December 17 & 24

• Class Issue: In this unit, we complete the journey from the individual to the collective or social by looking at the ultimate of political and national issues, war & peace. We first take a critical look into Japanese Buddhism’s support for militaristic nationalism from the Meiji Period to the end of WWII. We then look at its complicated development since that time with many Buddhist groups becoming active in “peace activities” yet very few facing the political issues that make the real foundations of peace. 
• Content: War Responsibility and Social Discrimination: The Problem of Moral Authority in Modern Japanese Buddhism
• Video: Zen and War During the video takes notes using the Iceberg of Dukkha from the Buddhist Social Analysis model
• Content: Lotus Sutra Social Activism in Contemporary Japan (PDF) click here for audio lecture plus videos of previous peace demonstrations with Nipponzan Myohoji (Note: the PDF is slightly more up to date)
• Video: Nipponzan Myohoji peace marches (Prof. Watts’ handmade videos of this small devout Japanese order’s demonstrations against nuclear energy after the 2011 Fukushima incident) See the Readings page

• Prepare for next class: Recall ONE each of a 1) Holding Action, 2) Alternative Structure, 3) Shift in Consciousness that we have seen in this class and be prepared to share in class
• Recommended Reading for next class: The Choice of Development Paradigms in Japan after the 3:11 Fukushima Nuclear Disaster by Jun Nishikawa. In This Precious Life: Buddhist Tsunami Relief and Anti-Nuclear Activism in Post 3/11 Japan. 2nd Edition. Ed. Jonathan S. Watts. (Yokohama: International Buddhist Exchange Center, 2012/2016).