Zen, D.T. Suzuki and
the Nazis
Part One
Suzuki and Nazis
in Japan
The Mystery Begins (1)
The first American to make direct contact with D.T.
Suzuki in postwar, occupied Japan was Albert
Stunkard who recalled the circumstances of his
meeting with Suzuki: “I was working in Tokyo as an
army medical officer at Sugamo Prison, providing
medical care for the men who were being tried for
war crimes by the International Military Tribunal for
the Far East….One of the prisoners, later to become
recognized as a religious thinker, was Graf
Duerckheim, a German. He used to talk to me about
Zen. One day he mentioned Dr. Suzuki, with whom
he had studied, suggesting that I visit Dr. Suzuki at
his home in a small town not far from Tokyo.” (cont.)
The Mystery Begins (2)
“I took up the suggestion and not long afterwards
met Dr. Suzuki in his house on the grounds of
Engakuji monastery in Kita Kamakura….Dr.
Suzuki welcomed me, took the letter of
introduction from Graf Duerckheim, and led me
inside his house, where he adjusted his
spectacles and read the letter. He was slender
and a bit frail, with a face dominated by huge
eyebrows that curved upwards and outwards.
When he had finished the letter, Dr. Suzuki asked
me about Duerckheim and the other prisoners at
Sugamo.”
Kenneth Kraft, ed., Zen Teaching, Zen Practice,
Weatherhill 2000, pp. 21-22
The Questions Begin
Among other questions, I asked myself:
1. Who was Graf Duerckheim?
2. Why had Duerckheim been imprisoned as
a suspected war criminal?
3. Why had a suspected German war
criminal been studying with D.T. Suzuki
during WW II?
4. And, far more importantly, why had Suzuki
accepted someone as his student who
went on to become a suspected war
criminal?
The First Surprise (1)
Thanks to Wikipedia I quickly learned that
“Karlfried Graf Duerckheim had been a a
German diplomat, psychotherapist and
Zen-Master.” A Zen master? Did that
explain his relationship with D. T. Suzuki
(his master?) and also his statement
about 18 months of imprisonment in
Sugamo: "That time of captivity was
precious to me because I could exercise
zazen meditation and remain in immobility
for hours”? (continued)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karlfried_Graf_D%C3%BCrckheim
The First Surprise (2)
Nevertheless, I was not prepared for this
statement:
“[Stunkard’s] visit started a chain reaction of
visitors to the Suzuki residence, one of
whom was Philip Kapleau, author of The
Three Pillars of Zen and founder of the
Rochester Zen Center. Duerckheim thus
was directly responsible for launching Zen
into the American mainstream.” (Italics mine)
A war criminal, a Nazi (?) launched Zen
into the postwar American mainstream?!
Graf Duerckheim
Who was Graf Duerckheim? (1)
In his own words: “"My familiarity with Meister
Eckhart facilitated my approach to Zen. What
does Zen teach? Every being in his original nature
is a buddha. His original face is disfigured by the
mundane self. The condition of maturation whose
fruit is a person liberated by his buddha nature is
therefore the death of the self and the experience
of being….Out of personal preference, I came to
know many Zen exercises. I even worked outside
of meditation (zazen), especially in archery and
painting....Done in the spirit of Zen, they are
merely different ways aiming toward the same
thing: the breakthrough toward the nature of
Buddha, toward ‘Being’.”
All quotations from Gerhard Wehr, “The Life and Work of Karlfried Graf Durckheim,”
available at: http://www.centre-bethanie.org/compression/teachings.pdf
Who was Graf Duerckheim? (2)
According to his biographer, Gerhard Wehr:
“Toward the end of his stay in Japan,
Duerckheim experienced satori, the aim of
Zen: a degree of illumination of reality.
Through this he achieved the ‘spiritual breakthrough toward ultimate reality.’ In this way a
greater Self is uncovered, beyond the
ordinary self….The years in Japan represent
a special formation for Duerckheim's later
work as teacher of meditation and guide on
the inner path.”
Who was Graf Duerckheim? (3)
To his credit, Wehr also notes: “In the summer of 1938, the
world political situation was tense. Hitler had just annexed
Austria into the German empire. The fear of war was
everywhere. It was then that Duerckheim was sent on his
special mission to Japan which would be of such vital
importance to him. In the wave of enthusiastic nationalism,
Duerckheim saw himself as a useful representative of the
‘new Germany’ for his people and his employers in Berlin,
for the Minister of foreign affairs Von Ribbentrop, and for the
Minister of education, Bernhard Rust…. From the outside, in
the years 1930 to 1940, professor Karlfried Graf
Duerckheim seemed to be a cultural envoy of the Third
Reich. At the same time, a subterranean process of
transformation of which he was hardly conscious was taking
place…. He does not yet realize that he will have to make a
decision if he continues his inner path.” (Italics mine)
Continued
Who was Graf Duerckheim? (4)
With almost no background information, Wehr reports: “In the
following stages of his life, Duerckheim experienced an
imprisonment of a year and a half in the prison of Sugamo in
Tokyo under the control of the American occupation. The
letters maintained in his family archives are contradictory in
nature: from moments of inner calm to profound depression.
Decades later…[Duerkheim] stated: ‘In spite of everything, it
was a very fertile period for me. The first weeks I had a dream
almost every night, some of which anticipated my future work.
In my cell, I was surrounded by a profound silence. I could
work on myself and that is when I began to write a novel. My
neighbors simply waited for each day to pass. That time of
captivity was precious to me because I could exercise zazen
meditation and remain in immobility for hours.’ The years in
Japan represent a special formation for Duerckheim's later
work as teacher of meditation and guide on the inner path.”
(Italics mine)
Who was Graf Duerckheim? (5)
Alternate viewpoints: 1) A German academic observer, Dr.
Dietrich Seckel, who taught in Japan from 1937 to 1947, and
later at Heidelberg University from 1965 to 1976, described
Duerckheim’s wartime activities in Japan: “Duerckheim also
went to Zen temple(s) where he meditated. However, his study
and practice of Zen Buddhism has been extremely
exaggerated. In particular, I felt this way because, at the same
time, he was propagating Nazism. There was something
incongruous about this. I recall seeing him at a reception at the
German Embassy. At that time he was poking his finger into
the breast of one of the most famous Japanese professors of
economics who was wearing a brown silk kimono. While
explaining the ideology of the German Reich to him,
Duerckheim kept pushing the poor professor back until the
latter reached the wall and could go no further. I could not help
but feel pity for this professor who was the subject of
Duerckheim’s indoctrination.” (Continued)
Who was Graf Duerckheim? (6)
“Duerckheim thought of himself as a friend and
supporter of German teachers [in Japan]. He
provided us with everything he could think of.
He lectured everywhere ceaselessly with his
lectures first being translated into Japanese
and then, later on, distributed to all German
residents in the original German. His speeches
arrived in the mail on an almost daily basis. It
was extremely unpleasant. He was what might
be called an excellent propagandist who,
possessed of a high intellectual level, traveled
throughout Japan teaching Nazism and the
ideology of the Third Reich.” (Italics mine)
Arai Kun, “Shūsenzen tainichi doitsujin no taiken” (Experiences of German Residents
in Japan before the End of the War) in Bunka Ronshū, No. 15, September 1999,
p. 112
Who was Graf Duerckheim? (7)
2) Hashimoto Fumio, a former higher school teacher of German
and a translator for the German Embassy in Tokyo, recalled his
relationship to Duerckheim: “When Duerckheim first arrived in
Japan, he was surrounded by Shintoists, Buddhist scholars,
military men and right-wing thinkers, each of whom sought to
impress him with their importance. The Count found it difficult to
determine which of them was the real thing, and I stepped in to
serve as his advisor. In addition, a great number of written
materials were sent to him, and my job was to review them to
determine their suitability….In the end what most interested the
Count was traditional Japanese archery and Zen. He set up an
archery range in his garden and zealously practiced every day.
In addition, he went to Shinkōji temple on the outskirts of Ogawa
township in Saitama Prefecture where he stayed to practice Zen
for a number of days. His instructor in zazen was the temple
abbot, Master Yasutani [Haku’un]. I accompanied the Count and
gladly practiced with him.” (Italics mine)
Zen War Stories, pp. 88-89
Who was Graf Duerckheim?(8)
Hashimoto also noted that Duerckheim held
extended discussions with such leading military
figures as Imperial Navy Vice-Admiral Teramoto
Takeharu (1884–1958) and Imperial Army
General Araki Sadao (1877–1966). Araki was well
known for both his fierce anti-Communism and
the importance he placed on promoting the “Spirit
of Japan” among both military men and civilians,
particularly school-age youth. In postwar years
Araki was also imprisoned at Sugamo where he
was tried as an Class A war criminal and
sentenced to life imprisonment.
Zen War Stories, p. 89
Yasutani Haku’un
Who was Yasutani Haku’un? (1)
Hashimoto relates that Duerckheim first took an interest in
Yasutani because of this master‘s strong emphasis on both
the practice of zazen and the realization of enlightenment.
This emphasis on practice was a new revelation for him, for
until then his only knowledge of Buddhism had come from
scholars who “had never properly done zazen or realized
enlightenment.” In particular, Hashimoto was impressed by
Yasutani’s 1943 book on Zen Master Dōgen and the Shūshōgi
which revealed “the greatness of this master [i.e., Yasutani]
and the profundity of Buddhism.” So impressed was
Hashimoto by this book that not only did he provide
Duerckheim with a detailed description of its contents but went
on to translate the entire book into German. However, in
reality this book revealed Yasutani to have been a
fanatical supporter of Japanese militarism, an anti-Semite
not to mention a sexist.
Zen War Stories, p. 89
Who was Yasutani Haku’un? (2)
For example, in responding to the question of
whether a Mahāyāna Buddhist should kill, Yasutani
wrote: “Of course one should kill, killing as many as
possible. One should, fighting hard, kill everyone in
the enemy army. The reason for this is that in order
to carry [Buddhist] compassion and filial obedience
through to perfection it is necessary to assist good
and punish evil….Failing to kill an evil man who
ought to be killed, or destroying an enemy army that
ought to be destroyed, would be to betray
compassion and filial obedience, to break the
precept forbidding the taking of life. This is a special
characteristic of the Mahāyāna precepts.”
Zen at War, p. 72
Who was Yasutani Haku’un? (3)
As for Jews, Yasutani wrote: “We must be aware of the
existence of the demonic teachings of the Jews who assert
things like [the existence of] equality in the phenomenal
world, thereby disturbing public order in our nation’s society
and destroying [governmental] control. Not only this, these
demonic conspirators hold the deep-rooted delusion and
blind belief that, as far as the essential nature of human
beings is concerned, there is, by nature, differentiation
between superior and inferior. They are caught up in the
delusion that they alone have been chosen by God and are
[therefore] an exceptionally superior people. The result of all
this is a treacherous design to usurp [control of] and dominate
the entire world, thus provoking the great upheavals of today.
It must be said that this is an extreme example of the evil
resulting from superstitious belief and deep-rooted delusion.”
Zen at War, p. 73
Who was Yasutani Haku’un? (4)
A postwar, 1973 remembrance of Yasutani and
Duerckheim comes from Rinzai Zen Master Shimano
Eido: “During World War II…the German government
sent Professor Duerckheim to Japan to study
Japanese culture, especially Zen Buddhism. After
arriving in Japan, Professor Duerckheim searched
for an appropriate book to study and finally, with the
assistance of Professor [Fumio] Hashimoto, he found
a book called Dogen Zenji and Shushogi, published
in 1943….So impressed was Duerckheim that he
visited Yasutani Roshi’s temple with Professor
Hashimoto. Yasutani Roshi entertained them by
preparing a Japanese bath which they all took
together.
Zen at War, p. 88
D.T. Suzuki
Duerckheim & Suzuki (1)
In a postwar interview Duerckheim explained
his first encounter with Zen and Suzuki as
follows: “I was sent there [i.e., Japan] in
1938 with a particular mission that I had
chosen: to study the spiritual background of
Japanese education. As soon as I arrived at
the embassy, an old man came to greet me.
I did not know him. ‘Suzuki,’ he stated. He
was the famous Suzuki who was here to
meet a certain Mister Duerckheim arriving
from Germany to undertake certain studies.
(cont.)
Duerckheim & Suzuki (2)
Suzuki is one of the greatest contemporary
Zen Masters. I questioned him immediately
on the different stages of Zen. He named the
first two, and I added the next three. Then he
exclaimed: "Where did you learn this?" "In the
teaching of Meister Eckhart!" "I must read him
again...” (though he knew him well
already)….It is under these circumstances
that I discovered Zen. I would see Suzuki
from time to time. (Italics mine)
Dialogue on the Path of Initiation - The Life and Thought of Karlfried Graf Durckheim,
Alphonse Goettmann, trans. Theodore and Rebecca Nottingham, electronically published by
Nottingham
Publishing,
1998.
Available
at:
http://www.centrebethanie.org/compression/dialogue.pdf
What did Suzuki teach Duerckheim?
“There is one source which could probably give more
information about Duerckheim’s encounter with (Zen)
Buddhism and perhaps with Suzuki personally during his
years in Japan: Duerckheim’s diaries. They are
unpublished and belong to the Duerckheim family in
Germany. They have been used by Duerckheim’s first
biographer (Gerhard Wehr, Karlfried Graf Duerckheim,
Freiburg 1996). Wehr found out that Duerckheim had
been a fervent Nazi. For the Duerckheim family and
Duerckheim’s students his book was a shock (despite
the fact that Wehr basically was an adherent of
Duerckheim). My impression is that since then the family
doesn’t allow anyone to use Duerckheim’s diaries. At
least they refused my request.”
E-mail from Prof. Hans Bieber on 9 June
2011
Suzuki & the Rosenkrantzes (1)
In 1938-39 Gerhard Rosenkranz,
accompanied by his wife Hildegard,
undertook a study tour of China,
Korea and Japan on behalf of the
German East Asia Mission. It was
then that he met Suzuki in the library
at Buddhist Ōtani University in
Kyoto. Their conversation included
the following passages:
Suzuki & the Rosenkrantzes (2)
“We asked him, ‘How do you see the position of Buddhism
in relation to the Japanese national religion?’ We add that
we have seen many indications in Buddhist temples that
Buddhism has placed itself in the service of the ‘general
mobilization of the people's minds.’ Flags, pennants and
posters with the national emblems and slogans on them
are witness to that. In a temple in Tokyo I met a Buddhist
professor who had studied in Heidelberg and who - it was
on Buddha’s birthday - had just held the afternoon sermon.
Shining with joy he came up to me. ‘I just spoke about
National Socialism and Labor Service in the Third Reich!"
he said. ‘I just came back from Germany. I had doubts
about National Socialism, but now I am convinced of its
importance. Here are the writings that I have received in
Berlin from Reich Leader SS Himmler! I just now read from
them.’"
Suzuki & the Rosenkrantzes (3)
“Professor Suzuki remained silent for a while. Then he
said: ‘Shinto needs Buddhism if it really wants to be
religion; for it has no religious values itself. And
Buddhism needs Shinto in order to be accepted by the
government. They were both linked like this down
through the centuries. However, seventy years ago they
were separated. That wasn’t good. We Buddhists bow in
front of the emperor’s picture, but for us this isn’t
religious act. The emperor is no god because god can
be something very low for us. We see the emperor in an
area high above all religions. Trying to make him a god
today means a reduction in the status of the emperor.
This brings confusion to Buddhism, Shinto and
Christianity.’” (Italics mine)
Gerhard Rosenkranz: Fernost - wohin? Begegnungen mit den Religionen Japans
und Chinas im Umbruch der Gegenwart. Heilbronn, Verlag Eugen Salzer 1940,
available at: http://www.payer.de/neobuddhismus/neobud0305.htm
Suzuki & Shinto in Postwar Japan
Suzuki’s comments on Shinto are
significant in that in his 1947 book,
Nihon no Reiseika (The Spiritualizing of
Japan) he now claimed Shinto was a
“primitive
religion”
that
“lacked
spirituality.” It was this lack that had led
to Japan’s “excessive nationalism” and
“military control.” The solution? “Do
away with Shinto!” Suzuki asserted.
Zen at War, p.
150
Part Two
Suzuki and Nazis
in Germany
Heinrich Himmler
Samurai as SS Inspiration
In 1937 Himmler directed a book be published
to which he wrote the foreword, i.e., Samurai.
Ritter des Reiches in Ehre und Treue
(Samurai, Knights of the Empire in Honor and
Loyalty). He ordered it distributed to every
member of the SS. “Using this short history of
the samurai,” Himmler wrote, “we wish to call
to mind some long forgotten truths: The fact,
that even in antiquity, this Far-Eastern nation
had the same honorary laws as our
forefathers….and moreover, recognizing that
these are usually elite minority groups that
endow the worldly existence of a nation with
eternal life.” (Italics mine)
Die Samurai
The Foreword
The SS &Walther Wüst
Himmler was an admirer of Asian
philosophy who once said: “I marvel at the
wisdom of the founders of Indian
religions.” Thus, in 1937 Himmler
appointed Professor Walther Wüst,
chairman of the Sanskrit Department at
Ludwig-Maximilians University in Munich,
as director of the Ahnenerbe (Bureau for
the Study of Ancestral Heritage), an official
organization attached to the SS.
The Greatest Aryan
Wüst became a colonel in the SS and rector of
Munich University in 1941. As such he was one
of the Third Reich’s most influential scholars.
Wüst operated on the assumption that the then
secret Nazi religion being created should be
rooted in the Vedic and Buddhist writings of India.
Wüst repeatedly delivered a speech to SSpersonnel from June 1936 onwards asserting the
existence of a direct line of racial ancestry from
the old Aryans of India to present-day National
Socialists. The greatest Aryan of them all was,
according to Wüst, Buddha Shakyamuni.
Hitler as Buddha!
Wüst claimed that 2500 years later in Austria, the
‘Führer,’ at that time an unskilled worker who lived in
Vienna under the spell of suffering, became
acquainted with the hardship of the poor when
walking through the pitiful flats of the workers…. His
Viennese experience prevented Hitler either from
getting lost in abstract theories or to become subject
to a shallow realism. Instead, he arrived at an
inspired vision of reality similar to the one Buddha
once had…. Since Buddha and Adolf Hitler belonged
to the same hereditary community, they reacted the
same way to the problems of their time. Moreover,
their common genetic constitution endowed them with
the capacity to guide their people from subjugation to
freedom.
Horst Junginger, From Buddha to Adolf Hitler, p.
Wüst on Japan
“From even a Japanese citizen with the most modern point
of view shines forth the oldest samurai. If one wants to plant
a new seed in his heart, one simply has to stir up the
sediment that has settled in its depths over the course of
centuries. The man who said this was a Japanese man
soaked through with the unbelievable spirituality and power
of tradition, a type of man that we luckily have in Germany,
too, but we must attempt to develop far more vehemently, if
we want to claim the certain victory of our weapons and to
fulfill the deepest meaning of the Greater German Empire.
May a merciful fate grant that this young but eternal
German Man quietly, surely and constantly develop in the
character into which the Japanese are born.”
Quoted in Bill Maltarich, Samurai and Supermen, p. 237
Zen Appears
Nitobe Inazō was one of the first to introduce
Germans to Bushidō and Zen. His book was
published in English in 1900. A German language
version appeared a year later in Tokyo but not until
1905 in Germany. Nitobe wrote: “I may begin with
Buddhism. It furnished a sense of calm trust in
Fate, a quiet submission to the inevitable, that stoic
composure in sight of danger or calamity, that
distain of life and friendliness with death. A
foremost teacher of swordsmanship, when he saw
his pupil master the utmost of his art, told him,
‘Beyond this my instruction must give way to Zen
teaching.’” (Italics mine)
Quoted in Zen at War, p. 96
Zen in Nazi Germany
Sarah Panzer explains that by the time of
the Nazis: “Zen itself became politically
mobilized, so to speak ‘weaponized,’ in
Germany as a way of conceptualizing
an idealized image of Japanese heroic
masculinity that was meant to make
Japanese culture more immediately
recognizable and sympathetic to a
German audience.”
Sarah Panzer, “Mobilizing
Zen”
Two ‘Scholars’ Responsible
The first German scholar responsible for
‘weaponizing’ Zen was Wilhelm Gundert who left
for Japan in 1906 and remained there as a
German instructor into the 1930s, aside from a 2year period when he returned to Germany to
complete a doctorate in Japanologie with Karl
Florenz in Hamburg. In 1927 Gundert became the
German head of the Japanisch-Deutsche
Kulturinstitut in Tokyo and joined the Nazi Party in
1934. In 1936 he succeeded his mentor as chair
in Japanologie at the Universität Hamburg and
also served a 2-year term as Rector of the
University beginning in 1938.
Zen as Masculine and Heroic
In 1935 Gundert published Japanische
Religionsgeschichte. Regarding Zen he
writes: “Dem Stand der Krieger und Ritter
(Samurai oder Bushi)...musste das Zen
mit seiner Männlichkeit und Zucht, seiner
schlichten
Lebenskunst
und
Todesverachtung, seiner Vornehmheit und
Ritterlichkeit wie gerufen erscheinen...“
Gundert appears to have been the first
German scholar to make an explicit
connection between Zen and masculine
heroism.
Zen as Symbol of Shared Past
In 1937 Gundert wrote of a shared chivalric past in Die
religiösen Kräfte Asiens: “Man kann bei näherer
Berührung mit dieser Form des Zen-Buddhismus das
Gefühl nicht unterdrücken, als sei hier auf merkwürdigen
Umwegen über das arische Indien ein Stück echtesten
nordischen Geistes nach dem Fernen Osten gedrungen,
der dort wohl merkwürdigen Formen der äußeren
Verkleidung angenommen haben mag, den wir aber doch
ohne weiteres als uns innerlich verwandt und nahe
empfinden. Aus dem Geist des Zen ist das japanische
Ritter- und Kriegerideal, Buschidô, geboren, das noch
heute im japanischen Heere und darüber hinaus lebendig
ist, wie man denn noch immer unter japanischen
Offizieren viele treffen kann, die sich in die Schriften der
alten Zenmeister vertiefen oder gelegentlich an
Meditationsübungen in einem Zen-Kloster teilnehmen.“
Gundert during the War
Throughout the war; Gundert promoted the
importance of Zen and Bushido including his
1942
article
in
Deutschlands
Erneuerung:“Quellen japanischer Kraft.” He
also became a popular lecturer through the
Deutsch-Japanische Gesellschaft, giving
lectures on the Weltanschauung of the
Japanese, of which Zen was presented as
an important constituent part, in many major
German cities throughout 1942/43.
Eugen Herrigel
Eugen Herrigel’s Role
In 1924, shortly after assuming teaching duties at
the University of Heidelberg, Eugen Herrigel
accepted an offer to teach at Tohoku Imperial
University in Sendai. While in Japan Herrigel
explored various traditional Japanese disciplines,
but most especially kyūdō (traditional Japanese
archery). He returned to Germany in 1929 in
order to take a position at the Universität
E r l a n g e n and began to write d o w n h i s
impressions of Zen and its relationship to
Japanese culture. He formally joined the Nazi
Party in December 1937 and became rector of
Erlangen in 1945.
Zen as Martial Ethos
Herrigel claimed that Zen was the root of the
J a p a n e s e m a r ti a l e th o s . He linked the
warrior’s ability to embrace death to t h e
transcendence of the individual through the
practice of Zen meditation. For Herrigel, the
true effect of Zen’s influence on Japanese
culture was that it fostered an embrace of
death among the Japanese people. Death
was regarded not as the end of life but rather
its fulfillment. As the following quote reveals,
Herrigel’s intellectual debt to Suzuki is clear.
Suzuki Embraces Death
“The Japanese hate to see a death
irresolutely and lingeringly met with,
they desire to be blown away like the
cherries before the wind, and no doubt
this Japanese attitude towards death
must have gone very well with the
teaching of Zen. The Japanese may
not have any specific philosophy of life
but they have decidedly one of death…
Zen Buddhism and Its Influence on Japanese Culture, p.
64.
Zen and the “Chivalric Spirit”
Herrigel further claimed that Zen was the root to the
‘chivalric spirit’ in the Japanese people as a
whole, something which allowed them to sacrifice
themselves “um des Vaterlandes willen.” Whereas
Gundert located Zen primarily within socially
circumscribed elite groups (i.e., the samurai and
the modern Japanese officer corps), Herrigel, like
Suzuki, asserted that t h e Z e n s p i r i t h a d
successfully permeated all of Japanese culture.
Like Gundert, Herrigel also became a popular guest
speaker for the Deutsch-Japanische Gesellschaft’s
lectures on Japan and Japanese culture throughout
the German Reich.
Herrigel and Suzuki
Herrigel frequently referenced Suzuki, e.g.: "So hat
etwa D. T. Suzuki in seinen "Essays on ZenBuddhismus" den Nachweis dafür zu erbringen
versucht, dass japanische Kultur und Zen auf
innigste zusammenhängen; dass die japanischen
Künste, die geistige Haltung des Samurai, der
japanische Lebensstil, die moralische, praktische,
ästhetische, ja bis zu einem gewissen Grade
soger die intellektuelle Lebensform des Japaners
ohne diese ihre zenistische Grundlage gar nicht
verstanden werden könnten."
"Die ritterliche KuNt des Bogenschießens," in Nippon-Zeitschrift
für Japanologie 2, no. 4 (October 1936), pp. 195-96.
Did Herrigel Distort Suzuki?
In his 1938 book Zen and Japanese Culture,
D. T. Suzuki wrote: “The spirit of the
samurai deeply breathing Zen into itself
propagated its philosophy even among the
masses. The latter, even when they are not
particularly trained in the way of the warrior,
have imbibed his spirit and are ready to
sacrifice their lives for any cause they think
worthy. This has repeatedly been proved in
the wars Japan has so far had to go
through.” (Italics mine)
Tucci and Suzuki
Like Herrigel, the Italian Buddhist scholar, Giuseppe Tucci
was also influenced by Suzuki, especially by the 1938
publication of Zen Buddhism and Its Influence on Japanese
Culture. The following year Tucci published “Lo Zen e il
carattere del popolo giappones” in which he claimed Zen had
made the greatest single contribution to the formation of the
Japanese character. Zen was particularly useful in freeing
oneself from social constraints, allowing men to become
“men among men, soldiers of an army that marches toward a
fate that equalizes everyone.” In “Il Giappone moderno e la
sua crisi spirituale,” published in 1940, Tucci expressed his
admiration for Zen monks as the trainers of samurai and the
military transfiguration of Zen immediacy and spontaneity.
Tucci was also an unabashed supporter of Mussolini and
Italian fascism and wore a fascist uniform.
Zen at War, p. 242
Suzuki’s Direct Role?
In 1941 Suzuki published a chapter
in the book Bushidō no Shinzui (The
Essence of Bushido) entitled, “Zen
and Bushido.” Handa Shin, the
book’s editor, wrote: “Dr. Suzuki’s
writings are said to have strongly
influenced the military spirit of Nazi
Germany” but he offered no proof. Is
this statement true?
Zen at War, p. 111
Suzuki’s German Writings
Suzuki’s writings on Zen first appeared in
German in 1935 with an article “Japanese
Culture and Zen” in both a German art
review and an article in Nippon-Zeitschrift
fűr Japanologie in April 1936. This was
followed by the German edition of An
Introduction to Zen Buddhism in 1939, and
Zen und die Kultur Japans in 1941. A form
of self-censorship was in place within
German publishing companies insuring that
no offensive materials would be published.
Were the Nazis’ Listening?
Were the Nazis Listening (1)
It is clear that Zen was one of the
“secrets” of Japanese power: “The active
and yet stoic Buddhism of the Zen-sect
perfected and refined the ethos of the
Japanese warrior, and gave him the
highly ascetical note that even today is
the essential feature of the Japanese
soldiery.” (Italics mine)
Taken from The Secret of Japanese Power by Prince Albrecht
of Urach, paperback booklet with photos, Berlin, 1944, Central
Publishing of the NSDAP (Das Geheimnis japanischer Kraft
von Albrecht Fürst von Urach, Paperback Broschüre mit Fotos,
Berlin 1944, Zentralverlag der NSDAP
Were the Nazis Listening (2)
Compare this with what Suzuki wrote in 1938: “Zen
discipline is simple, direct, self-reliant, selfdenying, and this ascetic tendency goes well with
the fighting spirit. The fighter is to be always
single-minded with just one object in view which
is to fight and not to look either backward or
sidewise. To go straightforward in order to crush
the enemy is all that is necessary for him….Good
fighters are generally ascetics or stoics, which
means to have an iron will. When needed Zen
supplies them with this….There is an historical
connection between Zen and the military classes
in Japan.”
ZB&IIJC, p. 35
Were the Nazis Listening (3)
“Zen has no special doctrine or
philosophy with a set of concepts and
intellectual formulas, except that it tries
to release one from the bondage of birth
and death and this by means of certain
intuitive modes of understanding
peculiar to itself. It is, therefore,
extremely flexible to adapt itself almost
to any philosophy and moral doctrine as
long as its intuitive teaching is not
interfered with.” (continued)
Were the Nazis Listening (4)
“It may be found wedded to anarchism or
fascism, communism or democracy,
atheism or idealism, or any political and
economical dogmatism.” It is, however,
generally animated with a certain
revolutionary spirit, and when things come
to a deadlock which is the case when we
are overloaded with conventionalisms,
formalism, and other cognate isms, Zen
asserts itself and proves to be a
destructive force.”
ZB&IIJC, pp. 36-37
Hitler and Hess Speak
In light of Suzuki’s comments, is it the least bit
strange that Hitler is recorded as having asked:
“Why didn’t we have the religion of the Japanese,
who regard sacrifice for the Fatherland as the
highest good?
Inside The Third Reich by Albert Speer
Or is it the least bit strange that Deputy Fūhrer
Rudolph Hess, lamented: “We, too, [like the
Japanese] are battling to destroy individualism.
We are struggling for a new Germany based on
the new idea of totalitarianism. In Japan this way
of thinking comes naturally to the people!” (Italics mine)
Tokyo Record by Otto Tolischus
Postwar Rebukes!
In 1960 Arthur Koestler published The Lotus and
the Robot in which he criticized the preceding
passages, claiming that they “could have come
from a philosophical-minded Nazi journalist, or
from one of the Zen monks who became
suicide pilots” (p. 271). In 1967 a Buddhist
scholar, R.J. Zwi Werblowsky. criticized the
same passages in an article entitled “Some
Observations on Recent Studies of Zen,”
noting: “Dr. Suzuki forgot to add to the list of
possibilities also Nazism with its gas chambers
(as the annoying Mr. Koestler has rudely
pointed out).”
Shared ‘Commonality’
What D.T. Suzuki and other Japanese
Zen leaders ultimately shared in
common with the Nazis was their
willingness to instrumentalize, i.e., to
weaponize, Zen in the service of the
state at war, in the service of their
individual and collective self-interest,
and thereby in the service of death. And,
needless to say, something similar can
be said about religious leaders from
many other faiths.
A German Christian Example
In December 1942, the Catholic Church’s Office
of Military Affairs wrote: “God gave the German
people a noble mission in this war—reordering
Europe. This reconstruction should be done in
the name of Christ. Bolshevism means a
Europe without God, and without and against
Christ. The front of young nations led by
Germany wants a Europe with God, with
Christ.…So we celebrate the birth of Christ
very purposely. Christianity is after all not just a
workshop for the highest spiritual culture but
also a construction site for national greatness
and power.” (Italics mine)
A U.S. Christian Example
An Associated Press article during the Iraq War describes
the role of military chaplains as follows: “As American
troops cope with life—and death—on a faraway battlefield,
military chaplains cope with them, offering prayers,
comfort and spiritual advice to keep the American military
machine running....Chaplains help grease the wheels of
any soldier’s troubled conscience by arguing that killing
combatants is justified. Capt. Warren Haggray, a 48-yearold Baptist Army chaplain said: ‘I teach them from the
scripture, and in the scripture I can see many times where
men were told…to go out and defeat the enemy. This is
real stuff. You’re out there and you gotta eliminate that
guy, because if you don’t, he’s gonna eliminate you.’ ‘I
agree,’ said Lt. Cmdr. Paul Shaughnessy, a Navy chaplain
and
Roman
Catholic
priest
from
Worcester,
Massachusetts.” (Italics mine)
Their Universal Standpoint
The Japanese Senjinkun (Field Service
Code) was promulgated on January 8,
1945 by Gen. Tōjō Hideki. Its central
theme was expressed in three words:
Shin wa chikara nari (Faith is Power!) All
nations, past and present, have
understood that religion serves, in terms
of morale, as the preeminent “force
multiplier,” for it creates soldiers (and
civilians) who are willing to die (and kill)
for their cause/country.
The End?
Has the effort to ‘weaponize’ Zen
(and all other religions) when
necessary really come to an ‘end’ or
are we already in the midst of the
next round of ‘bloodletting’ based on
the realization that “faith is power”?
The answer is obvious.
But what about the future?
EACH OF US WILL HELP WRITE IT!
Postscript: A Postwar Reflection
In his well-known postwar book, Hara, Duerckheim
wrote: “When a man possesses a fully developed
hara he has the strength and precision to
perform actions which otherwise he could never
achieve, even with the most perfect technique,
the closest attention, or the strongest will power.
Only what is done with hara succeeds
completely, just as life as a whole can be lived in
perfection only when a man is truly one with his
primordial center. So every manifestation of it
whether in battle, in art or in love succeeds for
him who has gained hara.” (Italics mine)
Audio
version
available
on
the
Web
http://blogtalk.vo.llnwd.net/o23/show/3/029/show_3029443.mp3
at: