ABSTRACT
In the 1920s and 1930s, to talk of “Buddhism and science” included notions of bioracism and the Aryan myth. This chapter analyses the doctrinal adaptations and interpretations of bioracism discussed in Buddhist publications. It focuses largely on the period which has been labelled the era of “nationalist Suzuki,” or during the pre-war period in Japan up till the post-war era of the 1950s. The chapter discusses “alternative history,” described in Buddhist magazines, of the discovery of America whereby Japanese Buddhists were the first to make the discovery, long before Christopher Columbus. Buddhist sources in America presented an alternative history to the narrative which many learned in school. By claiming to be more “spiritual,” Japanese Buddhists utilized the claims of bioracism against itself, by claiming to be the founders of religion itself.
