Bearing Witness to the Wounds of Internment
American Sutra: A Story of Faith and Freedom in the Second World War by Duncan Williams Belknap Press, 2019 400 pages; $29.95
The earliest Buddhist scriptures offer a striking image of the Buddha fighting off the delusions of the dark deity Mara in his final push toward awakening. Sitting in meditation under the bodhi tree, the Buddha touches the earth with the fingertips of his right hand, and the earth bears witness to his awakening. The message for those who would set foot on the Buddhist path is clear: true awakening must be an embodied realization that connects us to the great earth.
In Duncan Williams illustrates this principle in action, bringing to life the stories of Japanese American Buddhists who endured illegal internment in desolate locations scattered throughout the American heartland. Williams begins his chronicle with a conversation he had with Masumi Nagatomi, who recalled that when she was a young girl, the FBI showed up on her family’s doorstep to interrogate her father. It soon became clear that, in the wake of the attack on
