Daisaku Ikeda born in Tokyo, 1928 in a family that harvested edible seaweed for a livelihood. From his youth, Ikeda suffered from a weak constitution, compounded by tuberculosis. His doctor's predicted that he would probably not live beyond thirty, which imparted to him a spirit of intensity, the determination not to waste a moment of life, which has become a defining aspect of his character.
Ikeda grew up in Tokyo in an age when Japan militarist regime was driving the nation toward World War II. Nearly every facet of Japanese life--from families and factories to schools and religious groups--was marshaled for the war effort. This was the seeding ground of Ikeda's passion for peace. Ikeda was a young teenager in 1940s when Japan entered World War II. His family, like most other Japanese families, was devastated, spiritually and materially. Their home was twice destroyed in air raids and at one point they lived in a makeshift shelter constructed over a bomb crater.
Amid the postwar chaos and confusion Ikeda read voraciously, searching for answers in whatever scarce books on literature and philosophy he could get his hands on. It was at this juncture that he encountered Josei Toda, Toda, an educator and the cofounder of the Soka Gakkai lay Buddhist association, had opposed the policies of the wartime government and had suffered persecutions and a two-year imprisonment as a result.
In 1948, Ikeda began working at Toda's publishing company where he began to develop his literary talents. Daisaku Ikeda is a Buddhist philosopher,
peace builder, educator, author and poet. He is the third president of the Soka Gakkai lay Buddhist organization and the founding president of the Soka Gakkai International (SGI), which is today one of the world's largest and most diverse lay Buddhist organizations, promoting a philosophy of character development and social engagement for peace, culture and education based on the life affirming philosophy of Nichiren Diashonn's Buddhism. Daisaku Ikeda has from May 1975 to January 2016 been conferred with over three hundred and fifty(350) University awards all over the world.
Source:http://www.daisakuikeda.org/main/profile/bio/bio-01.html
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