Chanting to the Flooded City: Soka Gakkai International, Hurricane Katrina, and Collective Memory


Amelia Madueno, York University

Soka Gakkai, or the Society for the Creation of Value, is a Japanese new religion --a group with modern origins existing along the periphery of a society's dominant religions (McLaughlin, 2018)-- founded in 1930. Soka Gakkai members follow the teachings of Nichiren, a thirteenth-century Japanese Buddhist priest. The organization claims that spiritual enlightenment is inherent in every person and can be awakened by chanting the phrase "nam myōhō renge kyō," En. I take refuge in the Lotus Sutra. During World War II, the Empire of Japan imprisoned Soka Gakkai's founders and top leaders for violating the government's new religious policies. In 1945, Toda was released from prison and began participating in rebuilding efforts across Japan, gathering new members as he travelled. By the mid-1970s, Soka Gakkai had grown into Japan's largest new religion, amassing hundreds of followers in Japan and overseas. On March 15, 1974, over 350 people from across the Gulf South region of the United States convened at the University of New Orleans to meet Daisaku Ikeda, Soka Gakkai's recently appointed third president. Members of the Soka Gakkai community in New Orleans consider this visit significant; during the meeting, Ikeda spoke about people's inherent potential to achieve enlightenment and serve as a beacon of hope for others. Addressing the Japanese members in attendance, Ikeda highlighted the importance of participating in and contributing to American society: "Learn English, get a driver's license, and pay your taxes," he said. Ikeda named the group of members who attended this meeting the "Happiness Group" and asked them to plant "seeds of happiness," i.e. spread the teachings of Soka Gakkai across the Gulf South region of the United States. In 1975, a year after visiting New Orleans, Ikeda formally created Soka Gakkai International; while Soka Gakkai operates solely in Japan, SGI is present in 192 countries and territories, accumulating approximately 2.8 million members (Fisker-Nielsen, 2022). In August 2005, Hurricane Katrina --a category five Atlantic hurricane-- landed in New Orleans and flooded 80% of the city, destroying most of its transportation facilities and communications systems. Hurricane Katrina destroyed countless religious buildings; local SGI members, several of them seeking refuge in other states, wondered if their centre had survived the storm. The Soka Gakkai International-USA New Orleans Buddhist Center did, in fact, escape substantial damage. Nevertheless, many of the organization's members lost their homes, vehicles, and businesses. While some members chose to stay and rebuild, others left New Orleans and never returned. In this paper, four SGI-New Orleans members share their memories of Hurricane Katrina. Based on oral history interviews and ethnographic work, this paper focuses on SGI-New Orleans' collective memory of Hurricane Katrina, which is distinctly marked by members' reliance on Ikeda's teachings. I argue that rather than seeking comfort in Nichiren's original work, members used Ikeda's interpretation of it to overcome the emotional devastation left behind by Hurricane Katrina. In doing so, SGI-New Orleans members actively contribute to the organization's shift from a Nichiren-based movement to an Ikeda-centric one. Through this case study, I seek to address the role of collective memory within Japanese new religious movements involved in distinct environmental, political, and social crises.

This paper will be presented at the following session: