Provost and Vice Chancellor Winston Langley, Director for the Center for Japanese Study in the Tsinghua University in Beijing, China Dr. Qu Delin, and Vice President of Soka Gakkai International (SGI) Hiromasa Ikeda, son of peace activist Daisaku Ikeda, celebrated the official opening of the peacemakers table on Sept. 30 at the University of Massachusetts Boston. 
The table, around which peace activists including Mother Theresa have met, is a part of the Peace Abbey Archives, donated to UMass Boston in 2012. 
The event took place in the Healey Library at 3 p.m. and addressed issues related to humanism and creating cultures of peace.
Langley’s presentation was centered around humanistic, philosophic, and Buddhist dialogues located in diverse peace literature written by authors such as Mahatma Gandhi, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, and Henry David Thoreau.
“We need to focus on women’s rights, abolishing war, subverting greed, subverting hatred, educating citizens for global awareness, ethical visions of education, and people’s responses to our global neighborhood. Part of this movement is to work from the bottom up to advocate for peace,” Langley remarked.
Langley declared, “Nuclear weapons are the ultimate negation for the dignity of life.”
In Delin’s presentation, he mentioned the accomplishments of Daisaku Ikeda, a Buddhist leader and founder of several educational, cultural, and research intuitions for peace in many countries. One of these educational research institutions is Soka University in Tokyo, which currently has a student exchange program with UMass Boston.
In addition, he discussed his thoughts about the future of humanistic peace studies.
Hiromasa Ikeda expanded on the legacy of his father, and the man’s interactions with other peace leaders around the world, including Josei Toda.
The elder Ikeda had a difficult life attempting to support his family, yet he devoted himself to advocate for peace by visiting countries all over the world and establishing friendships in several countries with Christians and Hindus.
Additionally, Ikeda addressed his devotion and influence in the SGI, which encourages its members to contribute to society as good citizens and increase public awareness of issues pertaining to human rights, and a sustainable environment, and to promote peace and human rights.
“The only way for society to change is for the people to change. It requires people to better themselves and their communities, here and now,” Ikeda quoted from a Nicherian definition of peace.
The speakers closed the peacemakers table ceremony by thanking Chancellor J. Keith Motley — though he was not in attendance — and everyone else for coming.