Mike Sales wrote:Did not the Japanese also worship their emperor, in a rather un-Buddhist way?
The Tibetan variety is also somewhat heretical.
In WW1 Japan fought on the Allied side. They took around 4,500 German prisoners at the Battle of Tsingtao and they were treated very well in accordance with the Hague Convention.
It was only in the intervening 20 or so years a military cult took over in Japan which then in the occupation of China and WW2 led not only to the slaughter of civilians, but the maltreatment of prisoners and their own code of fighting to the death (and committing suicide).
I don't really think the warped military code had much to do with Buddhism or even the near deity worship of the Emperor. But being Buddhist didn't stop Japan soaking up a belief in racial superiority and Empire building. Sounds familiar to all Empires.