龍谷大学アジア仏教文化研究センター ワーキングペーパー

No.15-06（2016 年 3 月 31 日）

講演概要

Religious Diversity behind Barbed Wire Japanese American Buddhism and Christianity in

the WWII Incarceration Camps in the U.S.

ダンカン・ウィリアムズ

（南カリフォルニア大学教授）

※本ワーキングペーパーは，平成 27 年（2015）12 月 14 日に龍谷大学大宮学舎にて開催され

た，龍谷大学アジア仏教文化研究センター（BARC）2015 年度グループ 2 ユニット B（多文

化共生社会における日本仏教の課題と展望）第 1 回国際シンポジウム「多文化共生社会にお

ける宗教間対話（Inter-faith Dialogue）」における講演の記録である。講演の概要に加え，当日

示されたスライドを掲載する。

【講演の概要】

ダンカン・ウィリアムズ氏は，第二次世界大戦の戦時下における信仰の役割について，

アメリカにおける日系人，とりわけ仏教徒を事例として論じた。

1941 年 12 月の真珠湾攻撃，これを契機とした日米開戦を受け，アメリカ国内の日系人

は政府による警戒や迫害の対象となった。FBI（連邦捜査局）では，日系人の危険度を三

段階で評価する「ABC リスト」を作成したが，僧侶や神職者は最も危険なレベル A と位

置づけられ，その大多数が逮捕された。一方，キリスト教の牧師などの場合は，ほとんど

逮捕されることはなかった。キリスト教を精神的な基盤とするアメリカにおいて，仏教と

神道は，単に非アメリカ的であるだけでなく，反アメリカ的ですらあると理解されたので

ある。

ウィリアムズ氏がかつて仏教を学んだ元ハーバード大学教授，永富正俊氏の妻によれ

ば，彼女が 12 歳のとき，父親が FBI による尋問の対象になったという。彼女の両親は和

歌山からカリフォルニア州のマデラに移民したが，父親は当時，同地の仏教界の理事長を

務めており，そのため僧侶に準じるかたちで，レベル B の危険度と認定されたのである。

彼は結局のところ，逮捕されることはなかったが，しかし帰宅後，FBI が問題視しそうな

日本語の文章などを，すべて焼却した。彼が燃やさなかったのは，真宗聖典と，マデラの

寺院での活動記録だけであった。その記録も家の庭に埋められたが，その後，発見されて

いない。日系アメリカ人の仏教史の一端が，今もカリフォルニアの土地に埋まっていると

いうわけである。

一方，1942 年になると，宗教者のみならず，また老若男女を問わず，多くの日系人が強

制収容所に入れられていった。その総数は 12 万人以上に及んだ。彼らの宗教は多様であ

ったが，その大半が仏教徒であった。彼らの信仰については，日記資料や当時の写真など

から，その実態を明らかにすることができる。彼らは収容所の鉄条網の裏側で，仏教式の

人生儀礼を営み，御詠歌を歌い，盆踊りを踊った。果実の種を用いて念珠を作り，廃材な

どを使って仏壇を製作した。収容所の異常な状況下で，彼らは日常性を保つことを試みた

が，そこでは仏教に対する信仰が大きな役割を果たしていたのである。なかには，監視に

よるサーチライトの光を，月の光に見立てながら，瞑想を行う僧侶もいた。

また，日系二世のリチャード・サカキダの話も，示唆的である。彼は，1930 年代に京都

に来日し，日本語を学び，僧侶になるために仏教を学んだ。日米開戦後，アメリカ軍の情

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報官としてフィリピンに派遣されたが，そこで日本軍に捕まり，拷問を受けた。彼は，し

かし，情報をまったく漏らさなかった。その理由として彼は，西本願寺の語学学校の教師

たちが，彼に誇りや強さを教えてくれたこと，そしてアメリカ人としての精神が，拷問に

耐えることを可能にしてくれたと述べている。彼において，仏教者であることと，アメリ

カ人であることとが，矛盾なく受け入れられていたのである。戦後，彼は自分を拷問した

憲兵たちと再会することになるが，仏教の慈悲の心によりながら彼らを許し，以後もその

うちの一人と交流を続けることとなった。

以上のように，キリスト教国であるアメリカの，戦時下にあって，日本の仏教の伝統

が，日系人たちの生き方の指針を示すことがあったのである。

【文責】アジア仏教文化研究センター

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Duncan Ryūken WilliamsDirector, USC Shinso Ito Center for Japanese Religions

and CultureUniversity of Southern California

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That an Obon service is being held here in the middle of [this American] desert with twenty-nine Buddhist priests and several hundred Japanese Buddhist laymen is surely a historical first. The saying Bukkyō tōzen (the eastward transmission of Buddhism) has never seemed as apt as it does today. (diary entry, July 12, 1942)

Tana Daishō – Santa Fe Lordsburg senji tekikokujin yokuryūjo nikki(Jōdo Shinshū Buddhist priest, Lompoc Buddhist Temple)

“Hongwanji was the first Japanese [Buddhist denomination] to start an American mission, which in itself exemplifies the history of an eastward transmission of the

Buddhist teachings (Bukkyō Tōzen). This means that American Buddhists have considerable responsibility as pioneers for spreading the teachings around the

world.” Uchida Koyu, Bishop of the Buddhist Mission of North America (1905-1923)

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In 1885, Josiah Strong writing for the American Home Missionary Society claimed that Anglo-Saxon control of America was a part of God Providence. One of his bestselling books popularized the phrase “Christianize and Americanize.”

Early 1900s - Rev. A.W. McLeod in Nanaimo, Canada would proclaim to his Baptist congregation, “God intended the Anglo-Saxons to have possession of Canada and the United States.

In 1920, William Canbu (Grand President of the Native Sons of the Golden West) -“California was given by God to a white people, and with God’s strength we want to keep it as He gave it to us.”

“We live in America, we must have political allegiance to it and observe its laws. However, a polemist argues that Americanization means spiritual servility and that true Americanization is to forsake Japanese religion and thoughts and adopt those of America. This contradicts the Founding Spirits of America. America esteems freedom, equality, and independence, spiritual independence to the utmost. It never asks for spiritual servility”(Bishop of Hawaii Hongwanji Imamura Emyo, 1918)

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In 1918, Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI) report: “Buddhist priests in Hawaii, while ostensibly loyal to the United States, are in reality doing everything in their power to undermine any American allegiance entertained by the Japanese in Hawaii.”

In 1921, Sen. James Phelan “There are 76 Buddhist temples in California, and I am told they are regularly attended by ‘emperor worshippers,’ who believe that their emperor is the overlord of all.” (Committee on Immigration and Naturalization; Hearing, San Francisco)

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The Japanese Language School Cases (U.S. Supreme Court 1927 - Hawaii Territorial Act 30) -Bilingualism or Monolingualism?The Sugar Plantation Strike of 1919 - Non-Racial Equal Pay (from 77 cents to $1.25) or Acceptance of Anglo Supremacy?

Rev. Otis Gibson, under whom one of the first Christian congregations were founded by the Japanese- 1877, “The English language is eminently the language of intellectual power and activity—the language of Christian evangelization. The heathen who, living in England or America, learns to understand and to speak the English language can never be the same heathen that he was before. . . . will be aroused to intellectual activity, to a higher and better culture, and to a new spiritual life.” (1877) Takie Okumura (Christian leader in Hawaii and sponsor of the “Americanization” campaign and against “repaganization” of the islands - “the strike and the suit against the government would only make anti-Japanese sentiment all the more violent”

Honolulu Star-Bulletin (Feb. 1920) “What the alien Japanese priests, editors and educators are aiming at, in our opinion, is general recognition of their claim that they can absolutely control the 25,000 Japanese plantation laborers in this territory. . . Is control of the industrialism of Hawaii to remain in the hands of Anglo-Saxons or is it to pass into those of alien Japanese agitators? . . . Given the choice, in the last extremity between destruction of the sugar industry or the Japanizing of this territory, we would prefer destruction.”Sōtō Zen Mission led 3,000 strikers with a large portrait of Abraham Lincoln

Vaughan McCaughey (Superintendent of Public Instruction, Hawai’i) “Buddhist schools [are] narrow, superstitious shrines for Mikado worship; as long as 95 percent of the Japanese in Hawaii remained Buddhist, so long would Americanization be retarded.”

1919 – Judds, Andrews, Clark Bills in Hawai’i Territorial Legislature that led to Foreign Language Schools Control Law on July 1, 1921

Albert Judd, a grandson of an early Christian missionary to the islands, proposed restrictions on Japanese language school, housed primarily at Buddhist temples, to safeguard “for the nation a Christian-American citizenship in the Territory.”

Lawsuit led by Bishops Hosen Isobe (Soto Zen), Yemyo Imamura (Nishi Hongwanji), and Shinkyo Tachikawa (Jodo) and majority of the language schools – Farrington v. Tokushige case against the Hawai’I Territorial Governor Farrington upheld constitutionality of Hawaii Territory bans on Japanese language schools on February 21, 1927.

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Experiencing the Attack [2403 Dead]Chiye Itagaki - 11-year old attending Sôtô Zen

Buddhist Sunday school, Nana Gakuen on Nuuana Avenue (“Ame Ame Fure Fure”)

Jun Miyamoto - “Friendly Fire” on Honolulu Buddhist Shinshu Kyokai and his drugstore

Sunday Morning in Japanese America (Hawaii and continental U.S. 1941)

Buddhists - 75% (Issei 80%, Nisei 67.8%)Christian (Protestant/Catholic) - 19% (Issei

20%, Nisei 30.8%)Other – 1%

Japanese American Buddhism in 1941Temples - 326 totalSect - Nishi Honganji 159, Shingon 68, Jodo 19,

Sôtô Zen 16, Higashi Honganji 11, Nichiren11

Region - Hawaii 183, California 135, Canada 20, Oregon 9, Washington 8, Brazil 8, Colorado 4, Utah 3, New York 2, Arizona 2

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Arrests Began Even While Attack Was in Progress - in Hawaii 345 Japanese Picked Up in 24 Hours

**Included Bishops Kuchiba (Nishi Honganji, Bishop Kubokawa (Jodo), Bishop Komagata (Sôtô Zen) and over 100 other Buddhist Priests in the first hours along with Japanese Consulate officials

**In the weeks that followed, the majority of Buddhist and Shinto priests in the U.S. and Canada were picked up while most Christian ministers were not arrested

FBI’s “ABC” List - Coordination by Intelligence Agencies (Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI), FBI, and U.S. Army G-2

**Categories of “Persons”Thought to be Potentially Subversive - Buddhist and Shinto Priests, Consular Officials, Martial Arts Instructors, Japanese Language School Teachers, Fishermen

**ABC List - levels of potential danger to nation

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[We] have been living in tents on a small island [Sand Island]. It was as if I was having an experience just like Hônen Shônin’s when he was exiled. On January 15th, we held a Memorial Service for our sect founder, Hônen Shônin, despite not having a scroll with the sacred words [Namu Amida Butsu]. Being locked up in a remote place where we couldn’t prepare any incense, flowers, or candles, we gathered all [Jôdo sect] members together and gave gratitude to the teaching simply by placing our palms together and reciting Buddhist scriptures. The JôdoMission of Hawaii Betsuin in Honolulu was occupied by the US Army. [. . .] There are a total of “XX” Jôdo Mission priests from the various islands of Hawaii who have already been captured and sent to the US mainland. The priests have been dispersed to various internment camps, but I do not know who and where they have all been taken - May 13, 1942

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ABC List - Interrogation and Home Searches of “B” List Persons - Japanese and Buddhist Association Lay Leaders - The Akagi Family (Sheldon, Texas - mixed race family and the home butsudan) and The Kimura Family (Madeira, California - burying Buddhist sutras and temple history)

May 6, 1918 U.S. Army, Military Intelligence Branch (MID) report “The Increase of Japanese Population in the Hawaiian Islands and What It Means” by Major H. C. Merriam - identified three sources of anti-Americanism: the Japanese government, Japanese language schools, and BuddhistsAug. 14, 1918 Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI) report – states “Buddhist priests in Hawaii, while ostensibly loyal to the United States, are in reality doing everything in their power to undermine any American allegiance entertained by the Japanese in Hawaii.”1922 FBI Report by Agent A.A. Hopkins “Japanese Espionage: Hawaii” (157 individuals investigated, majority Buddhists priests, merchants, and Japanese language school principals).1933 Hawaiian Department Army G-2 report “Estimate of the Situation: Japanese Population in Hawaii” and the 1933 FBI report “Survey of the Japanese Situation in Hawaii” - identifies the “problem” of Buddhist temples, Shinto shrines, and the Japanese-language schools in “retarding” Americanization and elements in assessing the “military liability” of the Japanese in Hawaii in case of a war with Japan.Nov. 15, 1940 FBI Director Hoover memo to military intelligence - states the vast majority of even the Issei would be loyal to America in case of war, but a small minority was dangerous – this group included “Buddhist and Shintoist priests, the Japanese language school teachers, consular agents, and a small percentage of prominent alien Japanese businessmen.” Memo recommended the interning of the “inner circle” of the community that comprised of the groups above.

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I return to the quiet and supreme life of walking alongside Kōbō Daishi. As if trying to practice meditation under the moonlit pine, I have been viewing the guard’s searchlights as the Buddha’s sacred light and have been practicing Kōmyō meditation together with [Kōbō Daishi].

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