Quote
Nichijew
http://www.ocweekly.com/2011-03-10/news/soka-university-of-america-aliso-viejo-gakkai/#

Soka University of America, fine institution of advanced brainwashing studies. Please also search out SUA videos on U-tube. Frightening examples of SGI student brainwashing. Japan's decline at the hands of Soka Gakkai is a human tragedy. Don't let it happen to America and the world.

Mark

Interesting article, Mark, thanks for the link. There were 65 responses from people who say that they are SU students -- most of which were about how much they love SU, and no, nobody is ever pressured to join SGI! They love their school -- and why wouldn't they? Soka can spend a lot of money -- on a small number of students. Why spoil everything by asking where this money really came from?

The commenters pointed out that the article gives much space to professors who didn't get tenure....and understandably might be looking to blame something other than their own less than stellar job performance. Then again, you can also say that for a small university, there were a disproportionately large number of faculty complaints.

Nonetheless, the article made some points that are very believable, based on what we know of SGI:

"But some faculty members quickly became suspicious. Students, they say, would always talk about their "life mentor," referring to Ikeda. They'd spend their days reading his speeches and chanting the Lotus Sutra in the lounge areas. The campus museum featured an exhibit titled "Gandhi, King, and Ikeda."


"One professor who asked to remain anonymous alleges that in the school's first year of operation, students told him of a sexual assault that had happened on campus. The victim went to administrators, who urged her not to say anything. "The excuses they gave were medieval," the professor states. "They said they were going to protect her reputation."

"Several Soka staffers walked out or were dismissed in the first few years of the school's opening......One of those students was Murphy McMahon, who left the school after the incident. Now 29 and working as a translator in Brazil, he wrote via e-mail, "The university was handled like a prerogative of its parent organization, as if the purpose of its existence was the aggrandizement of Daisaku Ikeda. That was manifest constantly everywhere: the reading lists, the special events, the student clubs and activities, the buildings, the museum exhibits, and then in faculty politics and hiring, where not loving Ikeda enough proved an occupational hazard."

Comments on the article, from three people who say that they are Soka University Students:

#1 "I think the issue we should focus on is that Soka advertises itself as a nonreligious school, when it really isn't. When you go to Brigham Young, you know you're going to a Morman University. That basketball player may not agree with the rules, but he know what he was getting into. But Soka claims it's not a Buddhist University, which isn't entirely true. Things might be getting better here, but still..."

#2 "THAT BEING SAID,I most definately felt discriminated against on multiple occasions. I feel it would in SUA's best interest to advertise as a SGI University instead of a Non-Sectarian one. The most definately is a SGI presence in the classroom. In many classes I have taken with SGI teachers, quotes from Daisaku Ikeda were included with the lesson for the day or written at the top of the board. More than once, I was "encouraged" to attend "Ikeda Speech Discussion" by a Professor I was currently taking a course from, only because Ikeda was writing about a topic touched on in our course (Pacific Rim). These Speech discussions were often from SGI publications and if read in full context talked of the Lotus Sutra and "chanting to defeat devilish functions" and to overcome political enemies. Professors offered extra credit for this. CORE I included readings from Ikeda and we discussed the Mentor/ Disciple relationship as compared to Plato and Socrates. In the courses defense, we also read from the Bible, the Upanishads and the Koran, but those texts were treated as "religious ones" with Ikeda's were academic. Although each professor sets his or her own syllabus, the courses a non-SGI student takes would likely shape his or her experience. The pressure came more from the students. "You must chant for a stronger personal relationship with President Ikeda". If I questioned the presence of material in class, it was usually dropped. But rarely did I have the courage. "I ran into Professors at meetings (encouraged to go by friends) and after class I would be asked if I would be attending again. There was constant pressure to join and almost a deadline that I be "shakabuku'd" (converted) before graduation."

"It is too difficult to tell your friends the truths in your heart sometimes, because they will turn away from you and you will be utterly alone in a population were 90% of the students are SGI memebers, so you keep your mouth shut until you are either done or forced out."

#3, responding to #2: "In regards to your comments on using Daisaku Ikeda's quotes during class, Daisaku Ikeda IS a philosopher. It is natural to compare Plato and Socrates during Core I since the principle of this university WAS made based on his philosophy."

There's the Gandhi, King and Ikeda exhibit.....and now the Plato, Socrates, and Ikeda philosophy course.

Student Reviews of Soka University:

[www.viewpoints.com]

-------------------------------beginning of quotes--------------------------------------------

--"Do not be taken in by the beauty of this campus. Internal politics amongst faculty and senior staff have made the curiculum weak and narrow in scope. If you are a member of SGI and Japanese, you'll be welcomed with open arms, but if you are not, I would suggest you look elsewhere."

First, I will mention that there is, aside from no real ethnic diversity, even less political diversity. I consider myself conservative, though I am not Christian, and come from a traditionally republican state. However, I do not attack others for their beliefs or attempt to "convert" people, and prefer not to even bring subjects such as politics and religion up in conversation. While at Soka, on at least three occasions within the first few weeks there, I was approached by both professors and even staff and, upon learning my state of origin, immediately began interrogating me as to my beliefs about my state's government and policies. After attacking my position on several contentious issues (mind you, without even waiting for WHAT my opinions even WERE), I politely excused myself from the conversations.

Yes, there is loud SGI chanting in the dorms. I am not SGI, I find it bothersome when I am trying to work/read/study/sleep.

The "Bridge" program as it is called, does not seem to do a very thorough job of teaching English to the Japanese students. My roommate was part of this program, and his English was not sufficient to even have a basic conversation with. I had to explain the word "bag." This is not the student's fault, but the Bridge program's. As a result of this limited speaking ability, most of the Japanese students, understandably, keep to themselves, leaving a very small margin of people to converse with
. 
Aliso Viejo is a gilded cage. Period. Yes, the shuttle takes students around town every 30 minutes. But after the first two weeks or so, I was thoroughly sick of the grocery store, the movie theater, CVS pharmacy, Target and WalMart. There are no clubs or lounges anywhere within reasonable distance. I.e. the location may be beautiful, but there is nothing to do.

Course offerings are very poor.

Doesn't teach marketable skills.

Teaches students an, unfortunately, sugar-coated view of the world and does not prepare them for the struggles, suffering and unfairness that they WILL face. The school teaches students that they personally can fix these issues, when they certainly cannot.

At SUA, there certainly is a lot of internal politics among the staff and faculty that leads to a weak curriculum. Practically speaking, if you want a job/career after you liberal arts degree at Soka then you are probably better off at a community college where you can get marketable skills.

And yes, within the campus there is certainly discrimination. A whole bunch of faculty and staff have left the university because they were treated differently from their counterparts that were Soka Gakkai (SGI) members (the organization that built Soka University). They were paid less simply because they were not SGI members and not because they had less credentials.

Among students, there is also certainly an in-group out-group phenomenon that resembles dicrimination. Studying at Soka as a non-SGI member (I say "MEMBER" because they have this in-group out-group thing and refer to themselves as "members") is hard, isolating, and extremely overwhelming - even if you are a social person like I am. There is constant pressure to conform to Japanese culture as well as SGI culture. Also, everything seems to revolve around "THE Founder" - SGI President Daisaku Ikeda. It is almost as if he is deified. Students say that it is merely appreciation for his founding the school. But anyone who knows anything about the Soka Gakkai would know that this is an extension of SGI's utmost devotion and "worship" of its President Emeritus Daisaku Ikeda.

There is certainly no true cultural nor IDEOLOGICAL diversity (i.e., political and religious). In terms of political ideology, the SGI swings toward the democratic party and students (the majority of who are SGI - domestic and even foreign students) generally follow. There is nothing wrong with choosing a party you identify with per se --- but where there is no diversity in thought there would be no meaningful debate because everybody thinks the same way. And this is supposed to be a university!

All in all, if you are an SGI member then this would be a terrific university for you! No doubt about it. But If you are not an SGI member then you will surely regret it --- that's unless you are converted into the SGI and of course at that point you'll love it. And there is certainly pressure (from students not the administration) to convert non-SGI members. Oh, and you will inevitabley be well-versed (although reluctantly) with Japanese culture. 

Note to all: Take the other reviews with a grain of salt, most if not all of them were probably written by SGI members who would naturally and understandably be very comfortable studying at SUA. I can sense that they are SGI members from the words they use and the way they say them. As I said before, it is a great place for SGI members but a terrible one for those who are not. 

The only negative aspect that I can think of is that an individual gets so caught up in his/her busy life, that the probability of building friendships outside the Soka campus is highly negligible.
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Soka University is a cult within a cult! These kids are kept busy, isolated, and surrounded by people who all think the same way. Indoctrination center for the next generation of the Daisaku Ikeda Fan Club. Sad that despite all the money that Soka U can spend per student -- the students still are not getting a decent education. What will they be qualified to do when they graduate, write for SGI pubs?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/12/2011 07:15AM by tsukimoto.

This is probably the only kind of direct protest action that could have a real effect on SGI-USA.
Letters won't do anything, they will just delete them. Internal complaints don't go anywhere.
But PUBLIC protests against the misdeeds of SGI-USA would start to attract some media attention.
SGI is very image conscious, so that is something they would take note of, especially right in front of their HQ, like as what happened with Scientology.

Also, perhaps local members of SGI all over the country, could have meetings, and even possibly take a vote? Maybe some areas will decide based on a vote that no more donations, not one more dollar, is going to SGI-USA, until they start giving an OPEN AUDITED ACCOUNTING of where the SGI millions and billions have gone. WHERE ARE THEY? WHO TOOK THE MONEY? (and SGI has to prove it with audited IRS statements).

Does SGI-Ikeda think its your money, or HIS money? Of course, he thinks its all his money, look at the facts, of who is using golden faucets. The SGI platitudes are USELESS. They have to produce hard facts, audited statements.
Will they? No they will not. The billions are long gone.

If dozens and hundreds , even thousands, of SGI-USA members start to "revolt" and to protest, and boycott SGI, and go on STRIKE against the unpaid-labor, and stop the money-machine, then SGI-USA will have to wake up and smell the coffee.
SGI counts on its members being passive, and doing what they are told.
If the SGI-USA members of SGI start demanding answers, then SGI-USA HQ is going to be very very worried.
No wonder Ikeda apparently posted one of his senior Ikeda-bots to run SGI-USA, that is EXACTLY how Ikeda wants it. Total control.

Quote
bobze39
Guys, I think it's time for a real action! I suggest all dissatisfied SGI members gather in front of SGI-USA headquarters at 606 Wilshire Blvd., Santa Monica, CA 90401 every Sunday at 2 p.m. Demands: Danny Nagashima to step down, financil openness, discard the enemy lists, no more free labor and exploitation. If people in Tunisia and Egypt could do it, people in the USA certainly can do it too! Of course there is fear that SGI will automatically blacklist all those who come, but are we going to be afraid of that? Let them blacklist us! Tunisians and Egyptians were not afraid of their governments to blacklist them; are freedom-loving Americans going to be afraid of some foreign organization persecuting us on our own land? Besides, it's a question of number, if thousands will come, there is nothing they can do! Help me to spread this message among SGI-USA members!

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/13/2011 12:24PM by The Anticult.

Soka University of America Is a School On a Hill
The Aliso Viejo college was founded by a Buddhist sect that preaches peace—so why are so many former professors alleging the opposite?
Comments (152)
By MICHELLE WOO Thursday, Mar 10 2011

[www.ocweekly.com]
------------QUOTE-------------------------------
...
Gaye Christoffersen, a worldly academic with a pages-long list of works on Asia-Pacific international relations to her name, felt an instant connection with Soka when she interviewed for a teaching position in 2005 after seeing a job posting in The Chronicle of Higher Education. Contracts were signed, and the 65-year-old relocated from Northern California to become a professor of political science at the school.

"Who wouldn't want to be at a university with a Buddhist peace movement?" she asks from outside a coffee shop in Santa Ana, near Orange County Superior Court. "I thought, 'This is a beautiful campus in Orange County, in America.' How could things be so weird and terrible?"

She makes reference to an e-mail sent in 2002 by Alfred Balitzer, then-dean of Soka University, to a colleague, "SUA will always have two faces and two kinds of faculty," he wrote, "and that is why we as SUA top administrators have to carefully care for the Gakkai members as they are being swamped by non-Gakkai faculty."

The document and others are tucked in Christoffersen's court files, submitted as evidence to a judge. The former Soka professor is suing the university for religious discrimination, claiming she was denied tenure because she refused to abandon her Lutheran faith to join the Soka Gakkai Buddhist sect that founded the university.

"It was a constant pressure," Christoffersen says, staring austerely through rectangular, rimless sunglasses while describing the aggressive proselytizing she says was practiced by both faculty members and students in her classes affiliated with Soka Gakkai on campus. "They're constantly after you, constantly trying to get you. You can't escape."

Christoffersen is one in a lengthening chain of faculty members and students who say they were deceived by the university's nonsectarian status and promotion of "free and open dialogue" and left. They're "Soka refugees," as former psychology professor Jeffrey Green puts it.

Many of those who've left—some by choice, others escorted by security—say that university decisions are made behind locked doors by a group of top administrators whose mission isn't the pursuit of academic excellence, but rather to extol Daisaku Ikeda, president of Soka Gakkai International, the wealthy religious organization that finances the $300 million institution. A culture of paranoia rules the campus, dissidents claim, with jobs always teetering on the line based on whether professors are Soka Gakkai or not.

"We started asking if this is a religious institution or the institution we were promised," says Green, now a professor at Virginia Commonwealth University. "It's sort of ironic that they are a group for peace, but essentially, they declare war on anyone who raises a question."
---------------------------------unquote--------------------------

Daisaku Ikeda is constantly blabbing about getting rid of nuclear weapons and "peace".
But guess what? Mitsubishi is very close to the nuclear weapons industry too.

How much money has Daisaku Ikeda and SGI and their investment front-groups, made from investments in companies and front-companies, who are involved in weapons, and even the nuclear industry?
How can this guy, Daisaku Ikeda get up there, and with a two-face and his fingers crossed behind his back, blather on about his "peace movement"?
Its a complete lie, the Big Lie.

SGI on the top-end is not about peace, its about war. They have declared "war" on the enemies of SGI.
They also invest billions of dollars globally, and SGI is going to have all kinds of financial instruments invested in the weapons and arms industries, and even the nuclear weapons industry.

How can Daisaku Ikeda be allowed to speak out of both side of his mouth, and be a two-faced propagandist, for so many years and decades?
Its time to expose the Ikeda Wizard of Oz and pull back the curtain on the delusion.


-------------quote----------------------
[www.reachingcriticalwill.org]
...
Mitsubishi is one of the main companies involved in the current construction of Fast Breeder Reactors (FBR) Monju and Rokkasho, which are both reprocessing plants. Thus, Mitsubishi is providing Japan with the reprocessing technology to make missiles through the extraction plutonium. Japan, however, does not possess nuclear weapons, at the moment because Article 9 of their constitution prevents them from doing so.

Mitsubishi is Japan's number one defence contractor – ...

Mitsubishi won the CorpWatch Greenwash award of the Month in 1995 as The Most Environmentally Destructive Corporate Force on Earth.

Mitsubishi has been engaging in nuclear business for more than three decades. Since commencing research into and devleopment of nuclear power generation in the 1950s, Mitsubishi has taken part in the design, manufacture and construction of a large number of very successful power plants. An extensive nuclear plants manufacturer within Japan, Mitsubishi is engaged in the supply of fuel cycle-related equipment and the implementation of research and development programs. These include ways of storing spent nuclear fuel and the development of new types of nuclear power plants like the fast breeder reactor, the high temperature gas cooled reactor, and the nuclear fusion reactor. Thus, Mitsubishi activities lie in close proximity to the manufacturing of nuclear weapons. They have been directly involved with manufacturing missiles and nuclear energy using plutonium.

Mitsubishi makes helicopters, rockets, missiles, torpedos, nuclear power plants, aircraft and military space equipment.
--------------------------------

...wasn't quite time to move into SGI and the links to crime and the "mafia" as that evidence has not yet come out. But, its starting to come out now...

[www.ocweekly.com]
QUOTE: "In his new book on organized crime in Japan, The Last Yakuza: A Lifetime in the Japanese Underworld, investigative reporter Jake Adelstein writes that the group (Soka Gakkai) has used the Goto-gumi, a notorious yakuza mafia group, to "keep its party strong and squelch dissent."

'those are the wealthy SGI donors who get special treatment from SGI, and donate thousands and hundreds of millions of dollars, which go right into the pockets of SGI.

-------------------
[www.ocweekly.com]
"Kirshner, who was named Professor of the Year twice in a row, calls Soka "the jewel in the crown of SGI," used to reel in hundreds of millions of dollars from donors."

..."The cult frenzy is very crazy, very Orwellian"...



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/13/2011 01:43PM by The Anticult.

What is extremely ironic, is that the growing 150 comments on the OC article, are actually helping prove the thesis stated in the article.
That if anyone raises a QUESTION about SGI or SokaU, then they become a target.
Dozens of people, or the same few SokaU members, are targeting Michele Woo, the writer. SokaU and SGI really fear any questions coming out, even in local media, so they target that media to try and silence it.

There is a further quote in the comments about Soka Gakkai and its relations with organized crime. That needs to be looked into very carefully, where all the BILLIONS have come from and where they have gone.

----------------------------------------
[www.ocweekly.com]
Firelotus2020
"No one has responded to the article's reference to Jake Adelstein's article, "The last Yakuza," World Policy Journal Summer 2010, Vol. 27, No. 2, Pages 63-71. In this article, Adelstein states "Sokka Gakkai, a religious organization represented by the political party Komeito, used the Goto-gumi, to keep its party strong and squelch dissent. Tadamasa, the Goto-gumi boss, explicitly discusses these ties in his recently published autobiography." Adelstein also states "In his autobiography, Tadamasa, the former head of the Goto-gumi, offered to testify in open session before the Diet on the dirty work he conducted as an organized crime boss for Sokka Gakkai and its political party, Komeito."

Search Google for:

"soka gakkai" Goto-gumi

soka gakkai Goto-gumi

Search Google for:

"soka gakkai" Goto-gumi

soka gakkai Goto-gumi


----------------------------------------------------
[www.japansubculture.com]

Goto-gumi Information
Everything you wanted to know about the Goto-gumi but were (rightly) afraid to ask.
Characteristics and Tendencies of the Goto-gumi Organization (from Japanese Government Agency Files)

Tadamasa Goto

* Head of Goto-gumi
* 9 prior arrests
* Born September 16, 1942

In order to achieve his goals, he uses any and all means necessary or possible. He also uses a carrot and stick approach to keep his soldiers in line. His group is capable of extremely violent and aggressive acts. Tadamasa Goto has friends including those in the financial world at the constituent level of financing deals, right-wing Tokyoites, those in the financial world, extortionists who work in threatening stock-holder meetings, and real estate brokers, among others. Using these friends, he garners enormous capital income. In particular, he was involved in the problem between the Japanese municipal government and Nippara Co., Ltd. during the Cemetery Park building incident, which related to a fraudulent land permit acquired by Sokka Gakkai...

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