Yu-Shuang Yao completed her PhD in Sociology of Religion at the University of London in 2001. She is an Associate Professor at Fo Guang University, Taiwan, specializing in contemporary religions of Taiwan. She has published various articles in Chinese and won scholarships from the CCK, International Scholarly Exchange for Thesis Fellowship (1997), and the Fulbright American Study (2004).

Brian Daizen Victoria is a native of Omaha, Nebraska and a 1961 graduate of Nebraska Wesleyan University in Lincoln, Nebraska. He holds a M.A. in Buddhist Studies from Sōtō Zen sect-affiliated Komazawa University in Tokyo, and a Ph.D. from the Department of Religious Studies at Temple University.

In addition to Zen Terror in Prewar Japan: Portrait of an Assassin (Rowman & Littlefield, 2020), Brian’s major writings include a 2nd, enlarged edition of Zen At War (Rowman & Littlefield, 2006); Zen War Stories (RoutledgeCurzon, 2003); an autobiographical work in Japanese entitled Gaijin de ari, Zen bozu de ari (As a Foreigner, As a Zen Priest), published by San-ichi Shobo in 1971; Zen Master Dōgen, coauthored with Prof. Yokoi Yūhō of Aichi-gakuin University (Weatherhill, 1976); and a translation of The Zen Life by Sato Koji (Weatherhill, 1972). In addition, Brian has published numerous journal articles, focusing on the relationship of not only Buddhism but religion in general to violence and warfare.

From 2005 to 2013 Brian was a professor of Japanese Studies and director of the AEA “Japan and Its Buddhist Traditions Program” at Antioch University in Yellow Springs, OH. From 2013 to 2015 he was a Visiting Research Fellow at the International Research Center for Japanese Studies in Kyoto, Japan. Brian currently resides in Kyoto, Japan where he is writing a new book on Uchiyama Gudō, a Sōtō Zen priest executed in January 1911 due to his opposition to the Russo-Japanese War and embrace of socialism. Brian is a fully ordained Buddhist priest in the Sōtō Zen sect.