The Emotional Toll of Wartime Bell Deployment in Japan (original) (raw)

Buddhist temple bells (bonshō) are a precious feature of almost every Japanese temple. These bells often have a singular status within their environment, with a strong aural and visual presence prominently positioned in their own structure. While most past studies of Buddhist bells have concentrated on their inscriptions, craftsmanship, technologies, or sound, this article will focus on how approximately 45,000 of them disappeared during the late 1930s and mid-1940s. During the Asia-Pacific War, as metals grew scarce, temple bells became a material resource for munition production. Why were temples and shrines convinced to give up their bells that embodied the hopes and vows of past donors? What was the process of transformation from a religious instrument used to comfort the dead into an object that would destroy life? Four case studies, presented as object biographies of bells that date from the seventeenth to eighteenth centuries, will be examined to consider these questions, as ...