rightness for a new age in order to resolve these conflicts. As part of this movement, Master Okawa delivered a lecture titled “Establishing the Justice of God”, in which he discussed the ideals of justice in international politics.
Point 1: Reviewing the Purpose of The Greater East Asia War, And Reassess Japanese Shintoism
In America and Europe, the media portrayed the Greater East Asia War as a Japanese invasion of Asia. After the war, the victorious party considered Japanese Shintoism an example of exclusivist nationalism.
Master Okawa, however, is seeking a reassessment of Shintoism, saying that, as seen from a global perspective, the harsh treatment that it received was unreasonable. With regards to the war, countries such as Palau, Thailand, and Sri Lanka have acknowledged that Japan liberated Asia from Colonial rule.
Point 2: It Is Wrong To Massacre People in Islamic Countries
The Coalition of the “willing”, with America at its center, wishes to stamp out the Islamic State, and what people in the Middle East are doing now is partly a resistance to the unreasonable American and European policies in their area.
Master Okawa asserted that America’s actions have not necessarily been just. He proposed that the international society should not try to exterminate the IslamicState, but should rather enforce upon them a cease-fire.
Point 3: American Values Are Wavering
Both the idea of exterminating the Islamic State, and the negative impressions of pre-WW2 Japan come from a one-sided American sense of justice. Master Okawa explained that there is a movement in international society which is looking for a re-evaluation of the ideals of justice that America, the former-superpower, established.
In addition, Master Okawa spoke on the following topics in this lecture: the inherent contradictions of democracy, the limitations of the study of international politics, the difference between kamikaze attacks and terrorism, whether Okinawa was abandoned, the problems of China’s increasing hegemony, and the thinking needed for friendships between religions.