An SGI experience from a professor at Morehouse University

 Morehouse University

I can't recall off the top of my head if it was 2001(?) when I first heard of an upcoming ceremonial installation of Ikeda's portrait in the Morehouse Chappelle alongside Gandhi and MLK. Although I was living in Montreal, Canada, I immediately embarked on a campaign to stop the process by sending a large information package by registered mail to the President of Morehouse and to the publisher of the Atlanta Journal. In the package were copies of published material from the BBC, Far Eastern Economic Review, Time and other reputable media companies. I did not include a personal opinion, only to say that, given the information provided, they may "wish to reconsider the event". I was hoping that someone would perhaps get back to me, but I never expected what did come of it three months later.

Sometime in the spring of 2001, my wife and I were invited to an informal Nichiren Shoshu meeting at a private residence in Ottawa about three hours’ drive away. When we arrived, I rang the doorbell and in a moment the host, a young woman from China, opened the door saying, "Oh Brian, good to see you. You know, your friend is here already! Really?!?! What friend could that be as I hadn't invited nor informed anyone about this meeting, just my wife. Yet there sitting on the couch was Tadashi Ohira, the regional director of SGI Canada. I turned to the host, who had no idea who he was, and said "This man is a Gakkai official and I certainly did not invite him". In fact, the meeting was a closed event with only a handful of persons attending (think of a small living room sized meeting). She told me he knocked on her door earlier and said he was my friend and that I had asked him to come. She was confused and nervous about what to do. I began a rant explaining to all present that he was an imposter, a liar and up to no good. He then opened his briefcase and pulled out a handful of papers shouting "You wrote letter to Morehouse University! You said bad things about Ikeda Sensei. I go Dawson College and tell what you did", (implying that he would get me fired). The host asked him to leave or she would call the police. As he was ushered towards the door, he again repeated that he will go to my college.

The incident was troubling on a few levels. First, how did he know that I was going to Ottawa to attend this small meeting? The meeting was a well-kept secret as the SGI had been attempting to audit me since my return from France a year earlier. Second, how did he have any knowledge that I had sent information to Morehouse, and not just that, he had a copy of it? Third, was he aware that he committed a crime when he misrepresented himself to the host to gain entry to her home?

The incident was reported to Canada’s national police, the RCMP, because it involved a possible third parties in either the USA or in Japan. I never heard from the SGI again, but they in fact did have a meeting with the Director General of Dawson College, Patrick Woodsworth, and I was fired from the college shortly thereafter. Even though it was not possible to prove a link between Ohira’s threat and my firing, the union filed a wrongful dismissal charge and won in court four years later. To be clear, the case was won on a human right’s issue alone.

This is my story. No one can ever tell me that the SGI is anything but a self-serving and dangerous entity acting under the guise of peace and love. They’re not Buddhist.

The names given here are the correct names. The college director has passed away, but Tadashi Ohira is still alive, although he appears to be inactive now. I take full legal responsibility for all that I’ve written here.