ABSTRACT
Introduction During the early twentieth century, Pan-Asianism was an important dimension of the Japanese perception of Asia and the world. Japanese Pan-Asianism was based on discourses of “same race and same culture” (dōbun dōshu) – an Asian brotherhood – but also on a rhetoric of pacifism, universal human love, and virtue. These values were especially dominant in the pan-Asian concepts of religious groups, ultranationalists, and military officers who had strong ties to religious sects. The pan-Asian ideal of Ōmotokyō (Great Source Sect), one of the new religious groups in early twentieth-century Japan, was most clearly based on universal pacifism, universal moral values, and virtue. Ōmotokyō’s Pan-Asianism and universalist ideals impelled it to embark on an overseas mission. By considering Ōmotokyō’s overseas mission, this chapter analyzes how Ōmotokyō supported its pan-Asianist stance with reference to universalist ideals, and how both those ideals and Pan-Asianism were highlighted in the organization’s effort to represent Japan’s national interests while simultaneously serving its own aims as a religious organization.
