[Japanese-American Photographica]: [California]:

$2,250 · Offered by William Reese Company · No longer available

[PANORAMIC PHOTOGRAPH CELEBRATING THE ANNIVERSARY OF THE OPENING OF THE BUDDHIST SCHOOL AT THE LOS ANGELES BRANCH OF THE HIGASHI HONGANJI TEMPLE]. A striking panoramic photograph picturing the Japanese-American celebrants at the 40th anniversary of the opening of the Buddhist school at the Los Angeles branch of the Higashi Honganji Temple. The photograph is titled and dated in Japanese script; it relates the date of the celebration as the 13th, 14th, and 15th of September in the year 2600 (after the birth of the Emperor Jimmu), which is 1940. The photograph pictures a few hundred Issei and Nissei men, women, and children in a mixture of traditional Japanese gowns and caps, and western suits and dresses. There are a few banners in the background relating to the temple and the celebration. The Higashi Honganji Buddhist Temple is still active in Los Angeles.The celebration depicted here came just two short years before the beginning of the Japanese-American internment period, which triggered fundamental changes in the practice of the Buddhist faith in America among Japanese-American citizens. As a result of anti-Japanese sentiment in the early 1940s, Buddhists sometimes changed the names of their churches to sound more patriotic. They began to meet on Sundays to emulate Christian worship, while singing from new hymnals that echoed those found in Christian churches. Sects within the church were forced to worship together. And the swastika - a Buddhist symbol for thousands of year

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