36 - Imperial Japan pt. 6 - War Zen, Corporate Zen, Gorō Sugimoto, and Brainwashing
Today's about how Zen Buddhism was used to prepare people for Japan's imperial wars. We look at the example of Lt. Colonel Gorō Sugimoto, an officer in the Kwantung army who wrote a popular work on Zen and militarism, as well as the societal effects his legacy had on Japan. We talk about the spiritual fallout of Japan's loss of WWII, and how DT Suzuki knew the right parties to blame. We discuss which sects apologized for their wartime roles and which didn't, and how that's reflected in economic realities. Then we discuss corporate Japan's weaponization of Zen to discipline some of their employees, and who was studying this phenomenon. We cover Zen priests who wrote against this corporate Zen boom, and Zen Buddhism's ongoing popularity with Japan’s Self-Defense Forces, and some of the darker ties to intelligence.