LIBRARY OF SOCIAL SCIENCE: IDEOLOGIES OF WAR, GENOCIDE AND TERROR PRESENTS:

ZEN TERROR IN PREWAR JAPAN: Portrait of an Assassin

BRIAN DAIZEN VICTORIA is an American educator, writer and Buddhist priest in the Sōtō Zen sect. He has published numerous works on the relationship of religion to violence, with a focus on the relationship between Buddhism and Japanese militarism around World War II.

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DETAILS: Can Buddhism, widely regarded as a religion of peace, also contribute to acts of terrorism? Through an insider’s view of right-wing ultranationalism in prewar Japan, this powerful book follows a band of Zen Buddhist–trained adherents who ardently believed so. Brian Victoria, himself a Zen priest, tells the story of a group of terrorists who were responsible for the assassination of three leading political and economic figures in 1932. Victoria provides a detailed introduction to the religious as well as political significance of the group’s terrorist beliefs and acts, focusing especially on the life and times of the band’s leader, Inoue Nisshō. A deeply troubled youth, Inoue became a spy in Manchuria for the Japanese Army in 1909, where he encountered Zen for the first time. When he returned to Japan in 1921, he determined to resolve his deep spiritual discontent through meditation practice, which culminated in an enlightenment experience that resolved his long-term doubts.After engaging in “post-enlightenment training” under the guidance of Rinzai Zen master Yamamoto Gempō, Inoue began a program of training the “patriotic youth” who formed the nucleus of his terrorist band.

After the assassinations, Inoue and his band were sentenced to life imprisonment, only to be released just a few years later in 1940. Almost unbelievably, Inoue then became the live-in confidant of Prime Minister Konoe Fumimaro, a position he held through the end of WWII. In the postwar era, Inoue reinvented himself again as the founder and head of yet another band of ultranationalists known as the “National Protection Corps.” His eventful life came to an end in 1967. Victoria concludes with an assessment of the profound impact of the assassinations, which culminated in Japan’s transformation into a totalitarian state and set the stage for Pearl Harbor. The author also examines the connection of Buddhism to terrorism more broadly, considering the implications for today’s Islamic-related terrorism. 
 

REVIEWS

This third volume completes a masterly trilogy exposing how the violent undercurrents in Zen surfaced in modern times in the form of a militaristic right-wing ideology. Rather than focusing on Zen warmongering, as in the first two volumes, the subject of the present book is terrorism. Buddhism and terrorism might seem unlikely partners, but Victoria's carefully documented research traces how a partnership of febrile nationalism and Zen ideology led to Inoue Nisshō becoming the leader of a terrorist group in pre-WWII Japan. The book makes sobering reading for those who still see Buddhism as exclusively a religion of peace, and will be an invaluable resource for anyone interested in the chilling relationship between religion and terror.
— Damien Keown, emeritus, University of London Goldsmiths

I am delighted to draw attention to the admirable work of Brian Victoria. His expertise in Zen Buddhism comes both from intensive study of the Japanese sources and from his many years of personal experience. In both areas he has devoted himself to finding the truth and to conveying it with unflinching honesty and complete lucidity. His bold statements and candid judgments are all supported by unambiguous evidence and deserve to be pondered on by all who care about Buddhism and have humane values at heart.
— Richard Gombrich, Boden Professor of Sanskrit Emeritus, University of Oxford

Zen Terror in Prewar Japan completes Brian Victoria’s trilogy that mines the seam of killing-facilitation in twentieth-century Japanese Zen, focusing here on the writings and statements of the leader of a small group of terrorists led by a Zen practitioner. Buddhism contains rich resources for supporting non-violence and peace, but also some teachings that have been used to support violence. Victoria does a signal service to Buddhism by shining a spotlight on harmful delusions that have arisen in some of its followers, which should help to undermine these beliefs, drawing instead on more positive resources in the tradition. As a Zen teacher might have said, ‘If you see “Buddhist” bullshit on the road, kill it!’
— Peter Harvey, emeritus, University of Sunderland; author of An Introduction to Buddhist Ethics: Foundations, Values and Issues

Brian Victoria masterfully describes how peace-practicing Zen Buddhism was utilized as an ideological weapon for justifying terrorist acts in prewar Japan, fervently supporting Japan’s emperor system ideology. The book is not just an historical study but also a dire warning of the danger that, if abused, any peace-loving religion can be exploited to rationalize violence.
— Yuki Tanaka, author of Hidden Horrors: Japanese War Crimes in World War II

Brian Victoria paints a rich, often moving, psychological and philosophical portrait. Probing deeply into the Buddhist worldview and into the often abstract or even abstruse debates within Buddhist circles, he comes to the shocking conclusion that although ‘no religion is free of having committed terrorist acts or providing the doctrinal/ethical justification for terrorism,’ Buddhism, especially in the Zen form, has a peculiar predisposition for it. Like today’s Islamist cults, it learned to think of assassination as ‘compassionate killing.’ This is a book bound to stir controversy not only in Japan, especially in Buddhist circles, but also in the United States, where Zen Buddhism has attracted many adherents and any association of Zen with terror is unthinkable.
— Gavan McCormack, The Australian National University

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