PACIFIC WORLD - The Institute of Buddhist Studies

272Pacific WorldJapanese lay in the United States, a future for which the Buddhist soldiershad sacrificed their lives.When the war ended, many priests and their temple members returnedhome to the West Coast only to discover that many of their temples hadbeen broken into or vandalized. Despite these immediate difficulties,Buddhist priests, younger Nisei, and their Caucasian friends helped to setup Buddhist temples as temporary hostels for the thousands of JapaneseAmericans returning to the West Coast without work or housing. Thewartime experience was a serious blow to Japanese-American Buddhisttemples as well as to the larger Japanese-American community. However,the lessons of the camps—endurance through hardship, creativity inscarcity, and courage in face of danger—served the community well in thepost-war period.