[Marxism] Zen imperialism

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.cgi?path=271571127997743
Brian Daizen Victoria. Zen War Stories. London: Routledge Curzon, 2003. 
xviii + 268 pp. Index. $124.95 (cloth), ISBN 0-7007-1580-0; $34.95 (paper), 
ISBN 0-7007-1581-9.
Reviewed by: Steven Heine, Florida International University.
Published by: H-Buddhism (August, 2005)

Brian Victoria?s work, following on the heels of the highly acclaimed but 
also highly provocative Zen at War (Weatherhill, 1997), continues his 
withering attack on the embracing of wartime ideology by leading Zen 
masters and practitioners in Japan. Victoria seeks to show that the 
attitude characteristic of numerous examples of prominent Zen monks and 
scholars was not a matter of only benignly resisting, or even of passively 
accepting, the rhetoric of Imperial Way Buddhism by clergy who were 
pressured and powerless to stand up to the authorities. Nor was it an 
example of innocently recognizing historical and ideological affinities 
between Zen monastic discipline and military training.

On the contrary, the Zen masters discussed here eagerly and 
enthusiastically endorsed some of the most excessive and reprehensible 
aspects of imperial ideology in the name of a corrupted vision of spiritual 
realization as a tool to spread the doctrine of the Greater East Asia 
Co-prosperity Sphere. They also used Zen wedded to hypernationalism and 
imperialism as a tool to misread the historical records of their own 
tradition and to help transport Japanese supremacy to China and Korea, 
while refusing to acknowledge or repent for their actions with the defeat 
of Japan. This outlook also infected numerous politicians and military 
figures who turned to Buddhism as a way of explaining away or masking their 
roles leading up to, as well as during and after World War II.

In part 1 of Zen War Stories Victoria documents several masters who have 
become icons in the West for their apparent adherence to Zen tradition 
linked with an ability to address contemporary culture. After showing in 
chapter 4 that Omori Sogen, praised for his prowess in swordsmanship and 
other arts, had a fascistic, "Mr. Hyde" side as manifested in the founding 
in 1932 of the Kinno Ishin Domei (League for Loyalty to the Emperor and the 
Restoration), Victoria turns to the case of Yasutani Haku?un. In chapter 5, 
"Zen Master Dogen Goes to War," we find that Yasutani, known as the teacher 
of Philip Kapleau and inspiration for The Three Pillars of Zen, wanted to 
smash all universities for being traitors. He was a fanatical militarist 
who "transformed the life and thought of Zen Master Dogen (1200-1253), the 
thirteenth-century founder of the Soto Zen sect in Japan, into a propaganda 
tool for Japanese militarism" (p. 68).

In particular, Yasutani tried to argue that Dogen?s famed pilgrimage to 
Song China in 1223 was triggered not by a longing for Buddhist Dharma but 
by disgust with the new Shogunate and infatuation with preserving the 
Imperial House. According to Victoria, Yasutani?s corrupted spirituality 
did not end with a support for militarism. He was also even more "ethnic 
chauvinist, sexist, and anti-Semitic" (p. 68) than his teacher Harada Daiun 
Sogaku, whose "most memorable wartime quote is: ?[If ordered to] march: 
tramp, tramp, or shoot: bang, bang. This is the manifestation of the 
highest Wisdom [of enlightenment]" (pp. 66-67).

After discussing in the seventh chapter, "Zen ?Selflessness? in Japanese 
Militarism," how Zen?s historical relation to the samurai was 
misinterpreted to support imperial ideology about the acceptance of death 
by D. T. Suzuki and other prominent representatives of Zen, including 
former Eiheiji temple abbot Kumazawa Taizen, part 2 takes up examples of 
the involvement with Buddhist thought by military and political leaders. 
While this section is less devastating as a critique of Zen than of 
Japanese Buddhism and society in general, Victoria explains in chapter 10, 
"Buddhism--The Last Refuge of War Criminals," how easily the moral basis of 
religion can be distorted and subverted. For example, as recollected by 
Buddhist studies scholar Hanayama Shinsho, seven Class A war criminals who 
were condemned to death continued to cling to Buddhism while on death row 
to find a hypocritical feeling of solace. For instance, Hirota Koki never 
abandoned his sense of Zen and the warrior class and used Zen to stiffen 
his resolve to "die naturally ? returning to nothingness" (p. 179), while 
General Tojo Hideki kept ties with Pure Land, and for Itagaki Seishiro the 
Nichiren school provided comfort.

Anyone reading the book interested or intrigued by Japanese religion and 
culture as a model for behavior that is impartial and free from attachment 
will likely be disturbed by the words and deeds cited in Zen War Stories, 
portrayed not as exceptions to the rule or unusual cases, but the 
widespread ethos of at least a generation of monks. Unlike Zen at War, 
which discussed the case of Soto Zen priest Uchiyama Gudo and other 
politically radical Buddhist priests--Uchiyama was for Victoria a martyr 
convicted and executed as part of the High Treason Incident (Taigyaku 
Jiken) of 1910 (pp. 30-48)--Zen War Stories is an unrelenting ride through 
a "tunnel of hate," lacking any counter-example. Save for very brief 
mentions of figures like Hanayama, Rinzai Zen priest Ichikawa Hakugen, or 
intellectual Maruyama Masao, Victoria does not present a more positive side 
of Buddhism or Japanese thought that has or could be used for generating 
criticism of the state or as a means of self-criticism. Nor does he mention 
leading Buddhist thinkers like Ienaga Saburo or Tanabe Hajime, who, from 
nearly opposite political angles, infused postwar works with a critical 
approach toward those, including himself in the case of Tanabe, who 
supported imperialism.

I am not suggesting, however, that Victoria?s book is one-sided, 
deliberately or not, because I think the work fulfills his goal of creating 
"a ?sourcebook? of wartime pronouncements by Zen and other institutional 
Buddhist leaders, both lay and clerical" (p. xv) by letting the words of 
these figures speak for themselves. In doing so, he has punctured not a few 
holes in many trial balloons that have been launched facilely in support of 
Zen as a socially aware form of mysticism by those who remain closed to 
learning of the notorious circumstances surrounding the war. In that sense, 
Victoria has made a profound contribution to overall Zen scholarship.

My critical comment is that with the two books, Victoria has not taken the 
opportunity to attempt to point beyond the reprehensible shortcomings and 
glaring warts toward a compromise view of Zen and its complex connections 
with society, in a way that works constructively with the strengths as well 
as the weakness of the tradition. I assume that Victoria on some level 
cares very deeply about Zen and its place in Japan and the world, so the 
challenge would be to help define Zen?s role creatively lest the tradition 
become buried under the avalanche of criticism or, contrariwise, the 
research behind these books gets relegated to the realm of sensationalism.

Copyright © 2005 by H-Net, all rights reserved. H-Net permits the 
redistribution and reprinting of this work for nonprofit, educational 
purposes, with full and accurate attribution to the author, web location, 
date of publication, originating list, and H-Net: Humanities & Social 
Sciences Online. For other uses contact the Reviews editorial staff: 
hbooks@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

--

www.marxmail.org


________________________________________________
YOU MUST clip all extraneous text before replying to a message.
Send list submissions to: Marxism@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism