That is to say, he not only rendered unto Caesar what was Caesar's, but proffered the entirety of the Buddhist faith as well. Not only that, he urged all of the Japanese people to do the same. It is exactly for this reason that I hold not only Yasutani but the Japanese sangha as a whole, or at least its leading members, responsible for having slavishly and servilely promoted the state's murderous agenda. As is well known, Yasutani's postwar writings, especially those introduced to the West, were notably free of the militaristic and anti-Semitic sentiments that characterized his wartime writings. Human life should of course be valued highly, but at the same time the lives of other living beings should also be treasured.
Human beings snatch away the lives of other creatures whenever it suits their purposes.
The way of thinking that encourages this behavior arises from a specifically human brand of violence that defies the self-evident laws of the universe, opposes the growth of the myriad things in nature, and destroys feelings of compassion and reverence arising from our Buddha nature. In view of such needless destruction of life, it is essential that laymen and monks together conscientiously uphold this precept. As admirable as these sentiments are, I find it difficult to shake the feeling that Yasutani was simply preaching what he thought his Western audience wanted to hear at the time. I say this especially in light of Yasutani's ongoing postwar ultranationalist sentiments expressed in Japanese if not in English. In 1971, for example, Yasutani even went so far as to justify political assassination, i.e., when he wrote favorably about the October 1960 stabbing of Socialist Party leader Asanuma Inejiro by a right-wing youth.