Faking Liberties: Religious Freedom in American-Occupied Japan

Description

Religious freedom is a founding tenet of the United States, and it has frequently been used to justify policies towards other nations. Such was the case in 1945 when Americans occupied Japan following World War II. Though the Japanese constitution had guaranteed freedom of religion since 1889, the United States declared that protection faulty, and when the occupation ended in 1952, they claimed to have successfully replaced it with “real” religious freedom. Through a fresh analysis of pre-war Japanese law, Jolyon Baraka Thomas demonstrates that the occupiers’ triumphant narrative obscured salient Japanese political debates about religious freedom. Indeed, Thomas reveals that American occupiers also vehemently disagreed about the topic. By reconstructing these vibrant debates, Faking Liberties unsettles any notion of American authorship and imposition of religious freedom. Instead, Thomas shows that, during the Occupation, a dialogue about freedom of religion ensued that constructed a new global set of political norms that continue to form policies today. CONTENTS PROLOGUE CONVENTIONS INTRODUCTION A PREOCCUPATION WITH RELIGIOUS FREEDOM 1. THE MEIJI CONSTITUTIONAL REGIME AS A SECULARIST SYSTEM 2. WHO NEEDS RELIGIOUS FREEDOM? 3. DOMESTIC PROBLEMS, DIPLOMATIC SOLUTIONS 4. IN THE ABSENCE OF RELIGIOUS FREEDOM THE OCCUPATIONOF RELIGIOUS STUDIES 5. STATE SHINTO - AS AHERETICAL SECULARISM 6. WHO WANTS RELIGIOUS FREEDOM? 7. UNIVERSAL RIGHTS, UNIQUE CIRCUMSTANCES 8. OUT OF THE SPIRITUAL VACUUM CONCLUSION EPILOGUE ACKNOWLEDGMENTS NOTES REFERENCES INDEX