Lecture by Mr. Hideki Soejima held as part of the Soka Education class

To commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Founder's first visit to the Soviet Union in 1974, we invited journalist Hideki Soejima, to give a lecture. Mr. Soejima has translated Mikhail Gorbachev’s autobiography into Japanese language, and has had the opportunity to interview Gorbachev one-on-one.

Title: Lessons for Peace Sought by Today's World: Mikhail Gorbachev and Daisaku Ikeda
Lecturer: Mr. Hideki Soejima (Senior Staff Writer, The Asahi Shimbun, Hiroshima General Bureau)
Venue: S201, Soka University
Class name: Soka Education

Around 420 people, 400 students, and 20 faculty and staff members attended the lecture.

Mr. Soejima talked about the significance of Gorbachev's Perestroika and Ikeda’s citizen diplomacy toward nuclear abolition and world peace.
After the lecture, an hour-long discussion session was held, and many students asked questions.

Student's Comments:
〇 I was Touched by Mr. Soejima's desire for peace. As a student of Soka University, I want to learn more about the Founder's ideas and be able to convey the greatness of these ideas to others with conviction. Today's talk has made me want to read more books, so I'd like to start by reading the dialogues and then move on to other books. I would like to thank Mr. Soejima for coming all the way to Soka University.


〇 Through this lecture, I learned about the friendship between Mikhail Gorbachev and the Founder, and international peace as discussed at the G7 Hiroshima Summit. I found out that the great friendship between Gorbachev and the Founder was influential in the politics of improving relations between Russia and Japan, amid bad political relations between the two countries. I truly felt the significance and greatness of the Founder's advocacy for peace.