From the Ethnic and Exotic to a Transnational Vision of Buddhism: Japanese Americans and the World Fellowship of Buddhists Conferences of the 1950s

Japanese American Buddhists had long negotiated their double marginalization as racial and religious Others in the United States by crafting an ethno-national vision of Buddhism that implied a compatibility with U.S. national culture.  While this ethno-national vision persisted during the Early Cold War years, it was challenged by two major post-war developments.  First, the growing interest in Buddhism among non-ethnic Buddhists and the related emergence of a new Orientalist vision of American Buddhism.  A second development, the focus of this paper, was the rise of a postwar international Buddhist movement centered in Asia, part of the larger postwar history of decolonization.  This paper will examine the role of international travel, study abroad, and participation in Buddhist conferences, especially the World Fellowship of Buddhist Conferences, in shaping new transnational articulations of Japanese American identity and community.