A few years ago, 2 distressing books entitled "Zen at War" and "Zen War Stories" were published by Brian Victoria about the attitude of the Zen Establishment right before and during World War II in Japan. During this difficult period, a number of Zen Masters gave their support to the Japanese Imperial
Army. This was very unfortunate, but they were very likely unaware of the atrocities committed in Korea, China and other Asian countries by the Japanese forces. (Are we really aware of what is going on in Pakistan or Afghanistan ?)
Apparently and according to various authors, Victoria
tried to strengthen his case by distorting the words of a number of prominent Zen teachers. Among those are Kodo Sawaki, teacher of Taisen Desshimaru and Gudo Nishijima - and D.T. Suzuki who first translated in English the Lankavatara Sutra - among others - Excusez-moi du peu ! Quotations from these masters were mistranslated and taken out of contest to make them seem like war-mongers when this was quite the opposite.
I suggest you read this article and decide for yourself.
I don’t know Japanese so I can’t judge of the validity of the
arguments on the translations. However, I have been practising Japanese
Martial Arts for a few years and I would like to add some wood to the fire of discussion. So here we go :
Zen does not preach the gospel of mercy, in fact Zen does not preach anything at all. Zen is practice.
The connection between Zen and Martial Arts dates from the beginnings
of Zen in Japan – i.e. the 13th century when the
Mongols of Kubilai Khan twice tried to invade (in 1274 and 1281). These were difficult times for Japanese society.
If you want to understand more about the connection between Zen and Martial Arts, I suggest you read Trevor
Legett’s "Zen and the Ways” and “The Warriors Koans”, Taisen Desshimaru
(another disciple of Kodo Sawaki Roshi) – “Zen and Martial Arts”,
Yamaoka Tesshu’s “The sword of no-sword”, or Omory Sogen’s “Introduction to Zen training”. These are all books by men of great accomplishment in Zen and/or
Traditional Japanese Martial or other Arts.
The same sword and swordsman kills and gives life – no distinction.
This is not a deep philosophical thing. If you see someone ready to hurt
some innocent person, you slice them, your sword killed one person, and
gave life to the other person. It is that simple. If you believe
otherwise, you are mistaken. You might not be able to do it, but do not
blame Buddhism or Zen for that. It is just that you were not able to do
it.
There is no shame if you did nothing because you did not know how to handle a sword. No need
to be killed yourself. However, if you are fluent in Martial Arts and
are not able to use them when necessary, or if you use them too easily
when you should not, you have a problem, and society has a problem.
This is where Zen can help.
Yagyu Munenori was chief martial art instructor to the first and
second Tokugawa shogun. (Early 17th century). Only once in his life did
he draw his sword when a small group of rebels tried to
assassinate the Shogun. Munenori, who was himself a disciple of Takuan Soho - sliced them down.
In his book “Heiho Kandesho” translated by Scott Wilson as “the Life-giving sword” Munenori clearly explains the identity of the life giving and the killing sword.
Things are not complicated. To become fluent at anything, you need to
practice. It is true of Zen, it is true of Martial Arts. You need to
practice Zazen, you need to practice Kendo or Calligraphy. If you don’t
practice, you are wasting your time.
And here I am, writing...
