The Yasuke Controversy: Unraveling Truth from Fiction in Japanese History

Introduction
In recent months, the story of Yasuke — often referred to as the “Black Samurai” — has become the center of an intense historical debate. This controversy gained significant momentum following the announcement of Assassin’s Creed Shadows in 2024, sparking discussions about historical accuracy, cultural representation, and the role of foreign influences in Japanese history.

The Legal Framework
Japan’s approach to information and historical accuracy is governed by two key pillars:

1. The Defamation Law
- Allows for imprisonment of up to three years for damaging someone’s reputation
- Applies to both true and false statements
- Even retweets without commentary can lead to guilty verdicts

2. The Broadcasting Act
- Mandates factual accuracy in broadcasting
- Requires investigation of complaints within three months
- Gives special status to NHK (Japan’s public broadcaster) as an authority on factual information

NHK’s Role and Validation
NHK’s position on Yasuke is particularly significant:
- Aired a 90-minute documentary in 2021 confirming Yasuke’s status as a samurai
- Reviewed and reaffirmed their stance in 2024 amid controversy
- Their position carries substantial weight due to legal mandate for accuracy

Historical Context
The controversy surrounding Yasuke cannot be separated from Japan’s complex historical relationship with the West:
- Japanese conservative values are rooted in pre-WWII identity
- The 1919 racial equality proposal at the Versailles Treaty remains a significant historical moment
- Post-WWII US occupation and re-education programs have influenced how history is perceived in Japan

1. The US Narrative (Started May 15, 2024)
- Claims Yasuke’s samurai status was fabricated for diversity purposes
- Criticizes Ubisoft’s choice for Assassin’s Creed
- Questions Thomas Lockley’s academic work

2. The “Black Slavery” Narrative (Emerged July 12, 2024)
- False claims about Japan being portrayed as the origin of black slavery
- Based on misinterpretation of historical texts
- Caused significant concern among Japanese conservatives

3. The “Legendary Samurai” Narrative (Mid-2024)
- Claims existence of numerous African samurai in Japanese history
- Primarily circulated in Japanese language circles
- Appears designed to create confusion within Japanese community

Public Opinion
A comprehensive survey conducted in July 2024 revealed:
- 29% of Japanese were familiar with the controversy
- 33% knew of Yasuke as a historical figure
- Only 9% of total respondents supported petitions against related media

Research Support
Academic research, particularly by Tatsuo Tanaka, has:
- Debunked claims about Thomas Lockley’s work being fictional
- Demonstrated that concerns about historical accuracy were primary motivators
- Shown that conservative Japanese should logically embrace Yasuke’s story

Conclusion
The Yasuke controversy represents more than a simple historical debate. It encompasses complex issues of cultural identity, historical interpretation, and modern political discourse. Understanding these various perspectives and the evidence supporting Yasuke’s historical role as a samurai is crucial for engaging in informed discussions about this fascinating historical figure.

Note: This blog post is based on comprehensive research and official Japanese sources, including NHK documentation and academic studies.*

Welcome to this definitive guide into one of the most controversial topics this year.

Was Yasuke really a samurai?

When I started this project, my goal was simple. To provide an informed, reliable answer to this question, drawing from my experiences as both a Japanese national and a former photojournalist with works published in the New York Times, Washington Post, and NPR. But as I dug deeper, I found myself entangled in a much larger narrative. A narrative involving political motives, misinformation, and even foreign nation-state actors. If the implications I’m drawing here sounds far-fetched, Russian disinformation campaign on a random, minor social media controversy, consider how the U.S. Justice Department has just announced that a Tennessee-based content company commentating on Western political and cultural issues had received nearly $10 million from employees of RT, a Russian state media company.

NEWS: who were indicted for conspiracy to commit money laundering and violating the Foreign Agents Registration Act. The operation was run out of a Tennessee-based online content creation company that posted nearly 2,000 videos in English focused on domestic and foreign issues. Their entire purpose was to deepen the divide here in the U.S.

NEWS: The types of influencers that they were able to recruit. These were not fringy internet sort of personalities. These were podcasters, content creators with huge followings in the U.S. We’re talking people with YouTube channels with 5 million plus followers in some cases. So it was quite sophisticated in terms of who they recruited and the type of platform that they were able to effectively build on U.S. soil using U.S. persons to effectively launder potentially Russian disinformation into the U.S. information space. You could list probably 80 different social media platforms where there has been evidence of Russians running covert operations there. This includes things like gaming platforms.

NEWS: They also created fake social media profiles. Posing as U.S. citizens post comments on social media platforms. The charges until this morning do not represent the end of the investigation. It remains active and ongoing.

It became clear to me that this issue wasn’t just about historical debates. It’s part of a larger web of disinformation that’s being used to divide communities and distort facts. So if you’re a Yaski denier or someone who’s contributed to the misinformation surrounding his legacy, I urge you to proceed with caution.

Not only does this topic carry significant geopolitical implications, but many who have publicly discussed this matter online may have unknowingly violated a unique Japanese law that could result in prison sentences of up to three years. The stakes are high, far higher than a simple debate about historical interpretation.

Before we get into the details, here’s what you can expect in this video.

Part 1: We’ll explore the Japanese legal landscape surrounding this topic and uncover why so many people discussing Yaski might be in breach of the law. I’ll also provide you with a clear, authoritative answer based on Japanese law about whether Yaski was a samurai.

Part 2: I’ll debunk some of the most common myths and misconceptions surrounding Yasuke’s legacy, demonstrating the lack of evidence behind claims that he wasn’t a samurai.

Part 3: We’ll look at extensive data, including a major public poll larger than many US presidential polls, and with sentiment analysis and other evidence to reveal what the Japanese people really think about this issue.

Part 4: Finally, we’ll take a look at potential foreign interference, particularly the involvement of Russian and Chinese actors, whose online activity surged just before this controversy started.

Now, before we dive into the details, a few important notes. A link to a comprehensive document will be posted alongside this video.

This document contains all my sources, corrections, and unique resources, including documents I’ve translated specifically for this research.

Since I’ll be summarizing a lot of information for the sake of time, I’m happy to provide more details if needed. You can reach out to me on X, formerly Twitter, and I’ll do my best to respond to everyone.

I welcome discussion, but if you disagree or find an error in the video, make sure to provide sources.

Comments without evidence will likely be ignored. I’m also open to debates on this topic, whether through live streams, videos, or any other platform.

Lastly, if this kind of in-depth, well-researched content on Japan and Asia interests you, please subscribe.

In 2019, the U.S. Library of Congress released a comprehensive report on how different nations combat disinformation.

Japan set it out with its distinctive measures, which we’ll explore in detail.

So Japan’s framework primarily relies on these two key pillars. The defamation law and the Broadcasting Act.

The Defamation Law.

NEWS: Earlier this week, the Parliament of Japan passed a law making online insults punishable by imprisonment. This Japanese woman took her life after facing online insults, and now online insults are a punishable offense in Japan.

NEWS: Yahoo! Japan has been found guilty of defaming a man.

NEWS: You can sue someone for defamation

NEWS: if they damage your honor, aka public image.

NEWS: It has made online insults punishable. Or should we say, it has made it more punishable.

NEWS: The new laws are much stronger. You will have to pay $2,200 in fines, and you could land in jail for one full year.

Any attack on an individual’s reputation, whether it be true or false, can lead to a maximum sentence of up to three years.

This highlights the cultural importance of reputation in Japanese society.

In past cases, simply retweeting a post without adding any sort of commentary has led defendants to be found guilty. Whether it’s harassing academics on heated discussions or making discriminatory comments will fall under this law. Both the US State Department and the Library of Congress have pages on this very topic as they deem it necessary to communicate this to US citizens. Earlier this year, the Atlantic faced such a case due to incorrectly publishing an information on a Japanese resident.

For those of you that are thinking, “What about free speech?” Even in countries like the US, there are exemptions to free speech. For instance, there are laws on hate speech, the ability for private schools to censor student newspapers or, say, college protests as seen earlier this year, for example.

Now, according to a 2023 report provided by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communication, 49.1% of respondents stated that they have not seen posts that hurt others on the internet.

Now, let’s move on to pillar number two, the Broadcasting Act,

which plays a crucial role in shaping both the trust and the method in which Japan consumes news

and is perhaps the most important part when discussing Yasuke. This act mandates that broadcasters must ensure their programs do not distort facts. Moreover, if a complaint is filed regarding factual inaccuracies, broadcasters are required to investigate within three months. In the case that they do find out that the information was indeed inaccurate, they must issue a correction within two days of making that determination.

In our case, one of the most intriguing aspects of the Broadcasting Act is its specific mention of NHK or Nippon-hosokyo-kai, Japan’s public broadcaster.

Now, the act also explicitly states that NHK plays a very specific role in Japanese society to counter misinformation and to inform the public.

This isn’t just a suggestion, it’s a legal mandate.

So, in other words, whether it be a tsunami warning or a history documentary, NHK with their six TV channels and three radio stations are tasked with being a beacon of factual information and disprove any potential misinformation. Now, given this context, it becomes clear why sourcing from the NHK is considered the gold standard when it comes to Japanese news and information. This brings us to the crux of the Yasuke controversy.

In 2021, NHK broadcasted the program “Black Samurai Yasuke, an African samurai who served Nobunaga”, an hour and a half long documentary on Yasuke, referring to him as a samurai. But the story doesn’t end with the initial broadcast.

Recently, NHK reviewed this program again. By this time, the online controversy was in full swing for two months.

Even in light of these challenges, NHK stood firm in their original portrayal.

The following is NHK’s translated reaffirmation of their original broadcast as published in the Sankei newspaper.

SANKEI: NHK, which broadcasted the program “Black Samurai Yasuke, the African samurai who served Nobunaga” in 2021 featuring Thomas Lockley, an associate professor at Nihon University, who was said to have spread the existence of Yasuke to the world, stated on July 24. Although he was one of the performers and was interviewed, the program itself was composed of interviews with many experts. We don’t think there was a problem.

Here are some key outcomes within two weeks of the article to help highlight the significance of NHK in the information landscape in Japan. Hamada Satoshi, a politician frequently cited by those questioning Yasuke’s status in the West.

YOUTUBER: And then of course you have here where an actual Japanese politician Satoshi Hamada,

YOUTUBER: an official representative, is now bringing in front of the Japanese diet, which is their parliamentary government.

And often, misreported to represent the Japanese government as a whole by content creators, sent a request on July 19 to NHK regarding the original broadcast.

In a video response posted on August 1, on his YouTube channel, he expressed satisfaction with the reply and acknowledged its credibility.

HAMADA: Regarding the whole samurai thing, I might get criticized for saying it doesn’t really matter in a way, but I think that’s just something I have to accept. Yes. So for now, I asked NHK, Japan Broadcasting Corporation, a question and received a response. So I wanted to report that.

His last video on this topic was posted the following day and has no longer posted on YouTube on this topic. Gozawa Yuichi, a historian, often cited by those disagreeing with Yasuke’s status as a samurai, appears to have shifted his stance. In a blog post dated July 22, he cautioned against calling Yasuke a samurai.

GOZA: I present to Your Lordship (Nobunaga) his stipend, a large Deus, accompanied by a black man, his body made of ink, his height six feet and two bu, and his name Yasuke.

GOZA: However, this description alone does not make it clear whether Yasuke was a samurai or not…

However,

in an interview with Sankei newspaper on August 5, he stated,

GOZA: …known as the Shincho-ki, mentions Nobunaga giving Yasuke a sword and a residence. This suggests that Nobunaga treated Yasuke as a samurai.

Alright, let’s take a moment to consider what this means. NHK, with access to the top historians and experts in Japanese history, has repeatedly affirmed Yasuke’s status as a samurai.

They’ve done so under the scrutiny of their legal mandate for accuracy and in full awareness of the ongoing debate.

Now, here’s the question. If NHK, with all its resources and responsibility,

consistently maintains this position, what basis do online detractors have for their contrary claims? Now, don’t get me wrong. This isn’t to say that NHK is infallible or that their word is absolute.

But it’s also not a stretch. To say anyone who disagrees is essentially claiming to know more about Japanese history than an organization legally mandated to provide accurate information about Japan. Remember, if someone feels strongly that the NHK is mistaken, there are proper channels to address this. They’re welcome to present their evidence to the NHK, challenge a broadcast, and see if they can change the organization’s stance. But until then, it’s reasonable to defer to NHK’s consistent position on this matter.

YOUTUBER: To fit a narrative that were then used by Thomas Lockley in his book were essentially created to craft this narrative, this story around this person, Yasuke, who this entire genre of fan fiction has just come escalating out of. It’s just been like, “Oh my God, Yasuke the Black Samurai.” It’s like, if you want to have a character like a Yasuke and make an anime about him, go for it. As long as you accept the fact that this has nothing to do with the actual history Japanese History. of three other anime.

The very notion that Yasuke’s status as a samurai is some recent invention or solely a product of Lockley’s narrative is just simply not true. There are clips throughout this video where Yasuke can be seen in popular media as far back as over 50 years ago. Most of these depict him as a samurai and predates Lockley’s book. But all right, let’s look at some further evidence.

The Japanese Wikipedia entry for Yasuke provides a window into how his story has been told over time. According to the Internet Archives, Yasuke has been listed as a samurai on the platform as early as 2007,

a full decade before Lockley’s book was published. It was only earlier this year that the entry was finally edited to dispute this classification. The edits coincide with the surge of Yasuke’s stories being told in Western media, the largest of which started upon the release of the Assassin’s Creed Shadows preview trailer announced on May 15th. So there has been a lot of people obsessing over the claims that Lockley made edits sourcing his own work. But here’s the thing though, there’s actually no problem with that. Why? Well, because his work actually isn’t self-published. In publishing, you can pay out of your own pockets to publish your own books. That’s self-publishing. But in Lockley’s case, a publisher covered the costs and put their own reputation on the line to release his work. So you can say they had a stake in what they choose to publish. The irony here is that the very same people that are raising these objections themselves cite blog posts or social media posts. And even if they were from an expert is the very definition of self-published.

YOUTUBER: So we’ll play a little bit of this audio here.

YOUTUBER: A lot of the stuff you see on Twitter, YouTube and online articles actually comes from Wikipedia. But a lot of that information was wrong. It all goes back to October 22, 2012. Someone added a sentence to Wikipedia that said, “When Nobunaga was convinced that this person really had dark skin, he valued and highly named him Yasuke and kept him close. This sentence wasn’t true and caused a lot of confusion.”

Now, I think there’s another way to put this.

There’s a reason why not a single credible publication has entertained these ridiculous claims. In fact, just check the Japanese Wikipedia page for Yasuke. And guess what? No mention of these so-called controversies. Why? Well, simply because it’s not considered important or relevant to Yasuke’s history.

Instead, the whole mess is documented on Thomas Lockley’s Wikipedia entry. And I only know this because I follow the mods. Almost all of the drama that you could find online can be found here. But the funny thing is, it simply ends with a single paragraph at the end. Very article from NHK reviewing the documentary. Thus debunking the claims to those in Japan that understand the context.

Disclaimer: Controversial topic.

Before we proceed, it’s important to first understand the perspective of Japanese conservatives. During my 18 years in the U.S., I’ve never met anyone who fully grasped the complexities of Japanese conservative views. I will present the following segment solely from the conservative perspective.

The core values of Japanese conservatism remain deeply rooted in the country’s pre-World War II identity, driven by a strong desire to avoid Western colonial domination at any cost. From a Western perspective, it’s easy to overlook the fact that most of the world had either been fully or partially colonized by European powers. With only a few exceptions. Japan, Liberia, Thailand, and the Koreas. To Japan at the time, colonization seemed inevitable. While the West views World War II as a conflict between the Axis and the Allies. For many Japanese of that era, it was seen as war against European colonialists. At its core,

Japanese conservatives today place the preservation of Japan’s culture and identity as a top priority. Viewing Japan’s survival, owing greatly to the sacrifices made during this period.

Regarding issues of race, Japanese conservatives take great pride in Japan’s attempt to pass the racial equality proposal at the Versailles Treaty in 1919, following World War I.

HISTORY CH: As negotiations drag on for months, the talks fall apart.

HISTORY CH: And one Allied nation feels completely cut out of the negotiations.

HISTORY CH: Japan entered the war in 1914,

HISTORY CH: contributing thousands of troops and millions of dollars to the war effort.

HISTORY CH: They come to Versailles with one goal, to be treated equally.

HISTORY CH: But Allied leaders completely ignore Japan throughout the proceedings.

HISTORY CH: And for Japan, it’s the ultimate insult.

The Japanese who’d been on the winning side get this slap at the peace conference. So the Japanese became alienated from the United States and from the Western powers. And it was a fairly straight line from there to the belief that if we’re going to get any respect, it’s going to be by fighting our way to respect it.

Although the proposal received enough votes to pass, it was ultimately vetoed by US President Woodrow Wilson. Many historians, both in the US and Japan, argue that this event was a pivotal moment when many Japanese began to lose hope in achieving equality through diplomatic means.

While Japan remained a democratic state for several more years, militarism grew, and trust in the West steadily declined, eventually leading to the onset of World War II. This moment in 1919 is regarded as one of the most significant dates in modern Japanese history. It wasn’t until 1945, with the creation of the United Nations Charter under Article 55, that a racial equality measure was finally passed.

To fully grasp the current controversy surrounding Yasuke and the broader implications of historical revisionism, it’s crucial to understand the sensitivity that many Japanese feel towards the alteration of their history.

This sensitivity has deep roots, some of which extend back to the aftermath of World War II, a period that fundamentally reshaped Japan’s national identity.

During the US occupation of Japan following World War II, a comprehensive program was put in place by the United States Office of War Information, OWI. This program had three key components, censorship, re-education, and the dissemination of specific narratives designed to influence Japanese society.

One of the more well-known outcomes of this was the 1954 release of the movie “Godzilla”, which coincided with the end of the censorship period.

However, lesser-known aspects of this program have had a lasting impact on how history is perceived in Japan.

CLIP: A man is shamed by being openly ridiculed and rejected. It requires an audience. What is that?

CLIP: Fortune cookie? Episode 5, “The Chrysanthemum and the Sword”,

CLIP: this title was taken from a book from the mid-50s, which explained the Japanese ways of business to American businessmen.

CLIP: One of the best books on Japan, and frankly one of the best anthropology books I’ve ever read, is “The Chrysanthemum and the Sword”. It was written during World War II as part of an anthropology project by the US military to assess how to militarily occupy and democratize Japanese culture.

One such aspect is the book “The Chrysanthemum and the Sword”, written by Ruth Benedict, an American anthropologist.

Despite the fact that Benedict never visited Japan or spoke Japanese, her book became a seminal text in understanding Japanese culture from an American perspective.

BOROVOY: I think all of you know that, of course, Benedict was what’s often called an armchair anthropologist. She never visited Japan. She had no prior expertise in Japan. She didn’t speak Japanese, and she wrote “The Chrysanthemum and the Sword” entirely based on secondary sources.

BOROVOY: Ruth Benedict was working for the US government when she wrote the first version of “The Chrysanthemum and the Sword”, which was entitled “Report №25” submitted to the Office of War Information in the early summer of 1945. Would there have to be a revolution in Japan after the Order of the French Revolution or the Russian Revolution before international peace was possible? Who would lead it? It was the alternative eradication of the Japanese.

he book was used extensively during the occupation to help American GIs understand the Japanese, but it was based primarily on interviews with Japanese Americans in internment camps.

This limited perspective contributed to a generalized and, at times, inaccurate portrayal of Japanese culture, which some Japanese believe has led to a distorted understanding of their history.

The re-education program implemented by the OWI is another significant factor.

Many Japanese, particularly from the older and more conservative generations, view this program as an attempt to rewrite Japanese history.

This belief has fostered a deep mistrust of foreign interpretations of Japan’s past, a mistrust that persists to this day.

BOROVOY: She was not a good cultural relativist. At the same time, I can’t accept, and I find little evidence to accept, the sort of strong critique that what she wanted was to kind of wipe out Japanese culture and replace it with American liberal democracy and American individualism. And I think there’s quite a bit of evidence in the text which suggests, to the contrary.

Debunking.

Japanese people are primarily upset about the lack of Asian representation in media, or because of Yasuke being African.

A month ago, a survey was conducted to gauge Japanese sentiment on the issue. I haven’t seen it covered or talked about by the English-speaking audience invested in the topic.

The survey was conducted on July 22nd, 2024, with 3,741 participants aged 20 to 69, evenly distributed by age and gender. For the data enthusiasts out there, it’s worth noting that this is an impressive sample size. To put it into perspective, typical election polls conducted by major U.S. television networks usually involve sample sizes between 500 to 1,000. I strongly encourage those interested to read the full report by Tatsuo Tanaka, available via the provided link.

In his research, he asked participants over 30 questions on various topics, including Assassin’s Creed, Thomas Lockley, and specific ideological viewpoints, such as whether criticism of the emperor should be regulated. Based on these questions, marginal regression analysis was used to tie various factors to determine which factors and motivators were the true underlying causes to this drive for canceling the game. Of the participants, 29% were familiar with the controversy,

and 33% were aware of Yasuke as a historical figure.

Those familiar with the controversy were then asked their stance on the petition, with 33.4% responding in favor of it, which would roughly translate to 9% of the total sample size.

When examining the data specifically regarding Assassin’s Creed, without looking at externalities, the primary concern seemed to revolve around whether the game would accurately portray Japanese culture and history. This was identified as the largest factor contributing to concerns about its potential cancellation. This is not surprising, as many discussions on this topic have focused on cultural representation. However, when we look at the data holistically, a far more intriguing story begins to emerge.

Shortly after the Assassin’s Creed controversy, a rumor circulated in Japan that Thomas Lockley’s book claimed Nobunaga initiated a trend of owning black slaves, and that black slavery originated in Japan.

This rumor was clearly debunked in the report.

TANAKA: Mr. Lockley never wrote that black slavery existed in Japan, or that black slavery began in Japan. In other words, the claim that Mr. Lockley fabricated Japan’s history is itself a falsehood.

Mr. Tanaka further defends Lockley’s work from those calling it fictional or unreliable, stating,

TANAKA: The first chapter is a novel, but from the second chapter onward, the author consistently refers to historical documents and speculates, carefully distinguishing between historical fact and speculation. The criticisms on the internet are not debatable. It is more likely that the image of Mr. Lockley’s book was distorted by the internet.

Meanwhile, another rumor spread in the US, claiming that there were many black samurai who played pivotal roles in Japanese history, but that the Japanese government was actively hiding this fact.This third rumor is often referenced by Japanese people when discussing the controversy over Yasuke being portrayed as a legendary samurai. We now know this is false, as NHK has publicly aired Yasuke’s history and continues to stand by it.

TANAKA: The fact that Yasuke, a black man, was treated as a samurai and not as a slave can be seen as a proud history of the Japanese people of the past who welcomed people of different skin colors without discrimination. Since the conservative camp is proud of its own history, it is the conservatives who should be proud to tell the story of Yasuke. However, this is not the case and the conservative camp tries to deny it. This is very strange. This is coming from conservatives who are supposed to be proud of Japan’s history and who are supposed to be concerned about the national interest. How did we end up with such a strange and twisted situation? Since Mr. Lockley is well known in the English speaking world as an expert on Yasuke, there will be people who will listen to what he has to say. This would put Mr. Lockley on Japan’s side. One person said that this issue is a historical battle over the interpretation of history. If it is a historical battle, the more allies, the better.

We’ve gathered all the key points surrounding this controversy, and I’d say you’re now some of the foremost experts on this debate, understanding both the Japanese and Western perspectives. It may seem like overkill, but this broad understanding will really help us tackle the bigger issue here. Disinformation. Let’s take everything we’ve learned so far from the report and earlier parts of this video and piece together the crime scene before moving forward. First, let’s break down the three key narratives and identify when they started making waves.

Narrative 1, the US narrative. The first narrative, which many of you are likely familiar with, started making the rounds in English speaking gaming communities on platforms like YouTube, and it kicked off on May 15, 2024.

The same day the Assassin’s Creed Shadows trailer was released. According to this narrative, Ubisoft chose Yasuke as a samurai protagonist purely for diversity and inclusion purposes, sidelining Asian representation in favor of a fabricated story.

Critics argue that Yasuke wasn’t a real samurai, and that author, Thomas Lockley, not only fabricated his status, but also edited Wikipedia to support this falsehood. As this narrative spread, people became increasingly hostile, discrediting those who defended Ubisoft, including Japanese academics. Some even went as far as using translation tools to post in Japanese, believing they were helping Japanese conservatives take back their history.

Many US conservatives believed they were fighting the same cultural battle as their Japanese counterparts.

Narrative 2, the Black Slavery originated in Japan.

The second narrative is based on disinformation, claiming that Lockley argued African slavery started in Japan, with Nobunaga leading the way. Will refer to this as the “Black Slavery” originated in Japan narrative.

According to Google Analytics, this narrative gained traction around July 12, 2024. While the premise of Japan being responsible for African slavery is absurd, it resonates with some conservatives who see it as yet another attempt to distort their history and heap the West’s guilt onto Japan. Hamada Satoshi, who first investigated this topic, even mentioned this narrative, expressing concern that it was part of a broader effort to tamper with Japanese history.

HAMADA: Another significant issue is potentially for Japan to be labeled as being the origin of Black slaves, which could lead to a serious historical misrepresentation. However, history wars can be fought in various ways, so we shouldn’t underestimate them.

Narrative 3, Legendary Samurai

The third narrative, which supposedly originated in the US, claims that “hundreds of African samurai played key roles in shaping Japanese history.” Will refer to this as the “legendary samurai narrative,” a term used frequently in Japanese language circles. While it’s difficult to pinpoint an exact start date, we can place it roughly around mid-2024, based on Mr. Tanaka’s description, around the same time as the Black Slavery originated in Japan narrative. I did a surface-level search for this narrative in English, but found little outside of a few obscure blogs. The idea is much more widespread in Japanese circles, suggesting that it may have been created specifically to stir confusion within the Japanese community. Interestingly, this narrative also seems to have caused misinterpretations among those in the US narrative camp. Many mistook the legendary samurai theory as further proof that Yasuke wasn’t a real samurai.

This misunderstanding created a feedback loop of mistrust, where both sides believed the other was operating from a place of ignorance or bias. One notable example is Goza Yui-chi, who frequently references the legendary samurai narrative.

Now that we’ve laid out the three key narratives, here’s what we can conclude.

None of these narratives are true. They’re all based on disinformation that spread online.

Thomas Lockley is a central figure in all three narratives, even though not all of them directly concern Yasuke. These narratives seem perfectly crafted to create misunderstandings and deepen divisions between groups. Some, like Japanese conservatives, acting against their own interests as a result. All three narratives trended at different times, months apart.

Now that we’ve identified the disinformation crime, it’s time to examine the suspects and their methods. There’s a fantastic opinion piece published in the New York Times that breaks down the anatomy of disinformation.

The controversy surrounding Yasuke really gained traction on May 15, 2024. So, we’ll start by examining the traffic for the Yasuke Wikipedia page between May 1 and August 15, using the Langview’s analysis tool.

Interestingly, we can see that Russia ranks third in terms of traffic following English and Japanese, with previous years where it’s generally placed sixth or seventh. Now zooming in on the day before the controversy started, we notice something surprising. Russian traffic still ranks third, but instead of following Japanese, it’s behind Chinese.

When comparing the traffic from China and Russia to that of Japanese users, we can see that both China and Russia had approximately three times the amount of traffic as Japan on that day. One might speculate that Yasuke has unexpectedly captured the interest of Russian users, but this sudden surge is certainly curious. The Yasuke Wikipedia page is sparse, and when translated, several content warnings are visible.

Notably, there’s a warning that 10 edits have remained unreviewed since June 3, just a couple of weeks after the controversy began. For a page with such high traffic and daily visitors, this lack of oversight seems suspicious. Now let’s take a quick look at the discussions on the Russian language page. If we scroll all the way down, we see a note on Thomas Lockley with a series of three links. All three links are to blog posts that are in Russian and are hosted on Russian domains. Let’s take a quick look to see where it takes us. This first blog post only contains six sentences.

BLOG: It is known that the identity of the dark-skinned samurai Yasuke, presented in Assassin’s Creed Shadows, turned out to be a fabrication of historian Thomas Lockley. For ten years, he distorted the facts on Wikipedia to fit his upcoming book “African Samurai: The True Story of Yasuke”. When the truth became clear, Lockley hastened to delete his pages on social networks. Despite Lockley’s public disclaimer about his involvement in Assassin’s Creed Shadows, he has reportedly appeared on Ubisoft podcasts and provided consulting assistance during the game’s development. Dr. Lockley was fired from Nihon University in Tokyo over allegations of fraud in the creation of his book. NHK, in turn, decided to remove all programs related to the writer’s work after the scandal.

I’m not sure about you, but it sounds like every YouTube video I’ve seen that was making the rounds a few months ago. Now, from what I can tell, it appears that each of these links are a different angle or perspective to the narrative. The second link appears to be targeted for an American audience focusing on the DEI narrative for Yasuke. The third link appears to be focused on attempting to validate the story based on a Japanese online talk show that discusses the issues, as well as mentioning the Hamada Satoshi investigation, which may be more geared towards a Japanese audience. The cheat sheet format is consistent, and it is evident that they know exactly what makes people tick from the politics-based talking points for the United States, and including points like “removed from the NHK” to give Japanese people the false notion it has been debunked. IP address analysis also suggests coordinated activity. Several top contributors, such as Lutpatius, Shimabara2024, and Boshi, most users who contributed during this period have since been banned, casting further doubt on the factuality of their edits. The Japanese entry for Yasuke is now locked until August 16, 2025, requiring extensive approval for any changes.

Similar activities can be observed on Thomas Lockley’s Japanese Wikipedia page, which was created on June 23, 2024. Looking at the page’s edit history, we see that it was modified by two users. I won’t attempt to pronounce the first user’s name, so I’ll refer to them as User You. User You created the page for Thomas Lockley, with content clearly intended to discredit Lockley’s credibility. This user made only five edits before their account was shut down. Several hours later, a second user edited the page. This user made two edits, both focused on formatting the previous user’s edits. The first edit was simply a cleanup of the original post, while the second added sources requested by a moderator for page approval. However, if you examine one of these sources closely, which is attributed to the Japanese Historical Association, you’ll notice something peculiar about the link’s destination. This is where the second user made a critical mistake. Although likely the same individual, they may have logged out or switched IP addresses during the break between edits. The IP address used in the second instance originates from China.

Additionally, their actions provide another clue. In a recent clip from the New York Times on disinformation,

they discuss how misdirection of sourcing is a key tactic in spreading false information. The speed and precision with which this user added a seemingly credible source, in my opinion, raises red flags. Most trolls on Wikipedia would typically argue with moderators in the notes section, but this user knew that adding a high-quality source would likely cause the moderator to skip a thorough check.

Now, as I mentioned, the page was created on June 23rd, about two and a half weeks before the controversy began to spread. While I’m cautious about making bold claims involving nations, the timing and behavior here raise major suspicions. At the very least, we can conclude that these were highly coordinated activities occurring just before the controversies took off. The goal of these foreign actors may not have been to start the rumors, but to amplify them. In fact, one of the sources for this narrative comes from a somewhat successful YouTube talk show with around 200,000 subscribers. While I believe the creators had no intention of being used in this way, it serves as a stark reminder of how dangerous it can be to spread unverified information.

Discourse on social media platforms, particularly X, formerly Twitter, mirrors the Wikipedia activity. Initially, I suspected US-based users were primarily responsible for driving the controversy. However, a closer look at some of these posts paints a murkier picture.

YOUTUBER: Historian Hirayama Yu is facing backlash from Japanese Twitter for arguing that Yasuke was a samurai. Not sure it’s Japanese Twitter. Most tweets seem like posts from imposters trying to create the guise of such discord similar to what was done on YouTube.

Here, we see irrelevant, bot-like activity in the comments, just a potential attempt to artificially boost the post’s outreach. My plan was to figure out how many of the accounts in the comments section were bots. So I compiled a list in a spreadsheet, and for fun, I decided to include the Twitter account of the original poster. To my surprise, it returned one of the highest bot scores I’ve ever seen. At first, I thought it might be a fluke. But here’s the thing. The tool I use is called Botometer. It allows you to input a username from X, formerly Twitter, and evaluates the likelihood of that account being a bot on a scale from 0 to 5. Organizations like the Rand Corporation and Pew Research Center recommend them. So they’re pretty much the go-to experts in this field. The tool is powered by cutting-edge algorithms developed by Indiana University, a leader in social media bot detection, which had a major update due to a significant development in bot activity. In 2023, the first botnet using generative AI technologies, like those in chatGPT, was discovered. As they explained, before 2023, sophisticated autonomous bots were rare. Most bots were automated to simply act, reply post, follow, etc. However, the emergence of advanced generative AI tools, such as chatGPT, since 2023, has drastically changed this landscape. Check out the account yourself. I looked through the posts and I would have said it was a real person. Now the account exists from 2015, but has only 47 followers and follows 111 accounts, which in itself, not too strange. But to think he’s made over 23,000 posts and had a post that received almost 3 million views makes me think that the account may actually be a bot.

In contrast, over on Japanese X, here are some of the top tweets using the term “Yasuke”.

The most widely shared posts generally express positive or neutral sentiments on Yasuke’s status as a samurai.

There also seems to be a growing suspicion among Japanese users that much of the debate over Yasuke’s history originates from foreign sources rather than within Japan itself.

Worth noting that the petition against Yasuke’s depiction as a samurai was indeed started by a Japanese user.

However, the reach of this petition seems to have been aided by non-Japanese accounts.

This creates a false impression of widespread Japanese opposition to Yasuke’s samurai status.

The discrepancy between how the topic is discussed internationally and by Japanese people brings up a question I find interesting. In an age when information and translation tools are more accessible than ever, why have so few looked at the picture from Japan’s perspective?

I’ve noticed many of the content creators on this topic often bring up the issue of representation as a talking point, an instance of imposing a Western agenda onto another country’s narrative.

They point to figures like Hamada Satoshi, member of a two-member party founded with the explicit purpose of dismantling the NHK, as evidence of how upset the Japanese government is. From what we’ve explored in this video, this outrage is largely one-sided. Most Japanese people are simply not that bothered.

AMEOBA: I think it’s very excellent as a creative standard. The reason is that there have been projects that are now called “whitewashing”. For example, in The Last Samurai, where a white person plays a heroic role in an important part of Japanese history. This has been used extensively in Hollywood. Well, everyone is tired of it. And this time, it’s a black person, right? So that’s why it’s a bit different. The Rose of Versailles is supposed to be science, but isn’t the Rose of Versailles an amazing creative work? That’s great, right? But wait, if you ask whether it accurately recreates the Palace of Louis from that time, from the perspective of the French, we aren’t confident. And we might want to say, “The Rose of Versailles is about the essence of creativity.” So, I feel like creativity is a mutual thing.

This narrative also looks to be manufactured by sources who, themselves, disregard the work of Japanese historians, media, art, as well as sentiments of the Japanese general public, the very people they express indignation on behalf of. As of this video’s posting, Assassin’s Creed Shadows is yet to be released, so I feel we’ve not closed the book on this debate.

Maybe the question to ask isn’t how the Western online community managed to construct an entire narrative, but who, exactly, is attempting to rewrite Japanese history in accordance with their own agendas.

VOICE: Fighting war on a battlefield is the most stupid and primitive way of fighting a war. The highest art of warfare is not to fight at all, but to subvert anything of value in your enemy’s country. Anything. Put white against black, gold against young, as long as it disturbs society, as long as it cuts the moral fiber of a nation it’s good.

What is the last time you saw a social media post that genuinely changed your mind about something important?

For many of us, it’s rare. We’re more likely to engage with content that aligns with our existing beliefs, creating a feedback loop that strengthens our convictions while shutting out alternative perspectives.

This digital tribalism can feel empowering.

There’s a certain comfort in having our views constantly validated and feeling like we’re part of a community that “gets it.”

But here’s the uncomfortable truth. This sense of power is often an illusion.

It’s not a sign of strength to surround ourselves only with ideas we already agree with. In fact, it’s quite the opposite.

The real strength lies in being open to new ideas, in challenging our own assumptions.

It’s about having the courage to step outside our comfort zones and engage with different perspectives.

This is where the story of Yasuke, Anjin, and even Oda Nobunaga can teach us something valuable.

These historical figures thrived because they were willing to embrace the unfamiliar.

Yasuke found a place in a society vastly different from his own.

William Adams became a key advisor to the shogunate despite being a foreigner. And Nobunaga, for all his ruthlessness, was known for his curiosity about the world beyond Japan.

They didn’t succeed by staying within the confines of what they already knew. They thrived by engaging with the unfamiliar, by being open to new ideas and experiences.

In doing so, they not only enriched their own lives, but left an indelible mark on history.

Before I wrap things up, I want to thank you for watching this deep dive into Yasuke and the broader cultural implications surrounding his story. Whether you agree with everything I’ve said or not, I hope this video has given you some new perspectives to consider. If this kind of in-depth, well-researched content interests you, hit that subscribe button. I’ve got more videos planned, including follow-ups to this one, where we’ll explore other aspects of Japanese history and culture that are often overlooked. And don’t forget to hit the notification bell so you won’t miss when new content drops.

Lastly, if you enjoyed this video or found it thought-provoking, consider giving it a like and sharing it with others who might be interested. As always, I’m open to discussion. If you’ve got thoughts, feedback, or even constructive criticism, leave a comment below or reach out to me on X, formerly Twitter.

The goal here is to foster thoughtful conversations, not to point fingers or stoke division.

Thanks again for watching, and I’ll see you in the next video.

Working on challenges like this video has shown me just how crucial it is to have every possible tool at our disposal to take on this fight. Whether you’re a content creator, internet sleuth, academic, or simply someone who wants to make a difference — we need your help. To kick things off, I’ve set up a free-to-join Patreon group called “Dispatch.” It’s a space where anyone willing to contribute knowledge, time, or any other resources can come together to actively combat disinformation.

Your support makes a huge difference, and together, we can make real progress in this ongoing battle against misinformation.