[Buddha-l] Zen War Guilt/Zen and the Sword

[Jim Peavler]

On Aug 23, 2005, at 8:01 AM, curt wrote:

>  In that context I would suggest that there
> is absolutely nothing extraordinary about the complicity of the
> Buddhist (not just Zen) establishment in the sins of Japanese
> Empire. Where has Buddhism ever set itself up as a center of
> opposition to an unjust political regime?

This, of course, is not addressing Stephen Hopkins' question, which was  
asking for information about the "current state of play in regard to  
Japanese Buddhist recognition of their role in WW2 (and other  
conflicts), and in regard to the vexed question of the evolution of the  
relationship of Zen and the sword?" (Not that your response needs to  
answer his question.)

>
> The reason why this is such an "issue" is that the generation of
> naive hippies who adopted Zen in the 60's and 70's projected
> their own half-baked pacifistic delusions onto their newfound
> Religion - without ever bothering to check whether or not there
> was any basis in reality for this assumption (but that is the nature
> of projection and delusion, is it not?).

I am sorry, but this doesn't seem to hold water, for me anyway. We knew  
of the associations between Japanese Zen and war (Hopkins alludes to it  
by mentioning DT Suzuki and Zen and the Sword), from, not only DT  
Suzuki, but from prominent Zennists who had actually been, themselves,  
victims of the Japanese at war (The famous -- in the West, at least --  
Diamond Sangha is a direct result of the experience of its founder as a  
prisoner of the Japanese during World War II. So, yes, we HAD heard of  
World War II, and Zen culpability in lending itself to Samari warriors  
and to modern Japanese empire-building warfare were well known and  
often discussed.  Hopkins is asking, I think, if anyone knows of any  
recent books that give more modern insights than DT Suzuki's work (and  
its subject), which, I think is approaching its 100th birthday.

I am sorry to admit that I don't know of any. There is a list of links  
to "apologies" at  
http://political-apologies.wlu.ca/searchresults.php? 
searchtype=simple&keywords=Zen%20at%20War however.

> The inevitable result of this
> naivete is the ongoing shock and outrage - which is mostly
> devoid of any attempt to deal with the realities and the complexities
> of Buddhism's history of craven relationships with the political
> classes of the countries in which it has existed for over two thousand
> years.
>
> One is justified in asking: hadn't people ever heard of WWII?
> The horrific acts of the Japanese Empire (which was already
> well underway long before Hitler was elected) have never been
> classified information. They are less well publicized than the
> Nazi holocaust, but wouldn't it be reasonable that those who
> embraced "tea ceremony" and other obvious Japanese cultural
> baggage as somehow essential to Zen should educate themselves
> at least a little on the recent history of the Zen "homeland"?
>
> In the interest of full disclosure: I am a student of Korean Zen.
> Korean Zen has its own very interesting skeletons in its closet -
> believe me. But I have made sure to find out as much as I can
> about the strange bedfellows of the Korean Buddhist establishment -
> which jumped into bed with the military dictator Singman Rhee
> without batting an eye (and not without some justification - the
> alternatives were not very good).
>
> Personally I think people would be better off reading Edward
> Said's "Orientalism" that Brian Victoria's books. Victoria's books
> basically just list the symptoms - Said investigates the disease  
> itself.
>
> - Curt
>
> Stephen Hopkins wrote:
>
>> Denizens -
>>
>> As I understand it, following the publication of Brian Victoria's  
>> 'Zen War
>> Stories' (together with Ina Buitendijk's letter writing campaign,  
>> and, it
>> appears, also prompted by 9/11) an apology was forthcoming from  
>> Myoshin-ji,
>> and other groups for, baldly speaking, Zen's 'war guilt'.  (As  
>> Victoria
>> points out, the Soto sect had apologised in 1993.)
>>
>> Do list members know where I might find out more (in English, I'm  
>> afraid)
>> about the current state of play in regard to Japanese Buddhist  
>> recognition
>> of their role in WW2 (and other conflicts), and in regard to the vexed
>> question of the evolution of the relationship of Zen and the sword?   
>> Are
>> list members, for example, troubled by Victoria's 1997 question 'is  
>> the
>> vaunted unity between Zen and the sword an orthodox or heretical  
>> doctrine?'
>> (Or, for that matter, his April 2003 statement: "I will go so far as  
>> to say
>> that institutional Zen Buddhism in Japan is not Buddhism. And  
>> therefore,
>> what has passed as Zen has for a very long time been a distortion of
>> Buddhist teachings'?)  Finally, do list members know of a good post  
>> Victoria
>> reassessment of DT Suzuki?
>>
>> Sincerely,
>>
>> Steve Hopkins
>>
>>
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>>
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