American Sutra

Friday, May 3, at 5:40 p.m., Professor Duncan Ryuken Williams of USC will offer a dharma talk and conversation with Hozan Alan Senauke at BZC, based on his remarkable new book, American Sutra: A Story of Faith and Freedom in the Second World War. This groundbreaking history, just released by Harvard University Press, 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, Prof. 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.

Books will be available for sale and signing by Professor Williams. For more information, see the book’s website: www. duncanryukenwilliams.com/american-sutra