American Sutra: A Story of Faith and Freedom in the Second World War

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The mass incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II is not only a tale of injustice; it is a moving story of faith. In this pathbreaking account, Duncan Ryūken Williams reveals how, even as they were stripped of their homes and imprisoned in camps, Japanese American Buddhists launched one of the most inspiring defenses of religious freedom in our nation’s history, insisting that they could be both Buddhist and American. Nearly all Americans of Japanese descent were subject to bigotry and accusations of disloyalty, but Buddhists aroused particular suspicion. Government officials, from the White House to small-town mayors, believed that Buddhism was incompatible with American values. Intelligence agencies targeted the Buddhist community for surveillance, and Buddhist priests were deemed a threat to national security. On December 7, 1941, as the bombs fell on Pearl Harbor, Attorney General Francis Biddle issued a warrant to “take into custody all Japanese” classified as potential national security threats. The first person detained was Bishop Gikyō Kuchiba, leader of the Nishi Hongwanji Buddhist sect in Hawai‘i. In the face of discrimination, dislocation, dispossession, and confinement, Japanese Americans turned to their faith to sustain them, whether they were behind barbed wire in camps or serving in one of the most decorated combat units in the European theater. Using newly translated sources and extensive interviews with survivors of the camps and veterans of the war, American Sutra reveals how the Japanese American community broadened our country’s conception of religious freedom and forged a new American Buddhism. Cover......Page 1 Title Page......Page 4 Copyright......Page 5 Dedication......Page 6 Contents......Page 8 Prologue: Thus Have I Heard: An American Sutra......Page 12 Buried Texts, Buried Memories......Page 21 1. America: A Nation of Religious Freedom?......Page 26 December 7, 1941......Page 27 American Buddhism: Migrations to Freedom......Page 33 Buddhism as a National Security Threat......Page 38 Surveilling Buddhism......Page 43 Compiling Registries......Page 46 2. Martial Law......Page 50 Buddhist Life under Martial Law......Page 51 Camps in the Land of Aloha......Page 58 3. Japanese America under Siege......Page 66 War Hysteria......Page 68 Tightening the Noose......Page 74 Executive Order 9066......Page 79 The Forced “Relocation"......Page 88 4. Camp Dharma......Page 96 The Dharma in the High-Security Camps......Page 98 5. Sangha behind Barbed Wire......Page 108 Horse Stable Buddhism......Page 110 “Barrack Churches” in Camp......Page 123 6. Reinventing American Buddhism......Page 133 Adapting Buddhism......Page 134 Sect and Trans-Sect......Page 141 Interfaith Cooperation......Page 146 Rooting the Sangha......Page 155 7. Onward Buddhist Soldiers......Page 160 Richard Sakakida, American Spy......Page 162 The Military Intelligence Service......Page 172 Draftees and Volunteers......Page 179 The 100th Battalion......Page 186 The 442nd Regimental Combat Team......Page 191 8. Loyalty and the Draft......Page 194 The Loyalty Questionnaire......Page 195 Tule Lake Segregation Center......Page 197 Leave Clearance and the Draft......Page 207 9. Combat in Europe......Page 211 Dog Tags......Page 212 Chaplains......Page 219 Fallen Soldiers......Page 227 10. The Resettlement......Page 238 Return to a Hostile West Coast......Page 240 Temples as Homes......Page 245 Resettling in Hawai‘i and Japan......Page 254 Buddhism in America’s Heartland......Page 259 Epilogue: The Stones Speak: An American Sutra......Page 265 Acknowledgments......Page 272 Notes......Page 274 Index......Page 384