Toward a Nuclear-Free Future: Josei Toda and the (White) Lineage of Anti-Nuclear Activism

• In Event: Friday Roundtable Session 4:55 pm
  In Roundtable Session: Weaving Global and Local Perspectives Through Critical Peace Education (Table 4)

Abstract

This conceptual study examines the unique role Japanese Buddhist educator and activist Josei Toda can play in complicating the white, Western, Christian lineage of anti-nuclear resistance. A close textual analysis reveals Toda’s distinct political and religious identity of high importance in the utilization of principled, nonviolent approaches to disarmament and nuclear abolition. His Japanese citizenship, as well as his concepts of “human revolution” and ethic of global citizenship, offer many possibilities to students of peace education and social justice in Western contexts – and paints nonviolent resistance to nuclear weapons as more internationalist, diverse, and agentic of otherwise marginalized voices than previously understood.

Author

• Jerica Arents, DePaul University