American Sutra with Duncan Ryuken Williams

Ordained Zen priest Duncan Ryuken Williams’ AMERICAN SUTRA: A Story of Faith and Freedom in the Second World War (Harvard University Press; February 2019) described by George Takei as a “must read.” This groundbreaking history tells the little-known story of how, in one of our country’s darkest hours, Japanese Americans fought to defend their faith and preserve religious freedom. The mass incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II is not only a tale of injustice; it is a moving story of faith. In this path-breaking account, Duncan Ryuken Williams reveals how, even as they were stripped of their homes and imprisoned in camps, Japanese American Buddhists launched one of the most inspiring defenses of religious freedom in our nation’s history, insisting that they could be both Buddhist and American. https://www.duncanryukenwilliams.com