Daisaku Ikeda presents a humanitarian award to his friend Manuel Noriega. SGI Graphic reported at the time that as a mark of their friendship, Noriega named a small Panamanian Island "Ikeda Island". Japanese press reported that Soka Gakkai returned the gesture by naming the gardens of their Fujinomiya training center "Les Jardins Noriega" allegedly inscribing this on a bronze plaque which has now been covered up by a box. Ikeda's friendship with the convicted cocaine trafficker, torturer and rapist goes back a long way.
Ikeda also formed a close friendship and swapped "humanitarian" medals with one of history's most evil totalitarian dictators - the torturing abuser of human rights, Romania's Nicolai Ceaucescu, who was later shot by his own people following the overthrow of Communism.