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II. Education and Law
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Part 2 Education and Law To the extent that Buddhism remains confined to ethnic enclaves and does not seek to challenge predominant Judeo-Christian norms and traditions, it has remained virtually “invisible” to the broader civic space of America. Buddhism tends to register in civic space when conflict within or without the community reaches a threshold that engages public institutions such as the legal system, the mass media and such organizations as the military, hospitals, prisons, or schools. For example, Asian Buddhist immigrant temples have in the recent past “made the news” by violating community building standards (the Chinese Hsi Lai Temple in Hacienda Heights, California was viewed as too “garish” when it was first built), zoning laws regulating parking (such as with Vietnamese “home temples” in Orange County, California), or political incidents (such as the Al Gore fundraising scandal with Buddhist monastics). Similarly, Japanese Issei Buddhists were made visible early on in American Buddhist history precisely when they either engaged with or transgressed norms, be they governed by laws or by standards deemed normative by a “moral majority.” In these essays by Noriko Asato and Michihiro Ama, we explore how the Buddhism that emerged onto the public stage in newspapers and lawsuits helped it to become a part of the American religious imagination. As long as Buddhists “cover” (using David Yoshino’s term)— for example, by not flaunting monastic robes or shaved heads— their presence in the Americas generally remains invisible to 42 part 2 outsiders.1 Without visible markers of difference to Protestant Christianity—such as the Jewish yarmulke, the Sikh turban, or the Catholic nun’s habit—there is no way to distinguish religious difference, though both the Japanese American Buddhist and Japanese American Christian may be seen as racially different. This section explores these markers of difference as they emerge on the public stage in newspapers and lawsuits. Noriko Asato and Michihiro Ama’s essays highlight how prewar Issei Buddhists engaged the law and the media in their respective chapters on Buddhist-Christian conflicts in the Japanese language school cases in Hawaii and legal disputes surrounding temple management and religious incorporation laws in Los Angeles. Asato’s essay uses the Japanese language school cases in Hawaii to look at the ways in which prewar Issei Buddhists engaged the law and the media in Buddhist-Christian conflicts. Much as politicians today talk about bilingual education as a threat to American national and cultural identity, a heated debate took place from the 1910s to the 1930s in Hawaii and the West Coast of the United States regarding the role of Japanese language schools. Though many Japanese language schools framed the acquisition of Japanese by the Nisei as a strategy to produce “bridge-builders” who could promote understanding between Japan and the United States, many Americans viewed the language schools as a threat to the core character of America as a nation based on European (or more specifically, Anglo) civilization. From as early as 1906, the Governor of Hawaii blocked Hongwanji’s application as a territory-recognized religious body, contending that the Buddhist language schools run by Hongwanji instilled pro-Japanese loyalties. (This objection was overcome in 1907 after vigorous lobbying by Issei Buddhists.) The Japanese language school issue first developed a religious component after Issei Buddhist parents heard that some schools run by Japanese American Christians had featured anti-Buddhist messages (principals had been teaching children that Buddhism was a “barbaric” religion). In response, they encouraged Buddhist temples to offer their own Japanese-language courses. Japanese Christian leaders such as Takie and Umetarō Okumura began employing the rhetoric of “Americanization” to argue for the adoption of Western clothes, manners, religion (Christianity), and language. Buddhists adapted their curriculum goals accord- [34.204.181.19] Project MUSE (2024-03-19 03:48 GMT) Education and Law 43 ingly: Instead of seeking to create Japanese subjects, they began to focus on creating Americans with Japanese-language abilities. Buddhists began to argue that it was possible to be an American who also happened to be Buddhist and speak Japanese. Asato deftly describes how this internal “religious rivalry” exploded onto the civic sphere when a complex coalition of Japanese American Christians, non-Japanese missionary Christians, plantation owners, and prominent members of the Hawaii political system (most particularly legislators such as Territorial Senator Albert F. Judd and Lorrin Andrews) worked to introduce various pieces of legislation that would outlaw or severely restrict Japanese language schools, especially those run by the Buddhists, under the guise...