Review: Faking Liberties: Religious Freedom in American-Occupied Japan, by Jolyon Baraka Thomas

Abstract

Jolyon Baraka Thomas calls into question the very idea of religious freedom in his study of definitions and applications of the concept of religious freedom in both the United States and Japan. He begins in the mid-nineteenth century—when Japan reopened to the world and was exposed to the rhetoric of “religion”—and continues through the Allied Occupation of Japan after World War II and beyond. Faking Liberties is clearly in conversation with books like Jason Josephson Storm’s The Invention of Religion in Japan (2012) and Trent Maxey’s The ‘Greatest Problem’: Religion and State Formation in Meiji Japan (2014), but Thomas goes further to explore the impact that definitions have on the communities being defined. He argues that in the same way that religion itself is a contested category, which out of necessity delineates “appropriate” religions through defining which are “inappropriate,” religious freedom can only be identified through deciding who gets what kind of freedoms, and who is denied those freedoms.One of the most compelling and useful features of Faking Liberties is the careful chapter design, allowing for a variety of readings and uses for the text. Thomas has separated his book into two sections—Japan prior to and then during/after occupation, presented chronologically. Each section contains four chapters that parallel one another, focusing on four key themes: the relationship between secularism and religious freedom and tolerance; how different groups attempt to negotiate and influence what religious freedom means; the schism between universal definitions of religious freedom and the actual particulars of how it is applied in the real world; and the role the academic field of religious studies plays in defining who “deserves” religious freedom or not. Thus, Thomas presents a variety of potential reading strategies. As an instructor, I am already thinking about how different pairings of chapters could work as readings for different thematic units in the classroom.Most impressively, Thomas maintains accessibility throughout the book. His prose is powerful and at times very personal, making it a genuinely compelling read. The book’s epilogue is gut-wrenching, meant with all due respect and admiration, and would serve well in any class discussing issues of race, positionality, and privilege. Though focusing on the context of modern Japan, Faking Liberties will be indispensable for a wide range of scholars touching upon intersections of religion and the law, religion and politics, processes of racialization and othering, and new religious movements. It also addresses international affairs and the modern history of both Japan and the United States. Perhaps most useful is the the self-reflective examination of the field of religious studies itself. The innovative parallel chapter format also allows for a wide range of uses in the classroom, customized to the topic or unit being taught, making it a great book for use with students as well.Faking Liberties is a valuable and thought-provoking deconstruction of the concepts of religion and religious freedom, set in the interactions between Japan and the United States across the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. It is easily applicable to the field of religious studies more broadly, however. I believe that Thomas’s powerful and user-friendly writing, meticulous attention to detail, and illustration of the wide-ranging implications of the interconnections among religion, politics, and academia will see Faking Liberties become required reading for students and scholars of Japan, of religious studies, of new religious movements, and of world history alike.