Book review: Zen at War
Feb. 2nd, 2014 15:20![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ahorbinskiBibliographic Data: Victoria, Brian Daizen. Zen at War. 2nd ed. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2006.
Main Argument: Victoria, an ordained Soto Zen priest, has written a scathing indictment of the cooperation of Buddhism in general and Zen in particular with Japan's imperialism and military efforts. But he also writes that he chose this period "not because I see it as representative of the historical relationship between Zen Buddhism and warfare, but, on the contrary, precisely because it is not" (xiv).
Historiographical Engagement: Victoria relies on scholars of Buddhism and Japanese religion including James Ketelaar, Bob Sharf, and Helen Hardacre, as well as some Japanese Buddhist historians.
Introduction: Argument, Sources, Examples In the two prefaces, Victoria discusses first, the impact the book had since its publication--namely, the issue of statements of apology and responsibility by two of the most important branches of the Rinzai Zen sect. In the first preface he relates an episode in the 1970s in which a senior priest told him that anti-war activities did not befit Zen clerics (!) and that Zen was non-political.
Part 1: Argument, Sources, Examples This section covers the Meiji roots of Buddhist complicity with the state--most of which was better covered in Ketelaar. Victoria also highlights early critical voices such as Uchiyama Gudô, a Zen priest who had already been in prison for a year when he was charged, found guilty, and executed in the so-called Great Treason Incident. Far from supporting his agitation for social justice, leaders of all Buddhist sects condemned him. Victoria also notes that in this same era, the "fervent patriotism of Japanese Christians became the catalyst for not only a new and positive relationship with the state but with institutional Buddhism as well" (21)--both formerly suspect religions were redeemed by their patriotic efforts in support of Japan's imperial wars.
Part 2: Argument, Sources, Examples This section covers the incorporation of Zen into Japan's military, along with the emergence of so-called "imperial way" Buddhism, which proclaimed that "emperor = state, and Buddhism = state, then emperor = Buddhism." Originally articulated by Zen, this belief spread to all the Buddhist sects very quickly. Along with this, Buddhist writers argued that Japan's wars in Asia were acts of compassion. At the same time, "soldier Zen" grew more prevalent through the welding of Zen practices such as zazen meditation into military practice via the notion of bushido, which was elaborated by Nitobe Inazo as "the soul of Japan" and then further elaborated by D. T. Suzuki, who was a big fan of "the unity of Zen and the sword." Through the myth of the hapless fanatic Lt. Col. Sugimoto Gorô, whose biography may be found in Young's Japan's Total Empire, and through his posthumous writings, the image of the perfect, Zen-adept soldier was created and propagated to everyone in Japanese society.
Part 3: Argument, Sources, Examples This section covers postwar responses to Zen--some of the most egregious goaders of militarism, such as D. T. Suzuki, showed very little sense of any responsibility whatsoever, and more than few people expressed statements that seem to indicate their regret not for Japan's actions but that it had picked an unwinnable war with the United States. At the same time, "imperial way Zen" and its associated practices were more or less transformed wholesale into "corporate Zen." However, there were some writers, such as Ichikawa Hakugen, who confronted their own and Buddhism's war responsibility; the most substantive section details Hakugen's twelve doctrinal criticisms that elaborated, according to him, all of the ways in which Zen in particular was vulnerable to being totally co-opted by the state. In particular, the Chinese doctrine known in Japan as hongaku shisô and the original, but minor, doctrine of tathagatagarbha (nyoraizô), which Hakugen and Matsumoto Shirô argue "produced what they regard as very undesirable consequences, a major one of which is a philosophy of discrimination" (177), because they tend to justify (in the Miltonian sense) the status quo.
Chapter 12: Argument, Sources, Examples This chapter, new to the second edition is a lighting history of Buddhism, advancing the general argument that Mahayana Buddhism in general, and Zen (Chan) in particular, were likely to abandon their commitment to non-violence as a part of Buddhism in general's trend towards making accommodations with the state. (This provides a highly ironic confirmation, in this aspect, of the early Orientalist judgement that Mahayana Buddhism was degenerate compared to Theravada [Hinayana].)
Conclusion: Argument, Sources, Examples In this brief epilogue, Victoria calls for recognition of "the longstanding subjugation of the Buddha Dharma to the state…as a fundamental distortion if not betrayal of the Buddha Dharma" (233), lest the past repeat itself.
Critical assessment: This is a valuable book, if not precisely an academic one; from the scholarly perspective, it's under theorized, and especially having just read State and Intellectual, Victoria's "resistance/complicity" binary seems too simple, or if not too simple, needed more elaboration and nuance. That said, however, Victoria tells a vital part of the story of the Japanese empire to which not enough attention has been paid--Carol Gluck, I'm looking at you.
Further reading: Hwangsoo Kim, Empire of the Dharma; Yuma Totani, The Tokyo War Crimes Trial
Meta notes: When you stand for nothing(ness), you'll fall for anything.
Main Argument: Victoria, an ordained Soto Zen priest, has written a scathing indictment of the cooperation of Buddhism in general and Zen in particular with Japan's imperialism and military efforts. But he also writes that he chose this period "not because I see it as representative of the historical relationship between Zen Buddhism and warfare, but, on the contrary, precisely because it is not" (xiv).
Historiographical Engagement: Victoria relies on scholars of Buddhism and Japanese religion including James Ketelaar, Bob Sharf, and Helen Hardacre, as well as some Japanese Buddhist historians.
Introduction: Argument, Sources, Examples In the two prefaces, Victoria discusses first, the impact the book had since its publication--namely, the issue of statements of apology and responsibility by two of the most important branches of the Rinzai Zen sect. In the first preface he relates an episode in the 1970s in which a senior priest told him that anti-war activities did not befit Zen clerics (!) and that Zen was non-political.
Part 1: Argument, Sources, Examples This section covers the Meiji roots of Buddhist complicity with the state--most of which was better covered in Ketelaar. Victoria also highlights early critical voices such as Uchiyama Gudô, a Zen priest who had already been in prison for a year when he was charged, found guilty, and executed in the so-called Great Treason Incident. Far from supporting his agitation for social justice, leaders of all Buddhist sects condemned him. Victoria also notes that in this same era, the "fervent patriotism of Japanese Christians became the catalyst for not only a new and positive relationship with the state but with institutional Buddhism as well" (21)--both formerly suspect religions were redeemed by their patriotic efforts in support of Japan's imperial wars.
Part 2: Argument, Sources, Examples This section covers the incorporation of Zen into Japan's military, along with the emergence of so-called "imperial way" Buddhism, which proclaimed that "emperor = state, and Buddhism = state, then emperor = Buddhism." Originally articulated by Zen, this belief spread to all the Buddhist sects very quickly. Along with this, Buddhist writers argued that Japan's wars in Asia were acts of compassion. At the same time, "soldier Zen" grew more prevalent through the welding of Zen practices such as zazen meditation into military practice via the notion of bushido, which was elaborated by Nitobe Inazo as "the soul of Japan" and then further elaborated by D. T. Suzuki, who was a big fan of "the unity of Zen and the sword." Through the myth of the hapless fanatic Lt. Col. Sugimoto Gorô, whose biography may be found in Young's Japan's Total Empire, and through his posthumous writings, the image of the perfect, Zen-adept soldier was created and propagated to everyone in Japanese society.
Part 3: Argument, Sources, Examples This section covers postwar responses to Zen--some of the most egregious goaders of militarism, such as D. T. Suzuki, showed very little sense of any responsibility whatsoever, and more than few people expressed statements that seem to indicate their regret not for Japan's actions but that it had picked an unwinnable war with the United States. At the same time, "imperial way Zen" and its associated practices were more or less transformed wholesale into "corporate Zen." However, there were some writers, such as Ichikawa Hakugen, who confronted their own and Buddhism's war responsibility; the most substantive section details Hakugen's twelve doctrinal criticisms that elaborated, according to him, all of the ways in which Zen in particular was vulnerable to being totally co-opted by the state. In particular, the Chinese doctrine known in Japan as hongaku shisô and the original, but minor, doctrine of tathagatagarbha (nyoraizô), which Hakugen and Matsumoto Shirô argue "produced what they regard as very undesirable consequences, a major one of which is a philosophy of discrimination" (177), because they tend to justify (in the Miltonian sense) the status quo.
Chapter 12: Argument, Sources, Examples This chapter, new to the second edition is a lighting history of Buddhism, advancing the general argument that Mahayana Buddhism in general, and Zen (Chan) in particular, were likely to abandon their commitment to non-violence as a part of Buddhism in general's trend towards making accommodations with the state. (This provides a highly ironic confirmation, in this aspect, of the early Orientalist judgement that Mahayana Buddhism was degenerate compared to Theravada [Hinayana].)
Conclusion: Argument, Sources, Examples In this brief epilogue, Victoria calls for recognition of "the longstanding subjugation of the Buddha Dharma to the state…as a fundamental distortion if not betrayal of the Buddha Dharma" (233), lest the past repeat itself.
Critical assessment: This is a valuable book, if not precisely an academic one; from the scholarly perspective, it's under theorized, and especially having just read State and Intellectual, Victoria's "resistance/complicity" binary seems too simple, or if not too simple, needed more elaboration and nuance. That said, however, Victoria tells a vital part of the story of the Japanese empire to which not enough attention has been paid--Carol Gluck, I'm looking at you.
Further reading: Hwangsoo Kim, Empire of the Dharma; Yuma Totani, The Tokyo War Crimes Trial
Meta notes: When you stand for nothing(ness), you'll fall for anything.