also owed to the Emperor, as "the head of the entire Japanese family". The belief in mutual dependency, which "led in modern Japan to an organic view of the state coupled with a feeling of intimacy towards it". The doctrine of the Middle Way, which "took the form of a constant search for compromise with the aim of avoiding confrontation before it occurred". The tradition of ancestor veneration, in which "the entire nation came to be regarded as one large family in which loyalty between subject and sovereign was the chief virtue". The value given to "old and mature things". Since society was based "on a set of ancient and immutable laws", opposition to this was unacceptable. Emphasis on inner peace, which "contributed to its failure to encourage and justify the will to reorganize society". The Buddhist logic of soku, "just as it is", which leads to "a static, aesthetic perspective, a detached, subjective harmony with things". Hakugen saw D. T. Suzuki as "most responsible for the development of imperial-way Zen", but in no way standing alone in this development. Hakugen traces this development to pre-meiji developments: Responses The book drew a lot of attention, and mixed responses: Robert Aitken writes: Ton Lathouwers, Chán-teacher in the Netherlands, in relation to Zen at War mentions Hisamatsu's impossible question, "What will you do when you cannot do anything, when all your best intentions and great endeavour are invested to no avail whatsoever, when all you do is doomed to fail?", relating it to a statement by Takeo Sato: Apologies In response to Zen at war Ina Buitendijk started a campaign to receive apologies from leading parties within the Japanese Zen-schools: Her campaign resulted in responses from Kubota Ji'un, third abbot of the Sanbo Kyodan, Hirata Seiko, and Hosokawa, abbot of Myoshin-ji. Kubota Ji'un writes: Hirata Seiko writes: Criticism Brian Victoria has also been criticized. Kemmyō Taira Sato states that Victoria's criticism of D. T. Suzuki is misplaced since he did not support Japanese militarism in his writings: Victoria himself quotes critical remarks by Suzuki on the war and the support given to it by the Zen-institutions: "[T]hey diligently practiced the art of self-preservation through their narrow-minded focus on 'pacifying and preserving the state'." Muhō Noelke, a German-born Zen monk in the Sōtō Zen tradition, states that Victoria has mistranslated texts from Kōdō Sawaki, who was a prominent Japanese Sōtō Zen teacher in