1. Facing the close of World War Two in China
Doshin, taken a few years
before the end of the war.
August 15, 1945, Japan surrendered unconditionally to the Allied Nations.
The time was six days before the surrender on August 9. So Doshin had crossed China on assignment for Japan's Special Service Agency., and in the last days of the war, he was in the town of Suiyang along the old Soviet Union and Manchuria border met (in the Northeast region of China). The Soviet Union unilaterally broke the Japan-Soviet Mutual Non-Aggression Pact 8 months prior to its expiration and joined battle by invading deeply into Manchuria. The Japanese Army, despite having learned in advance of the Soviet Union's entry into the war, concerned itself only with its own safety, and retreated without passing on any of this information to the Japanese residents. The police also abandoned the area. With full knowledge of Soviet entry into the war, the Japanese Army abandoned over 200,000 settlers and countless other Japanese, and ran off in utter secrecy, to save no one but themselves. The army, which was supposed to have protected the Japanese people, had turned the Japanese citizenry into their own shield.
Kaiso fell in with several groups of citizens escaping from the border region, and they fled from the Soviet army's attack, and on the way, they all witnessed brazen acts of human shamelessness. People disregarded all others to get food, selling out their compatriots to get a single piece of bread. "If it were for their survival, people pressed to the utmost extreme didn't care at all what happened to others. It was an ugly vision, a fierce grip on mere life." Kaiso recorded his thoughts at the time in the following words.
"In peaceful, quiet times, people can hide their basic characters and prettify their appearances in all kinds of ways, but when order collapses for a time, then people's bloody basic characters can bare their teeth. And whether one considers law, the armed forces or government, one can see that a tremendous difference in consequences is made by the characters of those who run those systems. I was able to discover this fact amidst suffering and difficulties".
This was definitely not something that depended on the rank or educational qualifications of people. I suffered as if in hell, certainly a misfortune, but as a result, I learned the essential character of human beings, changed my view of life, and so gained an irrepeatably precious experience.
"The person, the person, everything depends on the quality of the person".
No matter how much the world may change, as long as humans live on earth and all affairs are conducted by "persons," then to achieve true peace will only be possible by making, one at a time, as many people as possible who overflow with courage, a sense of justice and charity, and who are strong, upright, and gentle. This is what I grasped with painful clarity."
This experience greatly changed Kaiso's view of life, and would eventually lead to the founding of Shorinji Kempo. As he traveled the paths that led him back to Japan, Kaiso told himself that if he were able to return to Japan, he would even open a private school if that were what it took to cultivate individual youths with courage, compassion, and a sense of justice.