Theories of the Self, Race, and Essentialization in Buddhism in the United States During the “Yellow Peril,” 1899-1957
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Wilfrid Laurier University Scholars Commons @ Laurier Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive) 2017 Theories of the Self, Race, and Essentialization in Buddhism in the United States during the “Yellow Peril,” 1899-1957 Ryan Anningson [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://scholars.wlu.ca/etd Part of the Asian American Studies Commons, Buddhist Studies Commons, History of Religion Commons, History of Religions of Eastern Origins Commons, Intellectual History Commons, Japanese Studies Commons, Other American Studies Commons, Other Religion Commons, Social History Commons, and the United States History Commons Recommended Citation Anningson, Ryan, "Theories of the Self, Race, and Essentialization in Buddhism in the United States during the “Yellow Peril,” 1899-1957" (2017). Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive). 1968. https://scholars.wlu.ca/etd/1968 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by Scholars Commons @ Laurier. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive) by an authorized administrator of Scholars Commons @ Laurier. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Theories of the Self, Race, and Essentialization in Buddhism in the United States during the “Yellow Peril,” 1899-1957 by Ryan Anningson Bachelor of Arts, Acadia University, 2008 Master of Arts, Wilfrid Laurier University, 2012 DISSERTATION Submitted to the Department of Religion and Culture in the Faculty of Arts in partial fulfilment of the requirements for Doctorate of Philosophy in Religion and Culture Wilfrid Laurier University © Ryan Anningson 2017 “History is the fiction we invent to persuade ourselves that events are knowable and that life has order and direction. That’s why events are always reinterpreted when values change. We need new versions of history that allow for our current prejudices.”1 -Bill Waterson- 1 Bill Waterson, Homicidal Psycho Jungle Cat, (Kansas City, MO: Andrews McMeel Publishing, 1994), 152. To my parents, Meghan, and everyone who has helped to make me who I am constantly becoming Anningson !i Abstract This dissertation is an intellectual history tracing developing notions of the Self in Bud- dhism through Buddhist publications during the years from 1899-1957. I define this time period as the Era of the Yellow Peril, due to common views in the United States of an Asian “other” which formed a larger clash of civilizations globally. 1899-1957 was marked by pessimism and dread due to two World Wars and the Great Depression, while popular and academic cultures ar- gued for the validity of race sciences, and the application of these “sciences” through eugenics. Buddhism in the United States was created through a global network of influences, involving Japanese Buddhists in Japan and the United States, as well as Metaphysical Buddhists. I also an- alyze issues of colonialism in the development of Buddhism. Buddhists were influenced by global discussions of race, science, and the Self, in adapt- ing their religious presentation for new audiences at a time when they felt threatened by en- croachment, not only internationally but domestically as well. Following Victorian-Era narratives regarding colonialism and the development of the Aryan myth, Buddhists attempted to reverse these dominant tropes in order to show the superiority of Buddhism over a perceived “West.” They combined emic discussions about the “Aryan” present in Buddhism through the Sanskrit term, arya, meaning “noble” and comparisons of Buddhism and science, in order to disprove colonial tropes of “Western” dominance, and suggest that Buddhism, represented a superior tra- dition in world historical development. Metaphysical Buddhists in the United States similarly utilized the Aryan myth and discussions of a Buddhist Self in order to show the evolutionary cor- ruption which had taken place in the religion; this perceived corruption supported the idea that “true Buddhists” would eventually retake the religion from those who had degraded it. Buddhism in the United States was formed within a global network of influences and ac- tors, including developments in colonized nations in Asia, imperial powers such as Japan, and the influence of Buddhist immigrants within America. Buddhists variously used science, and dis- cussions of the Self and modernity, in order to place themselves at the pinnacle of world histori- cal development. These tropes were used to reverse common Orientalist and colonialist beliefs of the time. Finally, I argue that this presentation of a Buddhist tradition of superiority helped Bud- dhists to create space for Buddhism within the American religious landscape, laying the founda- tions for Buddhism in America, post-1957. Anningson !ii Acknowledgements I am very grateful to a myriad number of people who have helped to shape my ideas in creating this dissertation. First and foremost, I would like to sincerely thank my supervisor, Jason Neelis, for his continual support and guidance. I am very thankful for the time we’ve spent together; your mentorship has helped to shape me both professionally and personally. I would also like to offer my deepest gratitude to my committee members, Janet McLellan, and Jeff Wilson. Janet, without your intellectual and professional support, I could not have remained in the program; and, Jeff, thank you for continually helping to refine my thinking, as well as recommending such useful books. I would also like to thank Dr. Ashwani Peetush and Dr. Erik Braun for giving their time and serving as examiners on my committee. I would like to acknowledge the generous support which I have received while completing my dissertation, offering warm thanks to: the Ontario Graduate Scholarship fund, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, The Gotthard Booth Award, the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies at Wilfrid Laurier University, the Sally Jefferson Award in Religion & Culture, and Wilfrid Laurier University. I also owe a great deal to my past professors and teachers at Acadia University, and beyond. Throughout the creation of my dissertation, I have had to rely on a number of people and institutions to obtain all of the sources I needed. Another thanks is due to Jeff Wilson, who offered his personal resources and even his office space to aid my research. I would like to thank the staff of the Laurier Library, especially Jade Squire, who always worked so hard to find hundred-year old Buddhist sources. I also need to thank Matthew C. Baker and the staff at the Burke Library at Union Theological Seminary in Columbia University, who showed me wonderful hospitality, and went out of their way to make my research trip easy. Finally, a deep thank you to archive.org, as without digital editions of many magazines, the present study would have necessitated far more travel. Anningson iii Table of Contents Introduction 1 1. Influences of Buddhist Studies Literature 28 2. Buddhism in Academia and Popular American Culture: Vedāntic Buddhism, Race Sciences, and Imagined Aryan History 73 3. The Japanese Self and Asian Universalism from the late-Meiji Era to the Beginning of the Shōwa Period 137 4. The Mystical Self and Japanese Superiority in the Shōwa Period 191 5. Metaphysical Religion and the Democratization of Buddhism 253 Conclusion: A Building-Block Approach to Buddhism in The United States 320 Works Cited 336 Anningson !1 Introduction “In its denial of the permanent self or soul Buddhism stands alone; and this denial to many in the West has seemed incomprehensible, if not absurd. To many people it arouses an opposition almost amounting to antagonism. Nevertheless, this denial is the bedrock of Buddhism and everything else springs logically and of necessity from it.”1 - Ernest Shinkaku Hunt, 1955 On a hot July evening in 1928 with the smell of incense filling the room, nine Caucasian Americans sat in a Japanese Buddhist temple in Hawai’i, waiting to receive lay-ordination in the newly formed Western Buddhist Order, run by Ernest and Dorothy Hunt of the J"do Shinsh# Honpa Honganji Mission of Hawai’i (HHMH).2 While sitting in a Japanese Buddhist temple, these eleven original members signed a founding document which traced their racial heritage back to the Aryan, Indo-European, founder of Buddhism, Siddh$rtha Gautama. Within the next decade, Ernest Hunt would be fired from his teaching position at the HHMH, in part due to his racial and spiritual inferiority, as he was not Japanese.3 Why would a Buddhist group be discussing Aryans? Why would they be doing so within a Japanese J"do Shinsh# temple? Why would the HHMH administration fire a successful and prominent teacher, writer, and administrator for not being Japanese? What does Buddhism have to do with race, colonialism, and violence? This study will analyze issues of race, superiority, and colonialism during a time of increased Asian expansion and American xenophobia. The focus of the present work will be the 1 Ernest Shinkaku Hunt, Buddhist Sermons, (Honolulu: Takiko Ichinose, 1955), 48. 2 Louise H. Hunter, Buddhism in Hawai’i: Its Impact on a Yankee Community, (Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 1971), 154. 3 Hunter, 1971, 171. Anningson !2 essentialization4 of religion and culture, specifically through the reinterpretation of what constitutes one’s own Self, which takes place as disparate traditions and groups come into contact with one another. The Yellow Peril: Limiting Historical Scope The limits of any historical study are always contested, as history rarely provides easy boundaries around which lines of beginning and end can be drawn. Even a study of a particular global event, like World War II, must involve a broader historical scope in order to capture the nuances and factors leading up to the beginning of a war. The current study focuses on the years from 1899-1957, or what I will call the Era of the Yellow Peril.5 The Yellow Peril is a broad name for a set of racialized and sexualized fears of an Asian “other,” which was based around 4 Throughout this text, I will use the term essentialization to denote the identification and defining of a core essence within social phenomenon, including religious traditions and societies.