Ikeda’s exhaustive efforts to travel throughout Japan and meet one-on-one with Soka Gakkai members laid the foundation for the remarkable expansion of the organisation.

At the time (1979), the Soka Gakkai’s top leaders were cowed by the havoc being caused by the priesthood and felt as if they were under their constant surveillance. The situation deteriorated to the point where I could not freely attend meetings. The priesthood’s attacks against me grew increasingly malicious. My activities were rarely reported in the pages of the Seikyo Shimbun. As such articles disappeared, members felt increasingly lost and alone. Many of them phoned or wrote letters, worried about my well-being.

Nothing will change if one just sits by in silence. The right opportunity will never arrive unless one creates it. Disgusted by the top leaders’ spineless passivity toward the arrogant priesthood, I determined to fight back on my own. If I couldn’t attend meetings, I would visit individual members, one home at a time! If I couldn’t participate in large gatherings, I would hold countless individual meetings! This was my firm resolve, my burning fighting spirit.”