ABSTRACT
In America, Asian Buddhists were viewed as corrupting Buddhism. This chapter compares the use of Aryan Buddhism in Ceylon, which was directly colonized by the British, and Japan, which later functioned as a colonial power attempting to remake Asia in its image. It details the responses to historical portrayals of Asian inferiority using Buddhism to reverse these tropes and suggest that colonialism and “Western” powers represented the true danger to humanity. The place of Japan in the history of American relations with Asia and colonialism more broadly is a unique one; the island nation was never colonized and instead served as a colonial force throughout Asia. Unlike Japanese Buddhists, Sri Lankan Buddhists had experienced years of imperial rule and the embarrassment of being internationally labelled as ignorant about the once-great religion that the “race” had theoretically corrupted.
