American Sutra: A Story of Faith and Freedom in the Second World War Kindle Edition
“Raises timely and important questions about what religious freedom in America truly means.”
“A must-read for anyone interested in the implacable quest for civil liberties, social and racial justice, religious freedom, and American belonging.”
On December 7, 1941, as the bombs fell on Pearl Harbor, the first person detained was the leader of the Nishi Hongwanji Buddhist sect in Hawai‘i. Nearly all Japanese Americans were subject to accusations of disloyalty, but Buddhists aroused particular suspicion. From the White House to the local town council, many believed that Buddhism was incompatible with American values. Intelligence agencies targeted the Buddhist community, and Buddhist priests were deemed a threat to national security.
In this pathbreaking account, based on personal accounts and extensive research in untapped archives, Duncan Ryūken Williams reveals how, even as they were stripped of their homes and imprisoned in camps, Japanese American Buddhists launched one of the most inspiring defenses of religious freedom in our nation’s history, insisting that they could be both Buddhist and American.
“Williams’ moving account shows how Japanese Americans transformed Buddhism into an American religion, and, through that struggle, changed the United States for the better.”
“Reading this book, one cannot help but think of the current racial and religious tensions that have gripped this nation—and shudder.”
Duncan Ryuken Williams is an ordained Buddhist priest in the Soto Zen tradition. He has spent years piecing together the story of the Japanese American community during World War II. A renowned scholar of Buddhism, Williams has taught at the University of California, Berkeley, University of California, Irvine, and Trinity College, and is now the Director of the Shinso Ito Center for Japanese Religions and Culture at the University of Southern California. He has published more than five books, including The Other Side of Zen. --This text refers to the
edition.
“American Sutra tells the story of how Japanese American Buddhist families like mine survived the wartime incarceration. Their loyalty was questioned, their freedom taken away, but their spirit could never be broken. A must-read for anyone interested in the implacable quest for civil liberties, social and racial justice, religious freedom, and American belonging. - George Takei, actor, director, and activist“In his revealing new history of Japanese American internment, Williams foregrounds the Buddhist dimension of the Japanese American experience. His moving account shows how Japanese Americans transformed Buddhism into an American religion, and, through that struggle, changed the United States for the better. - Viet Thanh Nguyen, author of the Pulitzer Prize–winning The Sympathizer“Explores for the first time the significance of religion, particularly Buddhism, among Japanese-Americans incarcerated at Heart Mountain and the nine other camps overseen by the War Relocation Authority… A searingly instructive story about America from which all Americans might learn. - Peter Manseau, Smithsonian“Williams' account of Japanese American Buddhists in internment - tales of suffering borne with dignity, and thereby transformed into great compassion - is the fruit of painstaking labor to unearth the buried stories and lives upon which American Sutra has been inscribed. - Mark Unno, Buddhadharma“Magisterial and engaging… Provid[es] a comprehensive overview of the wartime experience of Japanese American Buddhists - a majority in the camps, U.S. military service, and the community as a whole. He shows how racism and religious intolerance fed on and intensified each other, long before the war. - Vince Schleitwiler, International Examiner“Williams delivers a pioneering reinterpretation and retelling of the internment through the lens of religion… A pleasure to read. - Choice“American Sutra is a critically important, carefully researched, and deeply moving work of scholarship and storytelling that brings to light - from a dark and shameful period in our nation's past - a forgotten part of our religious and cultural history. This book raises timely and important questions about what religious freedom in America truly means. - Ruth Ozeki, author of A Tale for the Time Being“A pioneering work on the history of Japanese Americans during WWII - an instant classic. - Tetsuden Kashima, author of Judgment without Trial“Duncan Williams's book is deep, detailed, and timely, especially at a time when the meaning of ‘citizenship' in America is still unsettled. - Gary Snyder, author of the Pulitzer Prize–winning Turtle Island“American Sutra movingly and insightfully tells the long-buried true history of the ordeals suffered and triumphs achieved by Japanese American Buddhist individuals unjustly dispossessed and interned during WWII who drew on their Buddhist faith to remain loyal to the nation. I cannot recommend this compelling work highly enough for anyone who faces clearly the present-day conflicts of identities and yet aspires to a twenty-first-century vision of America's still-possible promise for the world. - Robert A. F. Thurman, Columbia University“By recounting the struggle of those interned to maintain their faith and traditions in the face of an unforgivable assault on both, American Sutra tells a larger tale of how America's storied commitment to religious freedom so often clashes with its history of white, Christian exceptionalism. Reading this book, one cannot help but think of the current racial and religious tension that have gripped this nation - and shudder. - Reza Aslan, author of Zealot and God: A Human History --This text refers to the
paperback edition.
Product details
ASIN : B07M6HV9FP
Publisher : Belknap Press (19 February 2019)
Language : English
File size : 54668 KB
Text-to-Speech : Enabled
Screen Reader : Supported
Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
X-Ray : Not Enabled
Word Wise : Enabled
Sticky notes : On Kindle Scribe
Print length : 400 pagesCustomer Reviews:
4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars
45 ratingsTop reviews from other countries
Edward M. Haugh Jr.
5.0 out of 5 stars Buddhism and the Incarceration of Japanese Americans During WWIIReviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on 4 April 2019
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Duncan Williams’ meticulously researched history of the mass incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II will be an eye-opener for most readers. It is well known that “racial prejudice, war hysteria and failure of political leadership” within the US government and the general public motivated the incarceration of over 110,000 West Coast Japanese and Japanese Americans during the World War II. However, it is less well known that Japanese-Americans’ practice of Buddhism distinguished them from the majority Christian population and identified them as a national security risk.
Williams covers a wide swath of history from the government’s pre-war plans to roundup Buddhist priests and Japanese community leaders, to the incarceration of the entire West Coast Japanese American population, life in the camps, and the eventual release of the “prisoners.” In these stories, we see that while Buddhism led to their incarceration, it was these same spiritual beliefs that helped the incarcerees survive their long ordeal. Although the incarceration mainly affected the Japanese on the West Coast, Williams provides details on the situation in Hawaii where many of the Buddhist priests were arrested immediately after Pearl Harbor and shipped to the mainland, leaving the community without its spiritual leaders at a perilous time.
Outside of the camps, Williams sheds light on the “registry” or the strategic and voluntary military participation of the Nisei in the European and Pacific war theaters; many serving as translators, code breakers, and interrogators whose efforts may have shortened the war by as much as two years. The story of Richard Sakakida, who was dropped into Manila during WWII to spy on the Japanese, is a particularly exciting one. The heroism of the Nisei in the 442nd Regiment is also well documented. Williams highlights their efforts to cling to their Buddhist beliefs in an army that did not recognize their faith. Many of these troops made their sacrifices all while their families back home were still incarcerated.
This tragic tale provides details on the “bad guys” (they are mostly, but not exclusively guys) who planned and implemented the mass incarceration of an innocent population, as well as the heroes and heroines, such as Julius Goldwater, the cousin of Barry Goldwater, and the Governor of Colorado who offered sanctuary to many Japanese Americans.
While originating in meticulous academic research, the book does not read like an academic study. The author’s writing style is straightforward and easy to read. The book is illustrated with emotional black and white photographs of the period. We learn about the Buddhist religion through a number of poignant verses written by incarcerated Buddhist monks and the retelling of ancient sutras. When I was finished reading the book I wanted to learn more about the fate of the Japanese Americans after the war and the evolution of Buddhism in America.
This book is a valuable read for anyone interested in the World War II incarceration of the Japanese Americans. It shines a bright light on the role that Buddhism played both in fomenting the removal of the community from the West Coast but also in helping the communities survive their ordeal. And it is a cautionary tale because the struggle for religious freedom is still not over. In the end Williams emphasizes that this period should serve as a reminder that America is built on the promise of freedom of religion, even if that religion is not a part of mainstream society. This history of mass incarceration is sad, but the triumph of human spirit, ably described by Williams, is uplifting. I highly recommend this book to history buffs, students of American Buddhism and anyone interested in religious freedom in America.
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Fa Hsing Jeff Miles
5.0 out of 5 stars Helpful and Eye-Opening New Look at a Dark Chapter of HistoryReviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on 14 June 2020
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"American Sutra" is an eye-opening account of the profiling and treatment of Japanese Americans during World War II, both before and after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Though there have been numerous accounts detailing the discrimination against Americans of Japanese descent and nationality based on their race, the focus of Williams' book is to show how an equally prominent factor in the discrimination was their Buddhist faith, and how the practice of their religious beliefs was used against them as well. (He points out that the first people to be detained were Japanese Buddhist priests, who were arrested within hours of the bombing based on preexisting 'threat lists' maintained by the U.S. government.)
Williams then also goes on to show how that very faith helped sustain them even when their friends, neighbors, and very country (many of the incarcerated were U.S. citizens) turned against them, and how their treatment shaped and evolved Buddhist practice in America in new ways.
Drawing on extensive research, and including many excerpts from interviews and personal letters, "American Sutra" adds a much-needed perspective and puts a more complete human face on a deeply troubling chapter of American history.
ReportAshura
5.0 out of 5 stars The Japanese American Buddhist CommunityReviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on 10 April 2019
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As a Japanese American Buddhist, reading American Sutra was a deeply moving and highly personal journey for me. For the first time in my life, I saw myself and my own community reflected in the written word. My father and his family were incarcerated in Amache, Colorado, where he was drafted into the 442nd and served in Italy. Despite serious persecution, my parents held steadfast to their religious beliefs as well as to their patriotism. Attacks against Buddhists didn’t stop after WWII ended. As a child growing up in the sixties and seventies, I didn’t dare tell people outside my community that I was Buddhist. To do so was to invite ridicule, disparagement, and possibly much worse. While no longer the object of outright attack, we are now the object of either dismissal, or cultural and religious appropriation. My hope lies in this book and the national education tour of Rev. Duncan Williams, that perhaps the American public will begin to discover our history that has been heretofore erased, and understand the depth that lies within it. Our community owes a deep debt of gratitude to Rev. Williams for returning our history to us.
6 people found this helpful
Reportchihaya
3.0 out of 5 stars No Bibliography and a shoddy IndexReviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on 4 June 2019
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Failing to provide a list of bibliography is just inexcusable.
Were the editors at Belknap/Harvard snoozing?
Index coverage is surprisingly shoddy, too.
Try looking up dual citizenship or Imperial Way Buddhism 皇道仏教.
Nada. Zilch.
Oh, the latter isn't even covered anywhere in this book that supposedly examines the problems facing the Japanese American Buddhist community. Imagine that.
Throughout the 1930s, the militarist government in Japan had forced the Buddhist churches to adhere to the dogma of Imperial Way Buddhism, in which the Emperor was equated to the Amida Buddha and the spread of the Imperial Way no less than practicing the Dharma. All missionary priests abroad were schooled in this Buddhist fascism, and this was why the U.S. counterintelligence services looked on the Buddhist practices by the Japanese immigrant community with so much suspicion.
The most violent of the pro-Japan factions in Tule Lake did not hesitate to silence the opposing voice of Yaozo Hitomi by slashing his throat on July 2, 1944. Only a timely intervention by the wife of another victim saved that man's life.
Did the Buddhist priests who led the pro-Japan factions at Tule Lake know anything about the murder and assault and the subsequent cover-up of these crimes? Prof. Williams interviewed one of the priests, Rev. Shingetsu Akaboshi, in Osaka, Japan, only to report how shocked the good reverend was to have his belief in the Japanese victory dashed by the sight of the devastated homeland in 1945.
Not a word regarding the unsolved murder. Nada. Zilch.
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ReportDex
5.0 out of 5 stars How Buddhism Survived American PersecutionReviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on 29 March 2019
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Professor Williams has created a masterwork of lyrical scholarship that is compelling and revealing. His religious viewpoint of Japanese and Buddhist discrimination beginning in the late 19th Century, culminating with Executive Order 9066, and martial law/internment during WWII, offers a fresh perspective on a dark chapter in American history. Dr. Williams reveals a "double-barreled" blast of racial discrimination of Japanese Americans as disloyal enemies-of-the-state and religious intolerance of a non-Christian faith tradition.
Ultimately, "American Sutra" is an poignant and uplifting story of resilience against all odds and a model for all immigrants to the United States and their religious paths. That Buddhism survived and has continued to offer refuge for millions of American today is a testament to the power of the American Constitution and the Japanese spirit. Today, Buddhism offers not only churches and temples, but also peaceful practices such as mindfulness, yoga, and compassion. Congratulations and thank you, Dr. Williams.
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