This is another in a series of daily articles concerning Kishio Satomi's book, "Japanese Civilization; Its Significance and Realization; Nichirenism and the Japanese National Principles," which details the foundations of Chigaku Tanaka's interpretation of Nichiren Buddhism and Japan's role in the early 20th century.
For Kishio Satomi, individual salvation was of little use. Saving the world requires entire countries to act.
Nichirenism and the Japanese National Principles, p108-110[A]ccording to Nichiren, if religion really wants to redeem the world, it must religionize the country. … He thought that the state is the unit of the world, and that the individual could never be the unit of the world. In other words, it is useless to uphold the fallacy that if religion instructs individuals one by one, the world, will, naturally, sooner or later, become religionized. On the contrary, let us suppose that the state has the conviction of true morality, and of politics, education and diplomacy, or that everything has been done morally; then the individual who belongs to the state is, as it were, a snake in a narrow and straight bamboo-tube. It may seem like bondage, nevertheless such a right bondage must be welcomed. Is the so-called free will surely free? Man cannot live without being to a certain extent in bondage, though one may be proud to live and decide everything by one’s own free will, for free will, too, is a sort of bondage. … Hence the country that is moral must take up as her mission the task of the guardianship and espousal of truth, morality and righteousness with all her accumulated power. However religionized a man may be, if the country is not made just, then even the man of righteousness is liable to be obliged to commit a crime in an emergency for the sake of a nation’s covetous disposition. … Nichiren, therefore, examined the essence of the various countries and he decided Japan as being the typical moral country. According to Nichiren, Japan is distinctly the typical country based on strict morality, consequently the mission of Japan consists in setting an example of the moral country to the world. Therefore, he says :
“The first and great Supreme Being shall be established in this country ” (Works, p. 104).
Masaharu Anesaki, wrote “Nichiren, The Buddhist Prophet” in 1916. Satomi felt Anesaki held a very wrong view of Nichiren’s relationship to Japan and the world. Satomi wrote:
Nichirenism and the Japanese National Principles, p110-111[On the question of Japan and the world, Masaharu] Anesaki gives the following explanation:
“In this latter sense, Japan meant for him the whole world ” (Anesaki, ” Nichiren, the Buddhist Prophet.” Harvard University Press, p.98).
But this appears to be incorrect because the character of “the World” does not mean here the world in the usual sense, but it means “the World Benefit,” namely one of the Four Siddhānta, the Four Instructive Methods (Shi-shits-dan). In other words, this is a special technical term, the full name is “The Completion of the world with the benefit of delight” (Sekai Shits-dan Kangi no Yaku). Hence, “the World is Japan” means “Japan has the mission to propagate the law of the Hokekyo and thereby redeem the world.”
And Satomi considered the idea of Japan forcing redemption on other countries something Nichiren would endorse.
Nichirenism and the Japanese National Principles, p112-113It is evident that [Nichiren] proclaims the necessity of subjecting all countries to one moral law, approving, of course, the pluralistic existence of all countries. But it is totally different from the Utopian’s fancy, because of his positive adoption of all material forces.
Therefore the commandment of his religion is recognized by the act of keeping and practicing the Hokekyo for his own sake and at the same time for the sake of humankind. Consequently, the vow and its practice are the essential elements in his religion. In order to keep the law bodily means that in daily life we must be determined to do anything. Rich men shall protect the law by means of their wealth and learned men shall extend the law by means of their knowledge and wisdom, etc. All the accumulated power of human civilization must make it a duty to help to realize the law on the earth. In an emergency, we shall be martyrs to the law. In short, we must keep the law for dear life and then the sincerity and signification of life will be realized. Such being the case with individuals, the country, too, must be established on righteousness. The country is, indeed, an organ for the realization of the moral law of security with all her accumulated powers. When the country attains to such conviction that it becomes the highest organ for the protection of righteousness, and that it can sacrifice itself whenever it is obliged to do so for the sake of the law, then the ideal World will be realized before our very eyes. …
To realize this ideal we are expected to have absolute faith even at the risk of our lives. Although persecution, innumerable difficulties and troubles might be our lot we could go through fire and water if our faith were strong and true.
One can understand how such sentiment encouraged those who sought to make Japan a world power through conquest in Asia. And, as I’ll show later in discussing Japanese Lotus Millennialism: From Militant Nationalism to Contemporary Peace Movements,” these same teachings of Nichiren empower the modern peace movement in Japan.
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