Interviews

Recently I've been interviewing more Pure Land Buddhist priests around Kumamoto in order to collect more personal stories and archives concerning the war period. Because my language skills are not fluent yet and my interviewies speak little to no English, I typed up a short introduction about my project that I give at the beginning of the interview. It provides a little picture into what I'm doing. It's written here first in English, then in Japanese for Japanese readers.

"I am currently researching the Pure Land Buddist sect in Kumamoto during the Pacific war period. In the past decade, books in English and Japanese have been published revealing the ways Buddhist sects heavily supported the war effort. While most of the findings concern the institutional level, little information has been provided about local level activity during the war.
Japan was not only invaded other countries during the Pacific war, but it too was heavily attacked in retaliation by US forces, culminating in the atomic bombs dropped on Nagasaki and Hiroshima. Kumamoto as well suffered great loss especially towards the end of the war. Under these conditions, I am interested in exploring what role local temples played throughout the war. Did they openly endorse it? Was there resistance? Did they simply follow suit unquestioningly?
The information I am collecting is mainly through documents that the Kumamoto Pure Land branch has published itself, through interviews with priests and parishioners, and through newspaper archives.
I hope to eventually publish a paper based on my findings in a scholarly journal."

研究の目標

現在、私は大平洋戦争の頃の熊本の浄土真宗について研究しています。
少し前に、すべての仏教の戦争の後援を元に数冊の本が出版されました。しかし、そういった本には大体宗教指導者と政府間との政策のことしか書かれてありません。地元のお寺の情報については得る事が困難です。
ご存知の通り、戦争で日本はアジア諸国に戦いを仕掛けましたが、反撃もよく受けました。熊本もまた標的の一つとされました。その様な状況下で、熊本のお寺がどの様な役割を果たしたのかという事に関心があります（賛成、反対、無反応？）。
こういった研究をインタビュー、浄土真宗に関係のある出版物、新聞記事などで調査してみたいのです。最終的に、その調査結果をまとめて論文を書きたいと思っております。