Historical Dictionary of United States-Japan ... - Bakumatsu Films

BURMA ROAD • 59
the common people. Tendai, Pure Land, True Pure Land, Shingon,
Nichiren, and Zen have long been the most widespread Buddhist sects
in Japan, while Sokka Gakkai is a more recent and growing Buddhist
movement in Japan, with many followers in the United States. Although
most Buddhist sects in Japan include the core Buddhist beliefs
of the Four Noble Truths, the Eightfold Path, transmigration of the
soul, and nirvana, Buddhism in Japan incorporates indigenous Japanese
cultural and philosophical beliefs. Traditional Shinto, for example,
often overlaps and complements Buddhism in Japan.
BUNMEI KAIKA. See CIVILIZATION AND ENLIGHTENMENT.
BURMA ROAD. After Japanese forces captured much of China’s
coastline during 1938, and Chiang Kai-shek moved his capital to the
inland city of Chungking, the Burma Road constituted the principal
route of supply from the outside world to China. Throughout the first
half of 1940, Japan sought to pressure its British counterpart (which
was Burma’s colonial master) into closing the road. In this endeavor,
the Japanese government was aided immeasurably by Adolf Hitler’s
stunning military successes across Western Europe in the summer of
1940. Unable to face off against both Germany and the Japanese, the
cabinet of Prime Minister Winston Churchill in July 1940 agreed to
close the Burma Road for three months.
By September 1940, however, Churchill was increasingly optimistic
concerning the courses open to his nation both in Europe and
in the Far East. In part a product of Churchill’s confidence in Washington’s
willingness to involve itself actively in world politics, his
cabinet judged that they should reopen the Burma Road once the
three-month period ended in October. After that time, shipments from
America, and smaller amounts from Britain, were resumed. For Chiang
Kai-shek, this was indeed good news.
If this was good news for Chiang, it did not last. Soon after the
Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor in December 1941, they advanced
into Burma and Rangoon fell to them on 7 March. Until Japan’s control
of Burma was broken, China could receive supplies only from
“Over the Hump” flights from India. By the time that Burma was recaptured,
Chiang Kai-shek had fallen out of power calculations in the
Far East.