The "Hero of the World" poses atop a pile of corpses

You recall how Nichiren positions himself as "Hero of the World", right? And how he demanded that the government slaughter all the other priests and burn their temples to the ground to elevate him to that position?

"Buddhism primarily concerns itself with victory or defeat, while secular authority is based on the principle of reward and punishment. For this reason, a Buddha is looked up to as the Hero of the World..." - from Nichiren's "The Hero of the World"

What people don't realize is that no one becomes a "victor" without vanquishing others. And the greater the victor, the higher the body-count of the vanquished.

Notice how Toda regarded "shakubuku" as a means of dominating others - for all eternity.

Ikeda's favorite words are "winning", "triumph", "victory", "struggle", "fighting", and "champion". What his devotees don't see (deliberately?) is that these goals come at others' expense - even when Ikeda is explicit about this:

"In Buddhism, we either win or lose—there is no middle ground." Ikeda

It is fun to win. There is glory in it. There is pride. And it gives us confidence. When people lose, they are gloomy and depressed. They complain. They are sad and pitiful. That is why we must win. Happiness lies in winning. Buddhism, too, is a struggle to emerge victorious. - SGI PRESIDENT IKEDA'S DAILY GUIDANCE Monday, August 1st, 2005 Source

By contrast, here is a quote from the Buddha:

Winning gives birth to hostility. Losing, one lies down in pain. The calmed lie down with ease, having set winning and losing aside. - The Buddha, Dhammapada 15.201 Source

A comment I ran into elsewhere really brought this home for me, the human cost of being a hero:

I had a friend years ago who was a Marine who flew 27 missions in World War 2. He told me if you fly 27 missions you’re usually dead. He told me when the Germans went underground to manufacture their planes we almost lost. We didn’t know where they were. Oh those clever Germans! He said you didn’t have options whether you joined up or not, if you were able to fight you went. He was 15 when he went but lied and said he was 17. He said every able bodied man wanted to get into the war. He told me it was the most exhilarating time of his life (looking back several years ago as an 87 year old man – he died three years ago). He told me they would head out, fly bombing missions, then go back to the officer’s club and drink. That was a way to numb what he was sent to do, which is drop bombs from above and not know exactly who you hit.

I think it was Kierkegaard who said in the absence of war, the only other way for men to prove their heroism is in sport. The hero impulse is a very real part of who we are, and let’s face it, just as it builds one individual it extinguishes another, and often tides of others. Source

For there to be a "winner", there must be a "loser". That's simply how it works. By defining the opponent as "functions within one's own life", Ikeda seeks to have it all the ways, but his own life is all about vanquishing others:

"They made me apologize - that's utterly outrageous. Mark my words - in 10 years time, all those [Nichiren Shoshu priests] will apologize to me!" Ikeda

Obviously, Ikeda regarded that conflict, in which the Nichiren Shoshu priesthood pulled rank and punished Ikeda for being a colossal prat, as being a "win/lose" situation in which he himself LOST. COMPLETELY UNACCEPTABLE!! Clearly, Ikeda regards phenomena from the perspective of the selfish ego, as "competitions" in which there are losers aplenty, but only one winner.

And Ikeda saw himself as the natural candidate for "winner":

Rather than having a great number of irresponsible men gather and noisily criticize, there are times when a single leader who thinks about the people from his heart, taking responsibility and acting decisively, saves the nation from danger and brings happiness to the people. Moreover, if the leader is trusted and supported by all the people, one may call this an excellent democracy. Ikeda

Clearly, Ikeda envisioned a utopia where he held ALL the power and could make EVERYBODY ELSE shut up - and the populace would adore him!

No leader is permitted to acquire a following of his own, for to do so would be a divisive incursion into President Ikeda's prerogatives as supreme leader. Source

I'll take the world. Japan is too small. The world is waiting for me. Firmly protect the future of Japan for me! Ikeda

What we see outside of the Soka Gakkai's/SGI's carefully curated façade of Ikeda - the posed images, the hype (honorary degrees and dialogues), guidance, and ghostwritten articles - is that the reality of Ikeda is that he is a bad-tempered little tyrant as described below:

"Ikeda never forgets to exact revenge against those under whom he has served in the past or those who have bullied him. He definitely exacts revenge. To get revenge is his unparalleled joy. That's because he has the heart of Ashura...I cannot help but think that once the weight of Toda Sensei was removed, his Ashura nature, which is wholeheartedly anti- enlightenment, grew obese. His jealousy and suspicions, which are growing both inside and out, are the result of his ambition for retainers to supplant lords, as well as his Ashura nature. This is his strongest and greatest garbage that he holds in his bankrupt heart." Source

Ikeda has delusions of grandeur:

What I learned (from the second president Toda) is how to behave as a monarch. I shall be a man of the greatest power. The Soka Gakkai may be disbanded then. Ikeda, 1970

The Soka Gakkai/SGI membership is clearly just a means to the end Ikeda aspires to - ruler of the WORLD!

Shintaro Ishihara's (a diet member) grandson died. Truly, it would have been alright if he hadn't. But, it's Buddhist punishment for slandering me. Ishihara thought I was a fool. He despised me and tried to make a fool of me.

Anyone who meets me gains fortune. Anyone who betrays or antagonizes me will fall into hell. This is the severe law of Buddhism. Remember that well! All Ikeda

It's quite obvious that Ikeda sees all that "winning", "victory", etc. in terms of a competition between him and others. And others must lose in order for Ikeda to win! If Ikeda doesn't win, then Ikeda lost - this is the equation Ikeda operates under.

A candid picture of Ikeda

A “hero of the world” is a person who is courageously engaged in the realities of life and society. A Buddha is one who intrepidly battles devilish functions and, manifesting the life force of the world of Buddhahood, leads a life of right action in human society. Ikeda

The reality is that Ikeda has always wanted to take over Japan and the world, though, which shows what Ikeda really thinks about all that "hero" crap.

"Our purpose is to purify the world through the propagation of the teaching of the Nichiren Sho Denomination. Twenty years from now we will occupy the majority of seats in the National Diet and establish the Nichiren Sho Denomination as the national religion of Japan and construct a national altar at Mt. Fuji (at Taiseki-ji temple). This is the sole and ultimate purpose of our association." The year 1979 is prophesied to be the year in which this purpose will be consummated. One of Ikeda's top lieutenants

On May 3, 1966, at the twenty-ninth general meeting of Soka Gakkai, Ikeda announced a new goal: conversion of 10,000,000 families by the end of the year 1979. Beyond 1979, Ikeda set another goal: 15,000,000 to be converted by the end of 1990. (Japan's New Buddhism, p. 127)

#Therefore my resolution is to completely realize the cause of Kosen-rufu by 1990.

If we attain our target membership of 10 million households by 1979, four or five million more households will join in this religion by 1990. Ikeda

The numbers game is the language of conquerors. And you can't be a "conqueror" unless you have a great pile of the conquered to stand on.