Japanese Journal of Religious Studies 1999 26/1–2 The Sõtõ Sect and Japanese Military Imperialism in Korea

The Sõtõ sect was actively engaged in Buddhist propagation in colonial Korea after having succeeded in establishing its rst missionary temple in Pusan in 1905. By the time it withdrew from Korea in 1945, the Sõtõ sect had secured an extensive propagation network connecting more than one hundred temples. Despite its successful Buddhist polemics, Sõtõ’s Buddhist teachings in Korea were basically political propaganda viable only within the framework of Japanese colonial imperialism. The Sõtõ sect in colonial Korea was deeply involved in the cause of Japanese imperialism by carry-ing out three major tasks: Buddhist services for the Japanese military, pro-motion of the “kõminka ” (transforming [the colonial peoples] into imperial subjects) policy, and the pacication of colonial subjects. Not sur-prisingly, none of these goals—which were promoted in the name of Buddhist compassion and non-selfhood in the tradition of Zen Buddhism—could survive the collapse of Imperial Japan’s claim to “universal benevolence” that had been premised on the Greater East Asia Coprosperity Sphere