Tag Archives: japan

US Military Shares Religious Celebration in Japan

While much of the recent focus has been on Christmas in Afghanistan (and nativities), members of the US military celebrated another holiday over last month:

Chag Sameach is a common saying heard during the holiday months, it’s Hebrew for “joyous festival,” and is being uttered in abundance in Jewish households all over the world as we enter into the Hanukkah season. It’s a saying also being heard around Camp Sendai, Japan.

The DoD article makes a point of saying those supporting the troops’ religious exercise weren’t exclusively Jewish:  Read more

Join the Military, See the World

A group of Soldiers got to visit Japan after their deployed exercise to the nation ended.

“It’s a good time for Soldiers because the Japanese culture is very different from the USA,” said Sgt. 1st Class Kiyome Yoshida…

As many Americans find out when they travel to foreign lands, exposure to foreign culture is often, by definition, exposure to that culture’s religion:

While in Kyoto they were given the opportunity to Read more

Rock Beyond Belief 3 Headed to Japan

The US Army facility at Camp Zama, Japan, recently hosted the 53rd annual “Bon Odori Festival:”

The festival is consistently the largest bilateral event of the year for U.S. Army Japan, this year attracting more than 30,000 visitors to the installation. This year’s Bon Odori featured live entertainment, games for children, a variety of ethnic foods, bilateral sports, and a fireworks show.

While that sounds benign enough, it turns out this was actually a huge religious celebration:

Bon season is a Buddhist holiday that honors the departed spirits of one’s ancestors. The tradition dates back more than 500 years.

Relying on the ever-accurate Wikipedia:

Bon Odori originates from the story of Maha Maudgalyayana (Mokuren), a disciple of the Buddha, who used his supernatural powers to look upon his deceased mother. He discovered she had fallen into the Realm of Hungry Ghosts and was suffering. Greatly disturbed, he went to the Buddha and asked how he could release his mother…The disciple, happy because of his mother’s release and grateful for his mother’s kindness, danced with joy. From this dance of joy comes Bon Odori or “Bon Dance”, a time in which ancestors and their sacrifices are remembered and appreciated.

Naturally, some military atheists will see this as a vast, unconstitutional government conspiracy to give preferential support to Read more

Pilot Safe after USAF F-16 Crashes in Pacific

A US Air Force F-16 crashed in the Pacific Ocean on Sunday; the pilot safely ejected.  It was apparently part of a flight from Japan to the United States — meaning it was far from home (and potentially land) when the pilot ejected.  That may explain why he spent 6 hours in the water and was eventually picked up by a commercial — not military — vessel.

With various controversies ongoing over crashing Ospreys and the presence of Marines, the US was quick to praise the alliance with Japan that aided in the pilot’s recovery.

As with every other aircraft incident, the Air Force will investigate to determine the cause over the next month or so.

Air Force Chapels Raise $250K for Japan

According to an official Air Force release, the US Air Force chapel community raised more than a quarter million dollars to aid the victims of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan.

In the wake of the earthquake and tsunami that struck Japan March 11, members of the Air Force Chaplain Corps on 43 installations helped raise more than $257,000 toward relief efforts for victims of the disaster, officials said here June 9.

The effort began with a call from the Air Force Chief of Chaplains:

On March 15, Chaplain (Maj. Gen.) Cecil R. Richardson, the Air Force Chief of Chaplains, encouraged chapel community Airmen and their families to take designated offerings at worship services to assist the earthquake victims.

The funds went to a variety of aid organizations, including a Catholic aid group and the Billy Graham-founded Samaritan’s Purse:  Read more

Military Missionaries Deployed Abroad

When the media mentions “military” and “missionary” in the same sentence, it often causes a near cacophony of criticism from conspiracy theorists about attempts at religious world domination.  Recent accusations of impropriety make the sensitivity of the subject evident.

A few decades ago, it wasn’t so.

General Douglas MacArthur, one of the few men to reach the nation’s highest military rank of General of the Armies, was the American face of reconstruction of post-war Japan.  The self-proclaimed “soldier of God and the republic” famously encouraged the influx of “a thousand missionaries” into Japan in the hopes that Christianity would overcome Shinto Buddhism in the Japanese isles.  Documents from the Truman library reportedly indicate the Joint Chiefs, the Secretary of the Army, and Truman himself supported MacArthur in this endeavor.  (Most modern summaries indicate the “Christianization” of Japan largely failed.)

Such an emphasis was likely influential on military members themselves.  A recent article in The Deseret News of Utah highlights the Mormon soldiers who “spread the gospel in post-war Japan.” Among those is the current President of the Mormon church, Read more

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