Zen War Stories with Brian Daizen Victoria

About this episode

A conversation with Brian Daizen Victoria about the intersections of Japanese Buddhism, nationalism, and wartime ideology.

In this powerful and far-reaching conversation, we sit down with Brian Daizen Victoria , Zen priest, historian, and author of the landmark work Zen War Stories . Internationally recognized for exposing the entanglement of Japanese Buddhism with wartime ideology, Victoria has spent decades examining the darker, more complicated intersections of religion, nationalism, and violence. But his scholarship extends far beyond Zen. In this episode, he offers a sweeping, context-rich look at the political, cultural, and economic forces that drove the United States and Japan into conflict—forces often flattened or ignored in mainstream narratives. Together, we dig into some of the most contested and emotionally charged historical questions of the 20th century: Japan’s imperial expansion across Asia, the atrocities committed on the mainland, the debates surrounding the Rape of Nanking, the truth behind Unit 731, the Pearl Harbor attack, the atomic bombings, the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal, and the complex legacy of the U.S. Occupation. Victoria brings nuance, moral clarity, and a willingness to challenge deeply embedded assumptions—both Western and Japanese—that have shaped public memory for…

People in this episode

Host: Deep in Japan

Guest: Brian Daizen Victoria

Topics covered

• Japanese Buddhism
• wartime ideology
• U.S.-Japan conflict
• imperial expansion
• historical narratives
• Unit 731
• Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal

Keywords

• Zen Buddhism
• war history
• Japan
• U.S. Occupation
• Pearl Harbor
• atomic bombings
• Rape of Nanking
• Unit 731

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: Zen War Stories, Memories of “Furusato” in Tenri Village, Manchuria, The Truth About Unit 731’s “Youth Corps”

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