Chanpon

Zen Buddhism is an aspect of Japanese culture foreigners frequently romanticize and seldom understand. There are the ideals of Zen - consciousness, compassion, detachment - epitomized by the likes of Ikkyu, translated by D.T. Suzuki, evangelized by Kerouac and the Beat poets, and popularized by a series of "Zen and the Art of..." books. Divorced of its origins and context, "zen" has come to connote a guiding principle or a design sensibility - things that are plain, peaceful and calmness-inducing.

But Zen is an organized religion, and, as it turns out, a political entitity. Idealized western views of Zen Buddhism have been sharply questioned recently, as the strong links between the Japanese Imperial war machine and the church of Zen have come to light.

According to an 11 January article in the New York Times: Meditating on War and Guilt, Zen Says It's Sorry, one of the largest Zen temples in Tokyo issued a public apology for their behaviour during World War II sixteen days after the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the United States.
The piece observes: "the leaders of one of the largest denominations in Japan have remorsefully compared their former religious fanaticism during Japan's brutal expansionism in the 1930's and 40's to today's murderously militant Islamists."

This was due primarily to the efforts of Brian Victoria, a former Methodist missionary who became a Zen priest and historian. His books Zen at War and the forthcoming Zen War Stories traces the history of jingoistic Zen. (Initially discovered on Plastic.com: Zen and the Art of War.)