Zen at War - Criticism

Criticism

Brian Victoria has also been criticized.

Kemmyō Taira Sato states that Victoria's criticism of D.T. Suzuki is misplaced, since Suzuki did not support the Japanese militarism in his writings:

In cases where Suzuki directly expresses his position on the contemporary political situation—whether in his articles, public talks, or letters to friends (in which he would have had no reason to misrepresent his views) — he is clear and explicit in his distrust of and opposition to State Shinto, rightwing thought, and the other forces that were pushing Japan toward militarism and war, even as he expressed interest in decidedly non-rightist ideologies like socialism.

Victoria himself quotes critical remarks by Suzuki on the war and the support given to it by the Zen-institutuins:

hey diligently practiced the art of self-preservation through their narrow-minded focus on "pacifying and preserving the state".

Muho Noelke states that Victoria has mistranslated texts from Kodo Sawaki.

Robert Aitken writes:

Unlike the other researchers, Victoria writes in a vacuum. He extracts the words and deeds of Japanese Buddhist leaders from their cultural and temporal context, and judges them from a present-day, progressive, Western point of view.