The Justification of WAR Viewed from Ethical Perspectives

Kim Jin-man J-INSTITUTE 2016 International Journal of Military Affairs Vol.1 No.1

This article aims to explore whether war can be justified through some ethical criteria and perspectives or not. Here the meaning of war connotes both the concept in substantive meaning and military terminology in the real world, In spite of the facts that war is a kind of social phenomenon and that the principal agent of war is human. we are typically apt to think that war is irrelevant to some sound social norms such as ethics or moral. War would be, in fact, perceived as the matter being contradictory to ethics, or being on the opposite side of moral, since none of norms of ethics either encourages evil doing in the world or aggravates detrimental envi-ronment surrounded human by forcing them to destroy. In general most people believe that human can help someone be happy and safe without doing drastic and destructive things. Nevertheless we continues to break out wars in this world in which we are living, regarding it the best way to solve some problems that we cannot deal with despite all of diplomatic efforts. To some, a cause of war is an event, condition, act, or personality involved only in a particular war: to others, it is a general proposition applicable to many wars. To some, it is a class of human motives, ideals, or values; to others, it is a class of impersonal forces, conditions, processes, pat-terns, or relations. To some, it is the entrance or injection of a disturbing factor into a stable situation: to others, it is the lack of essential conditions of stability in the situation itself or the human failure to realize potentialities. It is definitely certain that, as long as human nature has something aggressive, no one deny the utility of mili-tary actions. There are three points of views that recognize a war with ethical perspective. The first point of view, ethical pessimism at war such as absolute pacifism takes the position regarded war as an ultimate evil, claiming that war must be eliminated on earth. The second point of view, the stream of thought on war irrele-vant to ethics called a realism claims that the war has nothing to do with morality, being only political object and purpose. Those who are in this position believe a war to be a political problem, and not an ethical one. The third point of view, ethical optimism to war which is called either pragmatic pacifism or just war theory allows us to identify that some war may be morally justified. If we re at a third position of view, the matter raises how to justify a war. It is important for us to morally justify a war since justification of the war makes a military conduct standing up for its own service and taking pride in the values of its work. Of these opinions on war, two former ones may aggravate evil of war by ruling the room for ethics out from the field on war, while latter one covers a war as ethical problem dealing with it in the domain of ethics due to the fact that in reality human being cannot help breaking out it anytime.

칸트 철학에서 전쟁과 평화에 대한 관념 연구 - 전쟁윤리 개념을 중심으로 -

이승철 ( Lee Seung-chul ) 한국윤리교육학회 2018 윤리교육연구 Vol.0 No.50

칸트(I. Kant)는 근대 이후 가장 중요한 도덕 철학자 중 한 명으로 손꼽힌다. ‘동기주의’, ‘도덕 지상주의’, ‘보편주의’로 대표되는 칸트의 도덕 철학은 칸트 이전, 공리주의(utilitarianism)적 사고가 만연했던 철학ㆍ윤리학적 분위기 속에서 ‘절대적이며 보편타당한 옳음’을 강조하였다는 점에서 큰 반향을 일으켰다. 한편, 전쟁윤리는 크게 ‘전쟁의 발발 가능 조건’과 ‘전쟁 수행시 지켜져야 할 원칙’을 다루는데, 이러한 전쟁윤리의 제 원칙들은 절대악(絶對惡)으로서의 전쟁 발생을 전제하고 있다는 측면에서 일견 칸트의 도덕 철학과 상충되는 것으로 인식되곤 한다. 본 논문은 이러한 사회적 통념 속에서 과연 칸트 철학과 전쟁윤리가 접목될 수 있는 지점이 없는지, 칸트가 자신의 저서를 통해 주장한 전쟁과 평화에 대한 생각과 진정한 의도가 무엇인지를 연구한다. 이를 위해 우선 칸트의 철학과 전쟁윤리의 기본 개념을 살펴본 뒤, 칸트의 저서 속에서 전쟁과 평화에 대한 기술을 통해 전쟁윤리에 대한 칸트 철학의 의의를 찾고자 한다. 본 논문을 통해 전쟁윤리와 군대윤리의 주요 이론적 배경으로서 칸트 의무론의 적용 가능성을 밝힐 수 있기를 기대한다. I. Kant is regarded as one of the most important moral philosophers since the modern times. Kant's moral philosophy, represented by 'Motivationalism', 'Moral Supremacy', and 'Universalism' emphasized 'absolute and universally valid rightness' in the philosophical and ethical atmosphere where the thoughts of utilitarianism were prevailing. In the sense, it caused big repercussions. On the other hands, war ethics deals with 'conditions for breaking out a war’ and 'the principles to be followed in the course of war.' These principles of war ethics are considered contradictory with moral philosophy of Kant since it presupposes the occurrence of war as absolute evil. This paper studies whether there is a point where Kant's philosophy and war ethics can be combined in this social convention and what Kant thought about war and peace and his true intention in his books. For these, first of all, after Kant's philosophy and basic concepts of ethics of war are reviewed, the significance of Kant's philosophy on ethics of war was to be found through his descriptions about war and peace from Kant's books. Through this paper, it is expected to be able to find whether Kant's deontology can be applied as the main theoretical background of war ethics and military ethics.

전쟁과 평화: 미국 전쟁 수행 방식의 ‘반정치적’ 성향을 사례로

이현휘 국가안보전략연구원 2015 신안보연구 Vol.- No.186

Reviewing American ‘anti-political’ way of war from the perspectives of political ethic and military strategy is the main topic of this article. According to Carl von Clausewitz, “war is only a branch of political activity.” In other words, “politics … is the womb in which war develops.” In order to understand the ‘anti-political’ characteristics in the American way of war, therefore, we have to investigate the American style of political ethic along with her military strategy. At first, I will elucidate Max Weber’s two types of political ethics, i.e., the ethic of conviction and the ethic of responsibility respectively in detail. And then, I will introduce the essence of Clausewitz’s conception of strategy briefly with the help of Raymond Aron’s study on Clausewitz. According to Aron, “the primacy of politics, in fact, permits the control of escalation, the avoidance of an explosion of animosity into passionate and unrestricted brutality. … The reasonable conduct of politics is the only rational one if the goal of the intercourse among states is the survival of all, common prosperity, and the sparing of people’s blood.” In other words, every war guided by the ethic of responsibility could be limited war and ultimately contributed to a political peace. In contrast, American style of political ethic historically molded in the tradition of Puritanism is very closely approached to the ethic of conviction. According to Weber, however, the ethic of conviction itself is ‘anti-political’ or religious ethic. That is why the American way of war guided by the ethic of conviction cannot but be concluded as ‘anti-political’ or Crusade. For example, political peace, the primacy of politics, war termination, limited war etc. are very alien in the history of American wars, not to mention Vietnam War, Gulf War, and Iraq War etc. The decline of America today is closely related with the American ‘anti-political’ way of war, however. The future of America will depend upon how to return to ‘political,’ not to ‘anti-political,’ way of war. 이 논문에서는 정치윤리와 군사전략 측면에서 미국 전쟁 수행 방식의 ‘반정치적’ 성향을 분명하게 파악해 보고자 한다. 먼저 베버의 사회학에서 제시된 정치윤리와 아롱이 제시한 국제정치윤리의 특성을 비교적 자세히 검토할 것이다. 기존 정치학에서 정치윤리와 국제정치윤리에 관한 논의가 대체로 누락되었고, 그로 인해 정치윤리와 국제정치윤리의 시각에서 미국의 전쟁 수행 방식을 비판적으로 검토한 연구가 국내외 학계에서 거의 전무한 사정을 감안할 때, 정치윤리와 국제정치윤리를 자세히 검토할 필요가 있다고 본다. 이어서 클라우제비츠가 제시한 군사전략의 핵심을 간결하게 소개할 것이다. 클라우제비츠의 군사전략도 단편적으로 인용되는 경우는 많지만, 그것의 핵심을 체계적으로 파악한 경우는 그렇게 많지 않다고 본다. 이 논문에서는 클라우제비츠의 연구를 대표하는 레이몽 아롱의 시각을 주로 참조하면서 논의를 전개할 것이다. 또한 베버의 정치윤리, 아롱의 국제정치윤리, 클라우제비츠의 군사전략 등의 시각에서 미국이 수행한 베트남 전쟁, 걸프 전쟁, 이라크 전쟁 등을 차례로 검토하면서 미국 전쟁 수행 방식의 ‘반정치적’ 성향을 명료하게 드러낼 것이다. 그리고 그러한 반정치적 성향이 미국의 쇠퇴를 강제하는 결정적 요인 중 하나라는 점을 주장할 것이다. 끝으로 한국 정치가 미국 전쟁 수행 방식의 반정치적 성향으로부터 반면교사로 삼아야 할 부분을 간략하게 제언하고자 한다.

전쟁의 윤리적 인식과 정당화 가능성

김진만 ( Kim Jin-man ) 한국윤리학회 2016 倫理硏究 Vol.109 No.1

전쟁은 우리의 생존을 위협하는 비극적인 재앙이기 때문에 그것은 피하거나 막아야 할 부도덕(immoral)하고 사악한 행위로 인식되는 것이 일반적이다. 하지만 전쟁이라는 사회현상은 현실적으로 우리의 호불호와 관계없이 인류와 함께 존재해왔으며, 우리가 그것을 피할 수 있는 방법이 없다는 점에서 비도덕적(amoral)인 사건이나 상태로 보는 관점도 있다. 과연 전쟁이 인류사회에 불가피한 현상이라면 우리는 그것을 윤리적으로 어떻게 인식해야 하는가는 인류의 미래를 위해서도 중요한 문제가 아닐 수 없다. 어떤 윤리학적 관점에서든 윤리는 궁극적으로 선과 악을 분별하고 인간의 행위에서 선을 이끌어 내거나 촉진시켜야 할 사명을 가진다. 우리가 전쟁을 윤리의 영역으로 끌어들여서 논의의 대상으로 삼는 일은 전쟁을 피하는 것이 아니라 전쟁의 참화로부터 인류를 구하기 위한 근본 처방을 찾는 일이다. 우리는 전쟁을 일단 윤리의 영역으로 끌어들이더라도 전쟁 본질 자체부터 그 원인과 목적에 이르기까지 윤리적 관점으로 인식하는 일이 우선되어야 한다. 그리고 현실의 전쟁 실제에 대한 기존의 접근 방식을 윤리적 인식과 평가의 준거에 따라 재조명하고 해석함으로써 정당화 가능한 윤리적 전쟁관의 근거를 마련하게 된다. 전쟁 실제에 대한 윤리적 인식은 세 가지의 관점, 즉 전쟁이 도덕적으로 절대 정당화될 수 없다는 윤리적 비관론과 전쟁을 윤리의 영역에서 논의할 이유가 없다는 윤리적 무관론, 그리고 인간사회에 전쟁이 불가피하며 일부 전쟁은 도덕적으로 정당하다는 윤리적 낙관론에서부터 출발한다. The purpose of this paper is to provide not merely the ethical standpoint to war through studying the essential meaning of itself but the point of view to morally justify some war in reality. In spite of a kind of social phenomenon and the fact that the principal agent of war is human. we are apt to think that war is irrelevant to ethics. There are three points of view that recognize the war with ethical perspective. The first point of view, ethical pessimism at war such as extreme pacifism takes the position regarding war as an absolute evil, claiming that war must be eliminated on the Earth. The second point of view, the stream of thought on war irrelevant to ethics being called the realism claims that the war has nothing to do with morality, being only political object and purpose. Those who are in this position believe a war to be a political question, and not an ethical one. The third point of view, ethical optimism to war which is called either practical pacifism or just war theory allows us to identify that some war may be morally justified. If we`re at a third position of view, the matter raises a problem of how to justify it. It is important for us to morally justify a war since justification of the war makes the military conducting it stand up for its service and take pride in the values of its work. Of these opinions on war, two former ones may aggravate evil of war by ruling the room for ethics out from the field on war, while latter one deals with a war as a question of ethics due to the fact that human being cannot help breaking out it in the real world.

우크라이나 전쟁을 통해 본 전쟁범죄의 윤리적 딜레마 연구- 국제인도법 이행의 문제를 중심으로 -

이승철 한국도덕윤리과교육학회 2023 도덕윤리과교육 Vol.- No.81

This study analyzed ethical dilemmas that may arise in a war situation, focusing on the ‘problem of implementing International Humanitarian Law’ by examining war crimes that occurred during the Ukraine War. First, I looked at the historical background and characteristics of the outbreak of the Ukraine War and the concepts of International Humanitarian Law and war ethics. Based on this, I analyzed the types of war crimes that occurred during the Ukraine War and it was confirmed that there are three types of dilemmas : 'dilemma of distinguishing between combatants and non-combatants', 'dilemma of proving war crimes', and 'dilemma of punishment of proven war crimes'. Although there are limitations that make it difficult to perfectly implement the elements of war ethics represented by International Humanitarian Law in real politics and war situations, International Humanitarian Law and war ethics are necessary to ensure a minimum level of human dignity in ongoing wars around the world. It is hoped that further developed discussions based on this study will lead to additional and supplementary research that can resolve the issue of implementation of International Humanitarian Law.

Socratic War Ethics in Ancient Greece

( Gyun Yeol Park ) , ( Brendan Howe ) 한국윤리학회 2016 倫理硏究 Vol.107 No.1

Socrates’ war experiences have been overshadowed by his philosophical achievements, and thus the implications of his experiences and philosophical research into war has received scant attention. The aim of this paper is to take note of Socrates’ activities and statements concerning war that have been to date somewhat neglected in the literature, and thereby build a better picture of his contributions to the ethics of war discourse. While little academic research has been carried out into Socratic ethics of war, it is in fact possible to work through the reference literature on military systems and the war literature of ancient Greece, in order to build a fairly robust picture of Socrates’ perspective. Furthermore, it is possible to draw upon studies on Socrates’ statements as to hoplites, the citizen-soldiers of Ancient Greek city-states. Finally, this paper draws on the Dialogs of Plato and books written by contemporary writers as sources for the construction of Socrates’ ethics of war. This paper contends, therefore, that the lost essence of Socratic ideals, is to embrace both literary and military accomplishments concurrently.

베트남전쟁의 기억과 망각, 정체성 전쟁 -안정효의 『하얀전쟁』을 중심으로-

이평전 제주대학교 탐라문화연구원 2022 탐라문화 Vol.- No.70

This thesis examines the dialectical relationship between memory and oblivion of the Vietnam War, which is represented as a ‘memory war’ through Ahn Jung-hyo’s ‘White Badge’. In Korea, the Vietnam War is officially remembered as a war that can be defined as a national identity or is being transformed into various forms in the process of selective memory and oblivion. In this context, re-reading Ahn Jung-hyo’s ‘White Badge’ is a process of reading the distortion of our memories in the previous Cold War system, and at the same time exploring the present of memory. In the meantime, research on Vietnam War novels has been conducted in a state where the premise of the war reproduced and interpreted through the memory of an individual or group and the premise of its inhomogeneous memory have not been sufficiently discussed. In relation to this, in this article, the meaning and aspect of recollection of the Vietnam War in Ahn Jung-hyo’s ‘White Badge’, and the relationship between the memories and oblivion of the Vietnam War, which are in progress, are elucidated. ‘The White Badge’ provides a meaningful path to understanding the essential nature of the Vietnam War, which has the meaning of identity war and memory war. Reading Vietnam War novels at this point in time has to rely on memories as faint as in the past, but paradoxically, it allows us to approach objective reality through a sober gaze. Above all, in the distorted, refraction, exaggerated and even erased memories of memories, traces of war and its essence can be found. In this process, the process of forming the identity of individuals and groups who were directly or indirectly mobilized in the Vietnam War and the war that we remember and forget today is confirmed. The search for this is to discover the potential and limits of ethical practice art towards a fair memory, apart from its literary achievements. 이 논문은 안정효의 『하얀전쟁』을 통해 ‘기억전쟁’으로 표상되는 베트남전쟁의 기억과 망각의 변증법적 관계를 살핀다. 한국에서 베트남 전쟁은 국가 정체성을 상징하는 전쟁으로 공식적으로 기억되고, 선택적 기억과 망각의 과정에서 다양한 모습으로 변주되고 있다. 이런 맥락에서 안정효의 『하얀전쟁』을 새롭게 읽는 것은 앞선 냉전 체제 속 우리 기억의 왜곡을 읽어내는 과정이면서 동시에 기억의 현재를 탐사하는 일이라고 할 수 있다. 그동안 베트남전쟁 소설에 관한 연구는 한 개인이나 집단의 기억을 통해 재현되고 해석된 전쟁의 모습과 그 불균질한 기억에 대한 전제가 충분히 논의되지 않은 상태에서 이루어져 왔다. 이 글에서는 안정효의 『하얀전쟁』 속 베트남전쟁에 대한 기억 재생의 의미와 양상, 그리고 진행형에 놓여 있는 베트남전쟁의 기억과 망각의 상관관계를 해명한다. 『하얀전쟁』은 정체성 전쟁과 기억전쟁의 의미를 지닌 베트남전쟁의 본질적 성격을 이해하는 데 의미 있는 경로를 제공해 준다. 현재 시점에서 베트남전쟁 소설을 읽는 것은 지난 시간만큼 희미한 기억에 의존해야 하지만, 역설적으로 냉정한 시선을 통해 객관적 실체에 다가설 수 있다. 기억의 왜곡이나 굴절 혹은 과장된 그리고 심지어는 지워진 기억 속에서 전쟁의 흔적과 그 본질을 발견하고, 그 과정에서 현재의 우리가 기억하고 망각하는 베트남전쟁과 전쟁에 직간접적으로 동원되었던 개인과 집단의 정체성이 형성되는 과정을 확인하게 된다. 이것에 대한 탐색은 그 문학적 성취와 별개로 공정한 기억을 향한 윤리적 실천 예술로서의 가능성과 그 한계를 발견하는 일이다.

The Importance of Nursing Ethics for Establishing a Life-Respect Community -Focusing on the Korean War-

정은영 국제문화기술진흥원 2023 International Journal of Advanced Culture Technolo Vol.11 No.2

This study attempted to identify the ethical principles of nurses who realized care in the war field with a nurse's unique professional spirit, and to explore a more specialized and subdivided concept of ethical nursing in the future. War has occurred frequently in history, and the outcome has always been tragic. There are always different opinions about what it means to discuss the ethics of these wars. Despite these controversies, the ethics of nursing, which always takes care of the sick at the scene of war, is interpreted regardless of war. The ethical spirit of nursing is to respect life and take care of those who need help. Whether the person asking for help is a soldier or a civilian, it doesn't matter where it is or what the purpose of the war is. Nursing practiced nursing based on the principle of bioethics for all, even in war scenes where there was no ethical reference point. This study explains that it is necessary to inherit the spirit of nursing, which practiced ethical care even in such cruel scenes of the past, and to protect the ethical fundamental spirit of nursing even in the changing environment in the future society.

전쟁을 기억하는 두 가지 방식

이정숙(Jeong Sook Lee) 한국현대소설학회 2009 현대소설연구 Vol.- No.42

This thesis aims to compare two war-epics of Korean War and Pacific War, which have been continuously figured by Ha Geun-Chan, from the standpoint of `Remembrance`. The two wars has been managed by the rule of the community who has the group remembrance, i.e. South-Korea versus North-Korea and Korea versus Japan. Also, the two wars were historicized on the same horizontal boundary named national sufferings during the postwar reconstruction of Korea. The viewpoint of national sufferings is still valid in the present time for positioning the War Epic of Ha Geun-chan, and this paper starts from the question about that standpoint. Personal memory can emerge only in the social frame of group. Especially, the memory about the war requires agreement of communal identity in the process of historicizing the war. Ha Geun-Chan uses the positioning strategy that is `Memory Narrative` in the epic by arranging autobiographical experience with the existential sensibility which he gained through the war. In the meantime, according to the wars were remembered at a distance of time but in order, and through the differentiation of memory process, it shows different representation of war and carved epic of variant identity on it. In this process, the epic of Korean War assumes an aspect of `remembrance-strife` contending against communal memory and shows various empirical identities which is not collected as a sole identity of a nation. The Korean War Epic named `ordinary day is the war` adopts the recollecting morality of `Partage`, in comparison, Pacific War aims the others by raising the question on the rear colonial regime and way. It is the reason why the epic of Pacific War keeps the aspect corresponding to the intentional memory as a group story, but at the same time, shows the matters of recollecting morality through the crack of intentional memory by awakening its hybridism of colonial experience. Consequently, it reveals that the two wars are epistemologically recollected from different horizon.

근대 일본불교와 전쟁: - 전쟁은 어떻게 정당화되었는가

원영상 원광대학교 종교문제연구소 2022 한국종교 Vol.51 No.-

There would not be the area which is as incomprehensible as the war. The peak of human ignorance (無知) is the very war. And when religion joins in it, the fire furiously burns. The modern Japanese Buddhists' support of the war frankly shows this history. After Japan established a theocracy after the Meiji Restoration (明治維新), Buddhism actively participated in the process of its foreign war and colonialization. This study deals with these historical process, the causes, and the solutions. Japanese Buddhism has walked the path of nationalism going through the buddhicization of the nation through the Bonmalsa (本末寺) system and the Danga (檀家) system enforced by the early modern Tokugawa shogunate (江戸幕府) and the process to make Buddhism its substructure through the modern Haibutsukisyaku (廢佛毁釋). Especially, in the situation that Shinto (神道) became the national religion after making the nation Shinto, Buddhism more devoted itself to nationalism. Buddhism actively participated in militarism under the total war system (總力戰體制) in the late 1930s. Buddhists justified the war through the wartime doctrine (戰時敎學). The establishment of Gungnipgyedan (國立戒壇) based on the truths of the truth and conventional truth (眞俗二諦) of Jodoshin Sect, Sentō-zen (戰爭禪) of the Zen sect, and Nichirenism (日蓮主義) of Nichiren is the key logic of this doctrinal study. People can know well that this is the logic of participation in the war which runs squarely counter to Buddhist teachings to make ahimsa the highest religious precepts. On the contrary, there were also the antiwar (反戰) ideology and antiwar behaviors among the people. There also continued to be resistance and ordeals of religious persons, especially, Buddhists. The representative men were Uchiyama Gudo (内山愚童) and Senoo Giro (妹尾義郞) who were monks of the Soto Sect. The former was sentenced to death for high treason (大逆罪) and was executed in 1911. He supported socialism and argued being against the government, the Japanese emperor, and the war. The latter led socialization of Buddhism by organizing a new Buddhism youth union. He took the lead in rural enlightenment and being against the war, capitalism, nationalism, and militarism. Buddhism was against the war from the viewpoint of karma and reincarnation since Shakyamuni Buddha. Nevertheless, there was the just war theory. The minimization of killing was also the condition. Modern Japanese Buddhism's participation in the war was the result to be unable to resist capitalism which supported the nation and the war, the win-win communities. The causes are ideality and transcendence of the doctrinal study. In order to escape from this, the establishment of Buddhist ethics is required to realize Buddhism's teachings to solve the people's pain. Modern Japanese Buddhism's participation in the war well shows the necessity. 전쟁만큼 불가해한 영역은 없을 것이다. 인간 무지(無知)의 정점이 바로 전쟁이다. 그리고 종교가 가세하게 되면 그 불길은 점점 무섭게 타오른다. 근대 일본불교계의 전쟁 지원은 이러한 역사를 적나라하게 보여준다. 메이지유신(明治維新, 1868)을 계기로 일본이 제정일치 국가를 확립한 후, 대외적인 전쟁과 식민지화의 과정에 불교는 적극적인 참여를 했다. 본 연구는 전자의 역사적인 과정과 원인, 그리고 해법을 다루고 있다. 일본불교는 근세 에도막부(江戸幕府)가 시행한 본말사(本末寺)제도와 단가(檀家)제도를 통한 국가불교화, 근대의 폐불훼석(廢佛毁釋)을 통한 불교의 국가 하부구조화를 거치면서 국가주의의 길을 걸어왔다. 특히 국가신도화 이후 신도가 국가의 종교가 된 상황에서 불교는 더욱 국가주의에 경도되어 갔다. 1930년대 후반 총력전체제(總力戰體制) 하에서는 적극적으로 군국주의에 가담했다. 불교계의 전쟁정당화는 전시교학(戰時敎學)을 통해서였다. 정토진종의 진속이제(眞俗二諦), 선종의 전쟁선(戰爭禪), 일련종의 일련주의(日蓮主義)에 의거한 법국명합(法國冥合)은 이 교학의 핵심 논리다. 이는 불살생을 최고의 계율로 삼는 불교의 가르침과는 정면으로 위배되는 전쟁 참여의 논리임을 잘 알 수 있다. 반면에 일반 민중들의 반전(反戰)사상과 행동 또한 일어났다. 종교인들, 특히 불교인들의 저항과 수난도 지속적으로 일어났다. 대표적인 인물들로는 조동종 승려인 우치야마 구도(内山愚童)와 세노오 기로(妹尾義郞)를 들 수 있다. 전자는 1911년 대역죄(大逆罪)로 사형되었다. 그는 사회주의를 지지하며, 반정부, 반천황, 전쟁반대 등을 주장했다. 후자는 신흥불교청년동맹을 조직하여 불교의 사회화를 이끌었다. 농촌계몽, 전쟁반대, 반자본주의, 국가 및 군국주의 반대에 앞장섰다. 불교는 석가모니불 이래 업과 윤회의 관점에서 전쟁을 반대했다. 그럼에도 정당전쟁론이 없었던 것은 아니다. 살생을 최소화하는 것이 조건이기도 하다. 근대 일본불교의 전쟁참여는 결국 상상의 공동체인 국가와 전쟁을 뒷받침한 자본주의에 대해 저항하지 못한 결과다. 그 원인은 교학의 관념성과 초월성에 있다. 이를 탈피하기 위해서는 중생의 고통을 해결하고자 하는 불법의 가르침을 현실화하기 위한 불교윤리학의 정립이 요구된다. 근대 일본불교의 전쟁참여는 그 당위성을 잘 보여준다.