He then discovered the writings of Ichikawa Hakugen, a Zen priest who had taken an early look at Zen's war-time role. In 1964, ordained a Soto priest while living in Japan and increasingly active in opposing the Vietnam War, he was chastised by a religious superior for taking part in peace protests. He embraced Zen in 1961, partly because he believed its history was free of the violent conflicts that had marked Western religion. Victoria, 63, is a former Nebraskan who lives in Australia and teaches Japanese studies at the University of Adelaide. Buitendijk's letter for war-time complicity, which have appeared in Buddhist publications in Europe and the United States. Two other Zen groups - the Tenryu-ji temple and the Sanbo-kyodan foundation - and several individual Zen leaders have also issued apologies after receiving Mrs. The more detailed version apologized for helping to lend a religious purpose to invasions, colonization and the former empire's destruction of ''20 million precious lives.'' The self-critical account also described how Myoshin-ji members followed Japanese invaders across Asia, ''established branch headquarters and missions'' in conquered areas, even ''conducted fund-raising drives to purchase military aircraft.'' The initial statement said that the conflict between America and an anti-American jihad made it important to remember ''that in the past our nation, under the banner of Holy War, initiated a conflict that led to great suffering.'' 27, 2001, for example, was expanded in a major religious newspaper in Japan in September 2002. The Myoshin-ji statement, first issued on Sept. A number of leaders responded, sending her official apologies, some of which were published. All this she put into the 28 letters she said she had written to Zen spiritual figures, educators and administrative leaders in Japan. Buitendijk's husband, along with other Dutch civilians, was interned by the Japanese in the Dutch East Indies during World War II. Victoria's work in 1999 that she mounted a letter-writing campaign pressing Zen leaders to confront their history. Ina Buitendijk, a Dutch Zen devotee, was so inspired by Mr. Victoria's works had opened his eyes to ''how Zen violated Buddhism's teachings about compassion and nonviolence.'' Many people in the United States and Europe know Zen's indirect traces through the poetry of the Beats or the quietist aura of contemporary architecture and clothing.Įven John Dower, a Pulitzer Prize-winning historian of modern Japan at M.I.T., whose early interest in Japan was kindled by Zen-inspired architecture, said that Mr. But the extent of its involvement in World War II has stayed mostly submerged until recently. Victoria has dug more specifically into relationships between Zen leaders and the military during World War II.įrom its beginnings in Japan, Zen has been associated with the warrior culture established by the early shoguns. Now, in a new sequel called ''Zen War Stories,'' Mr. Keiitsu Hosokawa, secretary general of Myoshin-ji, made a speech to the group's general assembly in September 2002 in which he said that the Japanese edition of ''Zen at War'' had been one of several factors that ''provided the impetus'' to issue the group's apology. Victoria had exerted a profound influence, especially in the West, by revealing in his 1997 book, ''Zen at War,'' a shockingly dark and unfamiliar picture of Zen during World War II to followers who had no idea about its history. But the leaders of Myoshin-ji - as well as other Zen Buddhist leaders who have also delivered apologies over the past two years - mainly credit a disillusioned Westerner for their public regrets: Brian Victoria, a former Methodist missionary, who is a Zen priest and historian.īuddhist leaders in Japan and the United States said in recent interviews that Mr. The unexpected apology for wartime complicity by the leaders of Myoshin-ji, the headquarters temple of one of Japan's main Zen sects, was issued 16 days after 9/11, which gave it a particular resonance. But Zen has had strong ties to militarism - indeed so strong, that the leaders of one of the largest denominations in Japan have remorsefully compared their former religious fanaticism during Japan's brutal expansionism in the 1930's and 40's to today's murderously militant Islamists. To many Americans, Zen Buddhists primarily devote themselves to discovering inner serenity and social peace.
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