Resilience and Freedom: How Enduring Lessons from the WWII Japanese American Buddhist Experience Can Heal Us Today

In this time of Covid-19 lockdowns, our loss of freedom has been one of the most difficult aspects to bear. The inability to see loved ones and go where we want, when we want, has been painful, overwhelming - and increasingly, profoundly depressing. How will we cope with what looks like months more of this pandemic-imposed imprisonment? Perhaps we can learn from the experience of law-abiding people who underwent actual imprisonment and found a way to thrive with the help of their unfolding Buddhist faith. On February 19, 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, authorizing the Secretary of War to declare much of the West Coast a military exclusion zone. This act resulted in the incarceration of 120,000 U.S. residents of Japanese descent -- including some 70,000 American citizens. Their crime? Being of the wrong ancestry in a time of war hysteria and rampant racism. These Japanese Americans were forced from their homes, deprived of their property and civil rights, and locked in concentration camps. Yet, behind barbed wire, many looked to their Buddhist faith and found the inner strength and peace to carve out a new life. Professor and author of the new book American Sutra, Duncan Ryūken Williams, PhD, will show us a path to peace found in the experiences and teachings of these imprisoned believers. As they discovered, the wisdom and compassion of their faith led to true "freedom" that enabled them to rise above the circumstances.