Hostname: page-component-f554764f5-nwwvg Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-04-17T10:36:49.907Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Hitler Youth 1940 Visit to Japan: A Comment on Brian Victoria's “The Zen of Hitler Jugend”

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 March 2025

Hans-Joachim Bieber
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

In his article, “The Zen of Hitler Jugend” (Asia Pacific Journal: Japan Focus, Volume 14, Issue 2, Number 2; January 18, 2016), Brian Victoria presents two Japanese reports and some photos that deal with a visit by a delegation of the Hitler Youth to Eiheiji in November 1940. One of the most important Japanese monasteries, Eiheiji was established in 1244 by Zen Master Dōgen, who was the founder of the Sōtō sect. These newly discovered reports, which were originally published in the Eiheiji periodical Sansho in December 1940 and August 1942, undoubtedly provide interesting source material and are thus worthy of being republished. However, I would like to add some further information about the delegation's visit to Japan and compare the Japanese reports found by Victoria with a report published by the head of the delegation upon his return to Germany. In doing so, I hope to shed light on some striking differences between the perception of the visit to Eiheiji by the monks of the monastery on the one hand and the German delegation on the other.

Type
Research Article
Information
Asia-Pacific Journal , Volume 14 , Issue 12 , June 2016 , e2
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BYCreative Common License - NCCreative Common License - ND
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivatives licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is unaltered and is properly cited. The written permission of Cambridge University Press must be obtained for commercial re-use or in order to create a derivative work.
Copyright
Copyright © The Authors 2016

References

Notes

1 Heinrich Jürgens: Reise nach Japan. Tagebuchaufzeichnungen von der Japanfahrt der HJ 1940, in: Junge Welt, March 1941, p. 22; further parts of Jürgens' report were published in the editions of April 1941, pp. 20-22, and May 1941, pp. 21-23.

2 “Japans Lebensraum”, in: Junge Welt, Nov. 1940, p. 8 f.

3 Völkischer Beobachter, 9.1.1941.

4 Ibid.

5 Ibid.

6 Jakob Wilhelm Hauer: Das religiöse Artbild der Indogermanen und die Grundtypen der indoarischen Religion, Stuttgart 1937, p. 239 ff. and 269 ff.

7 Daisetz Suzuki: Die groβe Befreiung, Leipzig 1939; cf. Hans-Joachim Bieber: SS und Samurai. Deutsch-japanische Kulturbeziehungen 1933-1945, Munich: iudicium 2014, p. 640.

8 Heinrich Jürgens: Reise nach Japan. Tagebuchaufzeichnungen von der Japanfahrt der HJ 1940, in: Junge Welt, May 1941, p. 21.

9 Ibid. p. 22.

10 Cf. Bieber 2014, passim.