ABSTRACT
This chapter provides the basis for the two-sided project of Critical Buddhism. The first, taken from an analysis of contemporary Japanese political culture, makes the point that postwar Japan has only tentatively, and, the authors are by no means the first to claim, insufficiently come to terms with its recent past and some of the deeper problems surrounding the construction of Japanese 'modernity' and 'subjectivity'. This point is extrapolated upon at some length and with great nuance by John Dower in his work on postwar Japanese culture and the 'legacy of censored democracy' brought about by collusion between postwar Japanese leaders and American occupation authorities. The second part is rather than a critical appraisal of recent political history; here they have an anecdotal story from within the canon of Buddhist teachings designed presumably to present a truth of some sort about Buddhist ethics. Besides the matter of Buddhist contributions to political ideologies supportive of violence or warfare.
