Zen At War

[camerata]

Although I haven't read it yet, Zen at War by Brian Daizen Victoria looks like a pretty bizarre book. Complete with cover photo of zen monks goosestepping with rifles, it chronicles the part zen played in supporting the Japanese government's war effort in WW2.

There are some truly demented writings from Zen masters in the book.

Daiun Sogaku Harada Roshi:

"The spirit of Japan is the Great Way of the Shinto gods. It is the essence of the Truth. The Japanese people are a chosen people whose mission is to control the world. The sword that kills is also the sword that gives life. Comments opposing the war are the foolish opinions of those who can only see one aspect of things and not the whole."

At the time of the Nanking massacre, D.T. Suzuki wrote:

"... the art of swordsmanship distinguishes between the sword that kills and the sword that gives life. The one that is used by a technician cannot go any further than killing.... The case is altogether different with the one who is compelled to lift the sword. For it is really not he but the sword itself that does the killing. He had no desire to harm anybody, but the enemy appears and makes himself a victim. It is though the sword automatically performs its function of justice, which is the function of mercy…. the swordsman turns into an artist of the first grade, engaged in producing a work of genuine originality."

Apparently, all sects in Japan were pretty much forced to follow the official line. I read in a temple leaflet last year in Japan that during the war Shingon priests used the Goma fire ritual to pray for victory. Because the traditional three-legged fire braziers are associated with this, temples now use four-legged braziers.

Anyway, no need to read the book because there is a long review at Dark Zen. Oh, and there's a sequel: Zen War Stories.

[cdnvic]

"... the art of swordsmanship distinguishes between the sword that kills and the sword that gives life. The one that is used by a technician cannot go any further than killing.... The case is altogether different with the one who is compelled to lift the sword. For it is really not he but the sword itself that does the killing. He had no desire to harm anybody, but the enemy appears and makes himself a victim. It is though the sword automatically performs its function of justice, which is the function of mercy

That is actually a good passage describing any soldier in battle. Though he holds no personal issue with the adversary he faces on the battlefield, they are both part of a bigger machine involved in bigger issues.

War puts a stain on religions everywhere. Catholic silence at the holocaust, the weakness of the German churches in the face of the Nazis.

The doctrines of these religions stayed the same through out all this. It was the men and women who kept them that proved weak.

[sabaijai]

Catholic silence at the holocaust, the weakness of the German churches in the face of the Nazis.

I'm veering off topic here, but not all churches in Germany were silent.

Alfred Delp

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Joseph Mueller

Katholischer Studentenverein Arminia Bonn

[cdnvic]

Yes, I did a disservice to those few who stood up and many of them ultimately paid with their lives. It was unfair of me to make broad statement like that without acknowledging them.

[Bakuteh]

This book has been around for some time, in fact it was first published in 1997. The author, Brian Victoria is a Soto Zen priest and a farang and the book mentions that he was teaching at the University of Auckland at the time he wrote the book.

Brian Victoria has overcome the objections of many people including his own self-doubt to write this book about a dark side of modern Buddhist history. For this he should be commended and indeed emulated for as he writes, "truth can never be slander".

Although during the 2nd World War, the leaders of Japanese Buddhism, almost to a man, unconditionally pledged their support for Japanese militarism which perpetuated excesses of war such as the Nanjing massacre, there were a small minority of Japanese Buddhists who refused to support the war effort and were actively involved in social action. Brian Victoria mentions a group, the Youth League for Revitalizing Buddhism (Shinko Bukkyo Seinen Domei) formed in April 1931 who were against anti-foreign, militarist and nationalist ideologies of the Japanese Buddhist establishment. Not surprisingly, the members of the Youth League were suppressed, harassed, physically beaten and imprisoned but they bravely continued to "carry the Buddha out into the street".

The Leader of the Youth League, Seno Giro, was imprisoned three times by the Japanese police and the last time which was in in December 1936, he was tortured over a five month period, broke down and confessed to the trumped up charge of treason and sentenced to 5 years in prison. There ended any organized resistance by the Buddhist laity to Japanese militarism during the war.

The book is well worth buying, it gives the reader, apart from the historical perspective of Japanese Buddhism's support for the Japanese war effort, the sense that in subscribing to a religion or religious sect one should be better informed about its background. Blind subservience to the religion/sect's theology is not skillful from the Buddhist perspective and if a wrong has been committed it is better to admit it and ensure it is not repeated. The book contains also the thoughts of the postwar Japanese Zen and Buddhist leaders who addressed the issue of Japanese Buddhism's war complicity and some of them as recounted by the author do not make for pretty reading. In fact it is rather sad to read their responses which in the main, sought to justify their actions and those of their sects during he war.

The book is available at amazon.com, ISBN 0834804050 priced at USD19.95 without postage and packing.