Prof. Jolyon Thomas (University of Pennsylvania) will speak about Japanese anxieties about youths in the 1950s and 1960s and the attempt to use Buddhist teachings in public schools to help develop a morally upright citizenry. These creative Buddhist attempts to make "bad" kids "good" utterly failed, but they spurred some of the most doctrinally innovative Buddhist thinking of the twentieth century.

Wednesday, November 20, 2024
4:00 PM - 5:30 PM (Pacific Time)
Royce Hall, Rm 243
Los Angeles, CA 90095

Japanese society in the 1950s and 1960s was filled with anxieties about “the kids these days.” Demobilized soldiers returned home from the Asia-Pacific War addicted to methamphetamine. Children growing up unsupervised in Japan’s firebombed cities dabbled in larceny and gobbled up pornography. Television and cinema offered alluring depictions of sex and violence. Against this backdrop, leading politicians began calling for “more religion” as a solution to Japan’s myriad social problems. Buddhists avidly responded, generating educational treatises and arguing that introducing Buddhist teachings in public schools could help develop a morally upright citizenry. These creative Buddhist attempts to make bad kids good utterly failed, but they spurred some of the most doctrinally innovative Buddhist thinking of the twentieth century.

Jolyon Thomas is associate professor of religious studies at the University of Pennsylvania. He is the author of Faking Liberties: Religious Freedom in American-Occupied Japan (2019).

Masks are encouraged and will be available for free

Cost : Free and open to the public but registration required

Sponsor(s): Terasaki Center for Japanese Studies, Asian Languages & Cultures