Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-27gpq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-27T22:50:24.342Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

‘Bonded by reverence toward the Buddha’: Asian decolonization, Japanese Americans, and the making of the Buddhist world, 1947–1965*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 February 2013

Michael K. Masatsugu*
Affiliation:
Department of History, Towson University, Towson, MD 21252, USA E-mail: MMasatsugu@towson.edu

Abstract

This article examines Asian and Japanese American participation in a post-Second World War global movement for Buddhist revival. It looks at the role that Buddhism and the World Fellowship of Buddhists organization played in shaping transnational networks and the development of a global Buddhist perspective. It contextualizes the growth of a ‘Buddhist world’ within the history of decolonization and Japanese American struggles to reconstruct individual and community identities thoroughly disrupted by the war. The article considers Asian Buddhist approaches toward recognition as national and world citizens rather than colonial subjects and their influence on Japanese American Buddhists’ strategies for combating racial and religious discrimination in the United States. Finally, the article examines how Japanese Americans joined Asian efforts to formulate a distinctly Buddhist response to the Cold War. Buddhists hoped that Buddhism might serve as a ‘third power’ that would provide a critical check on a world increasingly polarized by Cold War politics and threatened by the prospects of nuclear war.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2013 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

*

The author thanks Rebecca M. Brown, Andrew Diemer, Nicole Dombrowski-Risser, Benjamin Fischer, Cindy Gissendanner, Elizabeth Gray, Christian Koot, Meghan Mettler, Karen Oslund, Steven Phillips, Ronn Pineo, Akim Reinhardt, Allaire Stallsmith, Jon Wiener, Duncan Williams, Ben Zajicek, and the Journal of Global History's editors and anonymous referees for their insightful comments and suggestions.

References

1 World Fellowship of Buddhists (WFB), Report of the inaugural conference, Ceylon: World Fellowship of Buddhists, June 1950, pp. 1–2Google Scholar

2 Ibid., pp. 22–8.

3 Sivasundaram, Sujit, ‘Ethnicity, indigeneity, and migration in the advent of British rule in Sri Lanka’, American Historical Review, 115, 2, 2010, p. 434CrossRefGoogle Scholar

4 WFB, Inaugural conference, pp. 32–33Google Scholar

5 Ibid., p. 32.

6 Ibid., p. 34.

7 Miyabara, Sunao, A history of the World Fellowship of Buddhists, Bangkok: WFB Headquarters, 2000, pp. 34Google Scholar

8 Ibid.

9 Ama, Michihiro, Immigrants to the pure land: the modernization, acculturation, and globalization of Shin Buddhism, 1898–1941, Honolulu, HI: University of Hawai'i Press, 2011CrossRefGoogle Scholar

10 Azuma, Eiichiro, Between two empires: race, history, and transnationalism in Japanese America, New York: Oxford University Press, 2005, p. 5CrossRefGoogle Scholar

11 Williams, Duncan Ryûken and Moriya, Tomoe, eds., Issei Buddhism in the Americas, Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 2010Google Scholar

12 Hosokawa, Bill, Nisei: the quiet Americans, New York: W. Morrow, 1969Google Scholar

Spickard, Paul, Japanese Americans: the formation and transformations of an ethnic group, New York: Twayne, 1996Google Scholar

Takahashi, Jere, Nisei/Sansei: shifting Japanese American identities and politics, Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1997Google Scholar

Kurashige, Lon, Japanese American celebration and conflict: a history of ethnic identity and festival, 1934–1990, Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2002Google Scholar

13 Daniels, Roger, Taylor, Sandra C., and Kitano, Harry H. L., eds., Japanese Americans: from relocation to redress, Salt Lake City, UT: University of Utah Press, 1986Google Scholar

Takezawa, Yasukio I., Breaking the silence: redress and Japanese American ethnicity, Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1995Google Scholar

14 Kashima, Tetsuden, Buddhism in America: the social organization of an ethnic religious institution, Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1975Google Scholar

Yoo, David, Growing up Nisei: race, generation and culture among Japanese Americans of California, 1924–1949, Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 2000, pp. 3842Google Scholar

15 Dirlik, Arif, ‘Performing the world: reality and representation in the making of world histor(ies)’, Journal of World History, 16, 4, 2005, p. 407CrossRefGoogle Scholar

16 Bond, George D., The Buddhist revival in Sri Lanka: religious tradition, reinterpretation and response, Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press, 1988, p. 76Google Scholar

Schober, Juliane, Modern Buddhist conjunctures in Myanmar: cultural narratives, colonial legacies, and civil society, Honolulu, HI: University of Hawai'i Press, 2011, p. 79Google Scholar

Pryor, C. Robert, ‘Bodh Gaya in the 1950s: Jawaharlal Nehru, Mahant Giri, and Angarika Munidra’, in David Geary, Matthew R. Sayers, and Abhishek Singh Amar, eds., Cross-disciplinary perspectives on a contested Buddhist site: Bodh Gaya Jataka, New York: Routledge, 2012, pp. 111114Google Scholar

17 Ishii, Yoneo, Sangha and state: Thai Buddhism in history, trans. Peter Hawkes, Honolulu, HI: University of Hawai'i Press, 1986, p. 122Google Scholar

18 WFB, The constitution of the World Fellowship of Buddhists, Rangoon: The Fellowship Burma Centre, n.d., p. 1Google Scholar

19 Ibid., p. 1.

20 Miyabara, History, p. 14Google Scholar

21 WFB, Constitution, p. 2Google Scholar

22 Ibid., pp. 9–10.

23 Ibid., pp. 10, 15.

24 Ibid., p. 5.

25 Ibid., pp. 14–15.

26 Ama, Immigrants, p. 182–185Google Scholar

27 Seekins, Donald, Burma and Japan since 1940, Copenhagen: NIAS Press, 2007, p. 3Google Scholar

Yu, Xue, Buddhism, war, and nationalism: Chinese monks in the struggle against Japanese aggressions, 1931–1945, New York, Routledge, 2005Google Scholar

28 WFB, Inaugural conference, p. 83Google Scholar

Miyabara, History, p. 4Google Scholar

29 Miyabara, History, pp. 5Google Scholar

30 Ibid., p. 7.

31 Malalasekera, G. P., The Buddhist flag of South Asia, Colombo: Buddhist Publishers, 1951, p. 1Google Scholar

32 Ibid., pp. 1–2.

33 Ibid., p. 4.

34 Ibid., pp. 11–12.

35 Ibid., p. 30.

36 Ibid., p. 52.

37 See the ‘Publishers note’ in ibid.

38 Malalasekera, Buddhist flag, p. 29Google Scholar

39 Ibid., pp. 6, 16, 38.

40 Ibid., p. 50.

41 Kashima, Buddhism, pp. 41Google Scholar

42 WFB, Report of the third conference, Rangoon: WFB, 1954, p. 79Google Scholar

43 Bond, Buddhist revival, pp. 75–76Google Scholar

44 Ishii, Sangha, p. 12Google Scholar

45 Schober, Modern Buddhist conjunctures, p. 60Google Scholar

46 Nagai, Makoto, ‘Congratulatory address’, Young East, 6, 19, Autumn 1956, pp. 12–13Google Scholar

47 WFB, Inaugural conference, p. 1Google Scholar

48 BSC, ‘Editorial: Otani's visit to Ceylon’, Young East, 6, 19, 1956, p. 1Google Scholar

Nagai, ‘Congratulatory address’, pp. 12–13Google Scholar

49 Malalasekera, G. P. and Jayatilleke, K. N., Buddhism and the race question, Paris: UNESCO, 1958, p. 19Google Scholar

50 Ibid., p 47.

51 Ibid., p. 59.

52 Ibid., pp. 52–3.

53 Ibid., p. 70–1.

54 Schober, Modern Buddhist conjunctures, p. 60Google Scholar

Bond, Buddhist revival, pp. 106–107Google Scholar

55 WFB, Inaugural conference, p. 31Google Scholar

56 Ibid.

57 Ibid., pp. 30–1.

58 Ibid., p. 29.

59 BSC, Japan Buddhist Council, ‘The second world Buddhist conference: prospectus’, Young East, April 1952, p. 31Google Scholar

60 Miyabara, History, p. 5Google Scholar

61 WFB, Inaugural conference, p. 86Google Scholar

62 WFB, Third conference, p. 2Google Scholar

63 Ibid.

64 Ibid., p. 37.

65 Morfit, Michael, order’, ‘Pancasila: the Indonesian state ideology according to the new government, Asian Survey, XXI, 8, 1981, pp. 843844Google Scholar

66 WFB, Report of the fifth conference, Bangkok: WFB, 1958, p. 69Google Scholar

67 G. P. Malalasekera, quoted in Berkeley Bussei, 1953Google Scholar

68 BSC, ‘Delegates’, Young East, December 1952, p. 27Google Scholar

69 WFB, Third conference, p. 24Google Scholar

70 Miyabara, History, p. 4Google Scholar

71 Ibid.

72 WFB, Report of the 7th Annual Conference, Sarnath, India: WFB, 1964, p. 53Google Scholar

73 BSC, G. P. Malalasekera, ‘Transcript of memorial service sermon’, Tri-Ratna, 7, 3, May–June 1953, p. 7Google Scholar

WFB, Third conference, p. 79Google Scholar

74 JANM, BCA, ‘Asian studies’, Berkeley Bussei, 1953, p. 32Google Scholar

75 Buddhist church of San Francisco, 1898–1978, San Francisco, CA: Buddhist Church of San Francisco, 1979, p. 20.

76 JANM, BCA, Buddhist Churches of America, 1965 annual report, San Francisco, CA, 1965, pp. 3233Google Scholar

77 JANM, BCA, ‘News from …’, Berkeley Bussei, 1950, p. 15Google Scholar

78 Malalasekera, ‘Transcript’, pp. 5–6Google Scholar

79 Ibid., p. 6.

80 Ibid., pp. 2–3.

81 JANM, BCA, G. P. Malalasekera, ‘Message’, Berkeley Bussei, 1953, p. 2Google Scholar

82 Ama, Immigrants, ch. 7Google Scholar

83 Kashima, Buddhism, p. 60Google Scholar

84 Masatsugu, Michael K., ‘“Beyond this world of transiency and impermanence”: Japanese Americans, Dharma Bums, and the making of American Buddhism during the early Cold War years’, Pacific Historical Review, 77, 3, 2008, pp. 432435CrossRefGoogle Scholar

85 Miyabara, History, p. 3Google Scholar

86 Miyabara, History, p. 3Google Scholar

87 JANM, BCA, Kikuo Taira, ‘2nd World Buddhist Conference’, Berkeley Bussei , 1953, pp. 25–26Google Scholar

88 Ibid., p. 26.

89 Sasaki, LaVerne Senyo, ‘A recommended one-year Buddhist curriculum for high school seniors in the Buddhist Churches of America’, MA thesis, University of the Pacific, 1965, p. iiiGoogle Scholar

90 Ibid., p. v.

91 BSC, Sasaki, ‘In reminiscing our travel to India, Nepal and Ceylon (3)’, Young East, 6, 18, Summer 1956, p. 29Google Scholar

92 BSC, Sasaki, ‘In reminiscing our travel to India, Nepal and Ceylon (2)’, Young East, 5, 17, Spring 1956, p. 28Google Scholar

93 Ibid., pp. 30–1.

94 Sasaki, ‘In reminiscing (3)’, pp. 30–32Google Scholar

95 Sasaki, ‘In reminiscing (2)’, p. 30Google Scholar

96 Ibid., p. 30.

97 Sasaki, ‘In reminiscing (3)’, p. 30Google Scholar

98 Ibid., p. 30.

99 Ibid., p. 33.

100 Asato, Noriko, ‘The Japanese language school controversy’, in Williams and Moriya, Issei Buddhism, p. 48Google Scholar

101 Interview with Reverend LaVerne Senyo Sasaki, 22 April 1996, San Francisco.

102 BSC, Sasaki, ‘In reminiscing (3)’, p. vGoogle Scholar

103 Sasaki, ‘A recommended’, p. 2Google Scholar

104 Ibid., p. ix.

105 Ibid., p. 125.

106 Ibid.

107 Ibid., p. 126.

108 Buddhist Churches of America: 75 year history, 1899–1974, vol. 1, Chicago, IL: Norbart, Inc., p. 41.

109 BSC, Dr Kikuo H. Taira, ‘Thoughts on Buddha's birthday’, transcript of radio address (date of broadcast unknown), in The call to adventure: twentieth anniversary, Central California Buddhist radio broadcast, Fresno, CA, 1970, pp. 29–31.

110 JANM, BCA, Manabu Fukuda, ‘The coming religion’, Berkeley Bussei, 1953, p. 13Google Scholar

111 See, for example, American Buddhist, June 1959, p. 4 (India); American Buddhist, April 1959 (Tibet), p. 6; American Buddhist, May 1959, p. 1 (Tibet).

112 Jackson, Robert, ‘The project for Buddhism overseas’, American Buddhist, January 1959, pp. 1Google Scholar

113 Klein, Christian, Cold War orientalism: Asia in the middlebrow imagination, Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2003, pp. 4956Google Scholar

114 WFB, Report of the 8th General Conference, Chengmai, Thailand: WFB, November 1965, p. 27Google Scholar