To people overseas. Regarding the unlikelihood that Yasuke, a black man favored by Nobunaga, was a Samurai. and the outrageous fabrication that the Japanese were involved with black slaves.

To everyone who came to my blog from overseas. First of all, thank you for coming to my blog. I know almost 100% of you came here because this blog have mentioned Studio Ghibli, but if you don't mind, please check out this article.

There is an issue that is currently confusing, angering, and saddened many Japanese people. It is a pernicious fabrication revealed by information about a character in a game called "Assassin's Creed Shadows," which is scheduled to be released in November 2024.

The game will feature a character named Yasuke, a black samurai. Herein lies the problem. To the surprise of the Japanese, he is actually being promoted abroad as a real-life hero from medieval Japan.

Let me give you a simple answer. The black man Yasuke did exist and was a favored servant of Nobunaga Oda. This is what the documents say. However, it is unlikely that he was a samurai, and even more unlikely that he was a war hero.

How can we say that? It is because there are extremely few documents describing him at all. In all the reliable sources written about Yasuke, there is less than one page that mentions him. And there is nothing in there to confirm that he was a samurai.

He was brought to Japan as a slave by Jesuit missionaries and met Nobunaga while being made a spectacle in Japan. Nobunaga took a liking to him and invited him into his service, but he stayed with Nobunaga for only one year and four months. Why? Because Nobunaga was betrayed by Mitsuhide Akechi and committed suicide. Yasuke was then saved from being killed for "insulting reasons," which is not a word one would use against a samurai. And after that, his whereabouts are unknown. 

Think about it, could a black man who was not fluent in Japanese, who was under Nobunaga's control for only one year and four months, and who was seen for the first time by many Japanese at the time, have been the "skilled swordsman" and "samurai" that you imagine him to be? And could a black man like him, who was new to the Japanese people at the time, be a Samurai and then disappear?

The answer should be NO. The way of the Samurai is not so easy.

To those who come to my blog from overseas: misconceptions about Japan's war as visualized by "Barbenheimer"

For the first time, I am going to write a very special blog for people coming from overseas.

First of all, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to those who come to this blog from various countries overseas, even though it is written in Japanese.

I assume that you come to this blog because it is written about studio Ghibli, and I hope that the translation function is working properly.

Now, I would like to tell you about an issue that is causing great anger and sadness in Japan today: the countless images of "Barbenheimer," which is the joke that combines the American movie "Barbie" and "Oppenheimer".

These are images that stir up so much anger and sadness for the Japanese that I won't even post them on my blog. It has become a big problem, especially since Barbie's account on Twitter, now X, has responded that it enjoys them.

In response, people overseas have said that the Japanese have no right to be offended by this. I'd like to give my opinion on this.