"The emperor is not the son of the gods as our primary school teachers and others would have you believe. The ancestors of the present emperor came forth from a corner of Kyushu, killing and robbing people as they did. They then destroyed their fellow thieves ... It may seem that the emperor is divine, but down through the ages the emperors have been tormented by foreign opponents and, domestically treated as puppets by their own vassals .... Although this is well known, university professors and their students, weaklings that they are, refuse to say or write anything about it. Instead, they attempt to deceive others and themselves, knowing all along the whole thing is a pack of lies."
Gudo Uchiyama, *-1911
Japanese Soto Zen Priest
Tract that was widely disseminated late in the 19th century
Quoted in Brian Victoria, Zen at War