Zen and War - Ancient Wisdom for Modern Life | Mindful Living & Conflict Resolution Books

Let me begin by disclosing that I am the author of "Zen at War," the book on which this video documentary is based. That said, I was not involved in the making of this documentary nor do I stand to benefit financially from its sale.Bearing this in mind, I strongly recommend this film to all those, Buddhist and non-Buddhist alike, who are interested in the question of the relationship of religion to violence. The film in question depicts one fascinating, if disturbing, example of the manner in which a universal religion, Zen Buddhism in this case, was captured and used by modern Japanese nationalism in its quest to dominate Asia, beginning with Japan’s colonization of Taiwan following its victory in the first Sino-Japanese War of 1894-5 and extending through the end of WW II (aka Asia-Pacific War in Japan).The film’s chief protagonist is Ina Buitendijk, a Dutch woman whose husband, then a six year old child, suffered sever trauma as a result of his wartime experiences in a Japanese civilian interment camp in the “Dutch East Indies” (today’s Indonesia). As a Zen Buddhist practitioner she wrote letters to the heads of a number of Zen monastic centers, asking how alleged “Zen masters” could have so enthusiastically supported Japan’s wartime aggression?For the first time, leading contemporary Japanese Zen masters attempt to explain “what went wrong” during the war years. While I personally don’t find their responses either complete or persuasive, they do at least mark the beginning of a conversation that has been a long time coming and one that deserves to be pursued. Pursued not just for the sake of a possible renewal of Japanese Zen but of institutional Japanese Buddhism as a whole given that all sects of Japanese Buddhism enthusiastically supported Japan’s wartime aggression.What is conspicuously missing from the comments made by contemporary Japanese Zen masters interviewed in the film is the identification of those wartime Zen masters responsible for the Zen school’s endorsement of Japanese aggression. This reflects the continuing influence of Confucian social morality in contemporary Zen in which it is impossible to criticize one’s predecessors. This inability to criticize an allegedly “enlightened” Zen master has also contributed to the sexual abuse seen in a number of Zen training centers in the West in recent years.As this film reveals, leading Zen masters, and the Zen sects they are affiliated with, have at long last admitted and repented their complicity in Japan’s war effort. The film depicts one expression of this repentance in the form of an invitation to Ina Buitendijk and her daughter to visit Japan in order to receive a personal apology.Yet the Chinese people, more than ten million of whom died as a result of Japan’s unprovoked invasion of their country, are conspicuously missing from this film other than their appearance as victims of wartime bombing, etc. It is almost as if this film had been made for the benefit of white Western Zen practitioners rather than those many millions of Asians who so grievously suffered at the hands of Japanese invaders.No doubt it is too much to expect a 58-minute documentary to explore the many aspects of Zen’s complicity in Japan’s wartime aggression. Given this, the film is to be lauded for having made a good start at unraveling this deep-seated problem, one that ultimately transcends Japanese modernity and even Japan itself. In so doing, the film also offers a window into the all too prevalent involvement of religion in warfare up to the present day.If only as a catalyst for leading to a larger discussion of the relationship of religion to violence, this film deserves to be seen by the widest possible audience. It would be an excellent choice for classroom viewing.