Zen War Stories
Search in google:
Following the critically acclaimed Zen at War (Weatherhill Publishers, 1997), Victoria now explores the intimate and supportive relationship between Japanese institutional Buddhism and militarism during the Second World War. He reveals for the first time, based on the wartime writings of the Japanese military itself, that the Zen school's view of life and death was deliberately incorporated into the military's program of 'spiritual education' so as to develop a fanatical military spirit in both soldiers and civilians. Furthermore, it is revealed that D.T. Suzuki, the most famous exponent of Zen in the West, was a wartime exponent of this Zen-inspired viewpoint which enabled Japanese soldiers to leave for the battlefield already resigned to death. Victoria demonstrates how even champions of Japan's new religions strove to inculcate service to the state and loyalty to the emperor in generations of pre-war Japanese school children. The book also examines the relationship to Buddhism of Japan's seven class-A war criminals, hung by the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal. A highly controversial study, this book will be of interest not only to those studying the history of the period, but also to anyone concerned with the perennial question of the 'proper' relationship between religion and state.
List of illustrationsPrefaceAcknowledgements1The Zen master wept32Monks and soldiers move on their stomachs173The Zen of assassination274Omori Sogen - the Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde of Zen395Zen Master Dogen goes to war - the militarist and anti-Semitic writings of Yasutani Haku'un666Carrying Zen to China927Zen "selflessness" in Japanese Militarism1068Buddhist war bereavement1499Confessions of a Buddhist chaplain16310Buddhism: the last refuge of war criminals17111Buddhism: a top secret religion in wartime Japan204Epilogue228Postscript232Notes234Bibliography251Index258
