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The fine work of academic discourse Zen at War by ordained Soto Zen priest Brian Daizen Victoria is a deconstruction of institutional Buddhism in Japan and a scathing indictment of its complicity in centuries of militarism, nationalism, racism, imperialism, atrocity, and war which culminate in the Rape of Nanking and in WW2. In his book Victoria names the Buddhist scholars, monks, and "fully realized" and "enlightened" masters who reconciled Zen with Japanese imperialism, many of whom following defeat in 1945 then recanted almost overnight yet resisted full disclosure. Their failure is not simply that they were unable to deter Japan from conquest, murder, and war.

It is that they were enthusiasts.

Zealots.

Had I not already experienced an overwhelming personal and subjective encounter with the Dharma and the Buddha I do not believe that my practice would have survived this book.

Victoria suggests that Zen's almost categorical repudiation of language, thinking, inquiry, reason, logic, analysis, and criticism and its emphasis upon authority, harmony, loyalty, submission, silence, obedience, and discipline contributed to its accommodation to nationalism, patriotism, and militarism.

Victoria:

[T]he development of an irresistible attack spirit became paramount. A critical part of this spirit was absolute and unquestioning obedience to one's superiors, who acted on behalf of the emperor. Through training, this spirit of obedience had to transcend mere habit and become instinctive, unthinking.

[W]ho better to do the [training] than Confucian-influenced Zen monks with their ethical system that emphasized unquestioning, selfless loyalty to one's superiors?

Victoria documents how Japanese Buddhists interpreted terms and concepts central to Buddhism and to Zen—"sutra," "precept," "virtue," "emptiness," "no self," "no soul," "no birth," "no death," "renunciation," "nonthinking," "relativity," "subjectivity," "no right," "no wrong," "intention," "karma," "compassion," "concentration," "skillful means," "peace," "harmony," "bodhisattva"—and the practice of Buddhism itself in ways that excused, encouraged, condoned, justified, and glorified the killing of hundreds of thousands of men, women, and children.

War.

"Did Buddhism really offer doctrinal justification for war?" Victoria asks.

"Yes," he answers.

Thus "skillful means" meant that depending upon the specific circumstances the bodhisattva could violate a precept in the short term in order to save another being in the long term.

Thus "just war."

The first step was to identify inferiors; and the Lotus Sutra, to cite just one of the texts used to do so, provided a description of the human beings who had earned the fruit of karma.

[A]nyone slandering this scripture or those who uphold it will be stricken with blindness, leprosy, missing teeth, ugly lips, flat noses, crooked limbs, tuberculosis, evil tumors, stinking and dirty bodies, and more, for life after life.

Karma.

People get just what they deserve.

Justice.

They earn it.

Therefore it is permissible to ignore and to neglect them.

To let them suffer.

Die.

Besides, the victims really have "no self," "no soul," they are little more than phantoms, "empty," "nothing," and life itself is but a dream; ultimately there is really "no birth," "no death," no moral absolute, "no right," really "no wrong"; so from this point it is a relatively simple matter to understand that even killing such hinin, "nonhumans," is an act of "pity" and "compassion" performed by the "bodhisattva" soldier in a state of samadhi, "concentration," a being equally "selfless," "soulless," "empty," with the holy "intention" to spare these victims further "suffering," to afford them the opportunity of a better life in their next "reincarnation," and to bring "peace," "harmony," and "love" to the world.

It is a rationalization endemic to all nations and to all religions.

Killing for peace—

Killing for truth—

Killing for humanity—

Killing for god—

Killing ad nauseam.

Victoria believes that the Ch'an and Zen tradition fostered an atmosphere which condoned violence and he cites the legends involving the amputation of a disciple's arm, the severing of a boy's finger, the physical blows by fist and staff, the same stories of abuse that had troubled me. Victoria acknowledges that the instructional purpose of such a method is to awaken the disciple from delusion and to free him from dependence.

"Nevertheless"—

It provided the link that facilitated the connection made between Zen and the sword in feudal Japan and in turn between Zen and total war in modern Japan.
 
The fact is that Zen leaders who supported Japanese militarism did so on the grounds that Japanese aggression expressed the very essence of the Buddha Dharma and even enlightenment itself.

Victoria believes that these assumptions must be "closely examined and challenged" and he cites the conclusions of D.T. Suzuki who before the war had supported the Buddhist argument for it but after the war acknowledged, at least in part, his error.

Suzuki:

With satori [enlightenment] alone, it is impossible [for Zen priests] to shoulder their responsibilities as leaders of society. Not only is it impossible, but it is conceited of them to imagine they could do so…. With regard to disputes in the ordinary world, it is necessary to employ intellectual discrimination.

Thinking.

Victoria cites similar conclusions by Soto Zen scholar Hakamaya Noriaki, who argues that in Zen the idea of "harmony" is often employed as a means to "stifle internal dissent."

Hakamaya:

One must never allow oneself to be reduced to a mere physical entity. Instead, the intellect must be used to its utmost to clearly distinguish what is right, and words used to their utmost to criticize what is wrong. I believe this is the way in which faith becomes an activity opposed to war.

Thinking.

In his book Victoria also documents the fact that there were Buddhists in Japan who did oppose the forces of racism, nationalism, imperialism, and war and remained committed to the more universal understanding of the principles of nonviolence and compassion.

I conclude my discussion of Zen at War with the words of just one.

Kondo Genko:

War is an activity in which people kill each other. Whether it be friend or foe, the killing of people is monstrous. There is nothing more sinful in this world than the killing of people.

Thinking.

Thinking.

Yes.