Tropical Freedom: Climate, Settler Colonialism, and Black Exclusion in the Age of Emancipation

Abstract

This anthology emerged from an interdisciplinary workshop held at the University of Oslo in 2013 focusing on military chaplaincy. Scholars from the fields of history, religious studies, and sociology offered case studies focusing on several Western nations (Israel, Norway, Slovenia, and the United States) and several Asian countries (India, Japan, South Korea, Sri Lanka, and Thailand). In recent years, the armed forces of Norway, Slovenia, and the United States have adopted policies that recognize the religious diversity of those serving in the ranks. In the case of the United States, army chaplains have been appointed to serve Buddhists and Muslims in the ranks. Kim Philip Hansen examines the tensions over responding to this pluralism. Wiccans protested the failure of the army to appoint chaplains to meet their needs, and evangelical Protestant chaplains challenged efforts to limit their attempts to proselytize. This work dispels any notion that modernization entails secularization, or that religion exists in a separate sphere divorced from politics. In the case of Israel, the government has imposed a religious test that is used to determine who should serve in the armed forces, with only Jews subject to conscription, and Arab citizens excluded from mandatory military service out of security concerns. As Ori Goldberg observes, the Israel Defense Forces do not have chaplains, only rabbis, who have increasingly sought to navigate the divide between the Orthodox and secular communities in order to forge a sense of unity. When Britain ruled India and Ceylon (Sri Lanka), it favored enlisting minority religious groups to buttress its power over majority groups. In the post-colonial era, the Indian and Sri Lankan militaries diverged. Based on interviews with retired Indian army officers, Torkel Brekke describes an institutional culture that promotes religious pluralism in ranks that include Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Buddhists and Christians. In contrast, Iselin Frydenlund traces the successful efforts by Buddhist nationalists in Sri Lanka, beginning in 1956, to drive out members of the Tamil minority from the ranks and replace them with soldiers from the Sinhala majority. Although South Korea is a predominately Buddhist nation, when the regime of President Syngman Rhee established a chaplaincy for the South Korean military in 1951, initially, only Christian clerics were appointed. Rhee envisioned this Christian orientation to align South Korea more closely with the United States and its religion, as offering an ideology that could buttress support for the antiCommunist struggle. Melding the worlds of faith and military service is complex and often requires compromise. For many Buddhist sects, the prohibition against violence mandates that monks cannot serve in a uniformed capacity. Although many monks supported Sri Lanka’s regime during the civil war against the Tamil rebels, they did so as civilians. The Thai military skirts this restriction by appointing Buddhist chaplains whose liminal status is signified by the fact they wear a military uniform that includes a saffron sash to denote their spiritual role. Micah Auerback’s case study of the experiences of one Buddhist monk, Yamagata Genjo, who served as chaplain to Japanese forces in late 1890s and early 1900s, notes the tension that existed between the universalism of the Buddhist faith and Japanese nationalism. Genjo embraced the imperial ambitions of the Japanese regime against Korea and China and followed the army abroad. However, while serving in China, Genjo also strived to safeguard Buddhist temples and participated in rites with Chinese Buddhist monks. The editors of this volume acknowledge its limitations, noting that no majority Muslim nations are considered in this study. Africa, Australia, and the Western Hemisphere, except for the United States, are not covered. This leaves many questions. For instance, this study suggests much could be learned from the relationship between the chaplaincy and authoritarian regimes in Latin America during the Cold War. These omissions should be considered a call for more scholarship, especially by military historians, on the chaplaincy and the lived religion of soldiers.