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Second Soka Gakkai president Josei Toda (1900-58) made an impassioned declaration to the youth of the Soka Gakkai, calling on them to take up the challenge of abolishing nuclear weapons, harshly condemning such weapons and anyone who would threaten "humanity's collective right to life" by using them.
In 1973, youth members of Soka Gakkai in Japan launched a petition drive and gathered 10 million signatures which were presented to then UN Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim at the UN headquarters in New York in 1975.
Compilations of war survivor’s experiences published at the initiative of SGI youth and women members
The youth division of Soka Gakkai Japan compiled and published 80 volumes of more than 3,000 individual war experiences from World War II during the period from 1974 to 1985. The Soka Gakkai Women's Peace Committee in Japan published a 20-volume work, In Hope of Peace, which chronicles the experiences of women who lived through World War II.
The "Nuclear Arms: Threat to Our World" exhibition was first presented in 1982 at the UN Headquarters concurrent with the General Assembly Second Special Session on Disarmament (SSDII) and in cooperation with the UN Department of Public Information and the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The exhibition was viewed by 1.2 million people in 25 cities in 16 countries until it ended its first term world tour in 1988 as part of the World Disarmament Campaign adopted at SSDII.
This exhibition was updated following the end of the Cold War and resumed its tour under the title "Nuclear Arms: Threat to Humanity" in 1996. It was viewed by about a half million people in 14 cities in eight Latin American countries.
This exhibition which describes not only the destructive effect of all wars but also humanitarian and environmental issues that confront human beings, was launched at the UN Headquarters in 1989 in cooperation with the UN Department of Disarmament Affairs and International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW). This exhibition was shown in 13 cities in five countries up to 1993.
SGI youth division members collecting signatures as part of the Abolition 2000 petition drive in Hiroshima, 1997
The SGI joined this campaign and collected more than 13 million signatures, mainly in Japan. The signatures were presented in 1998 to the Preparatory Committee of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT PrepCom) chairperson Eugenius Wyzner during its session in Geneva as well as to Deputy Secretary-General Louise Fréchette on behalf of Secretary-General during Disarmament Week in New York.
