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ZEN at WAR War and Peace Library SERIES EDITOR: MARK SELDEN ZEN AT WAR War and Peace Library SERIES EDITOR: MARK SELDEN Drugs, Oil, and War: The United States in Afghanistan, Colombia, and Indochina BY PETER DALE SCOTT War and State Terrorism: The United States, Japan, and the Asia-Pacific in the Long Twentieth Century EDITED BY MARK SELDEN AND ALVIN Y. So Bitter Flowers, Sweet Flowers: East Timor, Indonesia, and the World Community EDITED BY RICHARD TANTER, MARK SELDEN, AND STEPHEN R. SHALOM Politics and the Past: On Repairing Historical Injustices EDITED BY JOHN TORPEY Biological Warfare and Disarmament: New Problems/New Perspectives EDITED BY SUSAN WRIGHT BRIAN DAIZEN VICTORIA ZEN AT WAR Second Edition ROWMAN & LITTLEFIELD PUBLISHERS, INC. Lanham • Boulder • New York • Toronto • Oxford ROWMAN & LITTLEFIELD PUBLISHERS, INC. Published in the United States of America by Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. A wholly owned subsidiary of The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc. 4501 Forbes Boulevard, Suite 200, Lanham, Maryland 20706 www.rowmanlittlefield.com P.O. Box 317, Oxford OX2 9RU, UK Copyright © 2006 by Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. Cover image: Zen monks at Eiheiji, one of the two head monasteries of the Sōtō Zen sect, undergoing mandatory military training shortly after the passage of the National Mobilization Law in March 1938. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Victoria, Brian Daizen, 1939– Zen at war / Brian Daizen Victoria.—2nd ed. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN-13: 978-0-7425-3927-3 (cl.: alk. paper) ISBN-10: 0-7425-3927-X (cl. : alk. paper) ISBN-13: 978-0-7425-3926-6 (pbk.: alk. paper) ISBN-10: 0-7425-3926-1 (pbk.: alk. paper) 1. Zen Buddhism—Japan—History. 2. Buddhism—Japan—History—1868- 1945. 3. War—Religious aspects—Zen Buddhism. 4. Buddhism and state— Japan. 5. World War, 1939–1945—Religious aspects—Zen Buddhism. BQ9262.9.J3 V54 2006 294.3'927095209034—dc22 2006043949 Printed in the United States of America The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992. Dedicated to the victims of religious-inspired fanaticism everywhere Under conditions of tyranny it is far easer to act than to think. —Hannah Arendt Philosophy may safely be left with intellectual minds. Zen wants to act, and the most effective act, once the mind is made up, is to go on without looking backward. In this respect, Zen is indeed the religion of the samurai warrior. —D. T. Suzuki, Zen and Japanese Culture Positive thinkers and public relations officers for the faiths would repudiate this notion or evade the fact. They want religion to be nothing but godspel, good news. Apologists for the faiths usually minimize the distress that can come with religion or that religion can produce. You will not read about the destructive element in religious impulses in the advertisements for the church of your choice. Yet if the pursuit of truth is still to be cherished as a foundational theme in the academy, one must note the feature of religion that keeps it on the front page and on prime time—it kills. —Martin Marty, University of Chicago CONTENTS Cover Half Title Title Copyright Dedication Contents Preface to the Second Edition Preface PART I: THE MEIJI RESTORATION OF 1868 AND BUDDHISM 1. The Attempted Suppression of Buddhism 2. Early Buddhist Social Ferment 3. Uchiyama Gudō: Radical Sōtō Zen Priest 4. Institutional Buddhism’s Rejection of Progressive Social Action PART II: JAPANESE MILITARISM AND BUDDHISM 5. The Incorporation of Buddhism into the Japanese War Machine (1913–30) 6. Buddhist Resistance to Japanese Militarism 7. The Emergence of Imperial-Way Buddhism 8. The Emergence of Imperial-State Zen and Soldier Zen 9. Other Zen Masters and Scholars in the War Effort PART III: POSTWAR TRENDS 10.The Postwar Japanese Responses to Imperial-Way Buddhism, Imperial-State Zen, and Soldier Zen 11. Corporate Zen in Postwar Japan 12.Was It Buddhism? 13.Epilogue Notes Concise Glossary of Buddhist Terminology Works Cited About the Author PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION n the occasion of the publication of the second edition of Zen at War, I would like to share with readers sorne of the O positive developments that have occurred since the book’s initial release in 1997. I refer, first of all, to European interest in the book as reflected in the publication of German, French, Italian, and Polish editions. Clearly there is broad interest in the West regarding Zen’s relationship to Japanese militarism. Equally if not more significant was the publication in 2001 of a Japanese edition titled Zen to Sensō (Zen at War). This edition contributed to the fact that two major branches of the Rinzai Zen sect, that is, Myōshinji and Tenryūji, admitted and apologized for the first time for their past support of Japanese militarism. In that sense, the book you are about to read is not simply a book about religious history but also one that has made history. Specifically, on September 27, 2001, the Myōshinji General Assembly, meeting in Kyoto, issued a proclamation containing the following passage: As we reflect on the recent events [of September 11, 2001,] in the U.S.A., we recognize that in the past our country engaged in hostilities, calling it a “holy war,” and inflicting great pain and damage to various countries. Even though it was national policy at the time, it is truly regrettable that our sect, in the midst of wartime passions, was unable to maintain a resolute anti-war stance and ended up cooperating with the war effort. In light of this we wish to confess our past transgressions and critically reflect on our conduct [mazu kono kako no ayamachi ni taisuru zange to hansei no ue ni tatte]. A follow-up statement by branch administrators on October 19, 2001, said: It was the publication of the book Zen ta Sensō [i.e., the Japanese edition of Zen at War], etc. that provided the opportunity for us to address the issue of our war responsibility. It is trulya matter of regret that our sect has for so long been unable to seriously grapple with this issue. Still, due to the General Assembly’s adoption of its recent “Proclamation,” we have been able to take the first step in addressing this issue. This is a very significant development. Myōshinji is the largest branch of the Rinzai Zen sect, with more than 3,400 affiliated temples and 1.6 million adherents. The smaller Tenryūji branch issued a similar statement earlier in 2001, again citing this book as a catalyst. Kubota Jiun, current head of the Sanbō-kyōdan, also apologized in the spring of 2001 for the wartime “errant words and actions” of Zen Master Yasutani Haku’un (introduced in chapter 10 of this book and more thoroughly in chapter 5 of Zen War Stories). As for the Sōtō Zen sect, little has changed since its groundbreaking admission of war responsibility in a January 1993 statement of repentance, introduced in chapter 10. Although a handful of Sōtō Zen–related scholars have continued to pursue this issue, notably Hakamaya Noriaki and Matsumoto Shirō of Komazawa University, their research has focused on highly contentious doctrinal issues having little effect on the sect as a whole. Nevertheless, in December 2005 Tanaka Shinkai, abbot of the Sōtō Zen monastery of Hōkyōji in Fukui prefecture, praised Zen at War as being like a graphic depiction of the carnage at the scene of a horrendous car accident. “If we hope to prevent its reoccurrence,” he stated, “we must not flinch from exploring just how and why this accident occurred.” Tanaka went on to pledge that his temple, itself founded by a Chinese monk in the 13th century, would henceforth hold unprecedented memorial services for the victims of Japanese militarism. This edition contains a new chapter titled “Was It Buddhism?” which places Zen’s collaboration with Japanese militarism in the context of the 2,500-year-long relationship of Buddhism to the state and war. This additional chapter addresses the plaintive cry of one incredulous reader on the Internet who asked, “What the hell went wrong?” Yet, if it can be said that something “went wrong” in prewar and wartime Zen, it is important to realize that it will take more than apologies, no matter how heartfelt, to make it “right” again. The fact is that Zen leaders who supported Japanese militarism did so on the grounds that Japanese aggression expressed the very essence of the Buddha Dharma and even enlightenment itself. Thus, until and unless their assumptions are closely examined and challenged, there is no guarantee that Zen’s future, whether in the East or West, will not once again include support for the mass destruction of human life that is modern warfare. Regrettably, many Western Zen leaders continue to either evade or rationalize the connection of their own Dharma lineage to Japan’s past aggression. For example, in the fall 1999 issue of the Buddhist magazine tricycle, one well-known U.S. Zen master, Bernie Glassman, had the following to say about Yasutani Haku’un’s wartime militarist and anti-Semitic pronouncements: So if your definition of enlightenment is that there’s no anti- Semitism in the state of enlightenment. If your definition of enlightenment is that there’s no nationalism, or militarism, or bigotry in the state of enlightenment, you better change your definition of enlightenment.
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