A PHILOSOPHER’S DEFEAT IN WORLD WAR II: TANABE HAJIME’S CONVERSION TO SHIN BUDDHISM IN PHILOSOPHY AS METANOETICS Taro Mochizuki Osaka University, Japan Abstract In the last years of World War II, Tanabe Hajime, started writ- ing Philosophy as Metanoetics (the way of zange). He was in- spired by Shinran, a thirteenth-century Japanese Shin Buddhist thinker and began to understand philosophy as metanoetics. “a philosophy that is not a philosophy”. Philosophy that is not a phi- losophy cannot be undertaken by one’s own power, but must be acquired through Other-power. Hence, philosophizing implies the continual act of “practice-faith-witness” (gyo-shin- sho) of the philosopher’s own metanoia, performed by Other-power within himself. This paper argues that Tanabe’s conversion became a cre- ative deconstruction of modern philosophy caused by the cultural encounter occasioned by the war, which generated a dialectical effect in his thinking and eventually led to his conversion to Shin Buddhism. INTRODUCTION In the last years of World War II, the thinking of Japanese intel- lectuals and the general public was severely repressed by techniques of thought control, despite the fact that the defeat of the Japanese military was already evident in the eyes of the nation. During this time, Tanabe Hajime (1885-1962)-one of the founding members of the group of phi- losophers that has become known worldwide as the Kyoto School, along- side Nishida Kitaro (1885-1945) and Nishitani Keiji (1900-1990)-started writing Philosophy as Metanoetics (the way of zange), which was finally Prajna Vihara, Volume 14, Number 1-2, January-December 2013, 21-26 2000 by Assumption University Press c - ~ - 21