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Proof that demythologization can be weaponized by any worldly regime with any politics. This is an excerpt from a debate between prominent Jodo Shinshu (Pure Land) priests and scholars in Japan at the height of WWII, regarding whether fallen soldiers become buddhas.
The immanentists who claimed the Pure Land and Amida were merely symbols enthusiastically claimed there was no difference between Shinto kami and buddhas. The traditionalists who believed both were transcendent realities resisted the conflation of the war and faith in Amida.
Here are the words of another immanentist who claimed the mission of the Shin Buddhist faithful was to create the Pure Land in this life by contributing to the war effort.
Excerpts from debate on same subject.
The immanentist enthusiasts for the conflation of Shinto and Jodo Shinshu supported the policy of telling the family of fallen soldiers that, regardless of whether they were Buddhists, the soldiers would go to the Pure Land, because the emperor's and Amida's vows were identical.
