A black Samurai in Japan? The Hidden Story of Yasuke

A black Samurai in Japan in the 16th Century? Truth is stranger than fiction as the story of Yasuke is planned to hit the Big Screen.

 

Forgotten Tale Of Japan’s First Black Samurai Bound For The Big Screen

The Japanese revered the African former slave in the 16th century.

There is very little recorded history on Yasuke, the young African man believed to be Japan’s first black samurai, but his story may soon be told on the silver screen.

Lionsgate has asked screenwriter Gregory Wilden, the creator of the 1986 film “Highlander,” to write a script for an action drama based on Yasuke’s centuries-old story, according to the Hollywood Reporter and Deadline.

The Lionsgate film “is based on the true story of an African whose journey to Japan comes with conflicting background stories,” Widen told Deadline last week. “The one I’ve chosen is that he was a slave soldier after the fall of Abysinnian Bengal, a black kingdom run by Ethiopians.”

In that story, Yasuke was sold into slavery and “found himself in the care of Alessandro Valignano, an Italian missionary,” Widen explained.  “They formed a bond, and when there were complications in Rome, he was sent to Japan and took Yasuke with him,” he added.

Yasuke was an African slave in his early 20s when Valignano brought him on a missionary trip to Japan in 1579, according to historical accounts that Oxy reviewed. He stood out there because of his tall stature and dark skin and he soon became a local celebrity. His real name is unknown, but locals called him Yasuke in Japan ― likely a Japanese version of his birth name.

When Japanese warlord Oda Nobunaga learned of Yasuke and his impressive strength, he hired the young African as a feudal bodyguard. Under Nobunaga, Yasuke quickly rose in the ranks to become a well-respected samurai warrior who spoke fluent Japanese.

“They presented him with a blade, and he went to work,” Widen told Deadline.

Parts of Yasuke’s story lived on in a 1916 Japanese children’s book called Kuro-suke, about a young, black samurai who often dreams of his parents in Africa.

 

Japanese Donald Trump Cartoon

 

Wanted for Immediate Hire…6 Ninjas

By the Japanese Government! Fare of countless movies and fiction novellas, the Ninja now has a “Day Job”.

CALLING ALL NINJAS: JAPAN IS HIRING

Have you got kickass ninja skills but can’t convince anyone to pay you for them?

Here’s your chance. In an effort to draw in more tourists, Japan’s Aichi region is looking to hire six full-time ninjas. According to the Aichi Prefecture’s job ad, requirements include physical fitness and acrobatic skills. Successful candidates will be paid 180,000 yen ($1,600) per month.

Experts in the art of assassination, espionage, sabotage and other forms of irregular warfare, ninjas were 15th century Japanese mercenaries. The six present-day ninjas will have less deadly duties, performing for tourists, demonstrating the use of the trademark shuriken weapons—like ninja stars—and posing for photos.

Ideal candidates should “enjoy being under the spotlight, even though he or she is a secretive ninja,” Satoshi Adachi from the prefecture’s tourism promotion unit, told AFP.

Japanese language skills are not essential, Adachi said, but applicants must have a passion for the country’s history, the BBC reports. Those who make it through will perform in Nagoya Castle and other locations throughout Japan.

Japanese Prime Minster Shinzo Abe pledged to boost tourism in the aftermath of the tsunami in the northeast region of the country five years ago. Attracting visitors is also particularly important in the run-up to the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games.

Anyone over 18 can apply to be an Aichi ninja, and applications are open until March 22.

 

Hafu – Mixed Race Experience In Japan

This is a trailer for a movie on how mixed race people are treated in Japan…

This introduction by the authors –

The film is available on VIMEO

To highlight some of the discrimination against mixed race folks and foreigners, there is the case of the first mixed race Miss Japan –

First ever mixed race Miss Japan forced to defend herself after being abused for ‘not being Japanese enough’ because father is African-American

• Ariana Miyamoto was born and raised in Nagasaki, and is fluent Japanese
• Mixed race beauty queen born to American father and Japanese mother
• She has been selected to represent Japan in the Miss Universe pageant
• But her selection has prompted a storm of criticism in Japanese media
• 20-year-old has been forced to insist that she is ‘Japanese on the inside’

The first ever mixed race Miss Japan has been forced to defend herself against accusations that she ‘isn’t Japanese enough’ because her father is African-American.

Ariana Miyamoto was born and raised in Nagasaki, speaks fluent Japanese, and has been chosen to represent Japan in the Miss Universe pageant.

But the 20-year-old beauty queen used her first television appearance after her selection to apologetically explain to reporters that while she doesn’t ‘look Japanese’ on the outside, on the inside, there are ‘many Japanese things about her’.

She has faced a storm of criticism that she is ‘not Japanese enough’ to represent the country because although her mother is Japanese, her father is American.

In Japan, Miyamoto is called a ‘hafu’, a Japanese term used to refer to someone who is biracial.

There is a feeling in the country, one of the least ethnically diverse in the world, that mixed-race people are not fully Japanese.

Website Byokan Sunday and Naver Matome report that Twitter users have posted comments such as: ‘Is it okay to select a hafu to represent Japan?’ and ‘Because this is Miss Universe Japan, don’t you think hafu are a no-no?’

Others commented that she didn’t ‘look Japanese’, her face was ‘too gaijin’, meaning literally ‘outside person’, or that the country deserved a ‘pure-blooded Japanese’ beauty.

Elsewhere online, one person commented, ‘It makes me uncomfortable to say she’s representing Japan.’

Miyamoto, grew up in Japan in Sasebo, Nagasaki, close to a major American naval base, but later moved to the United States for high school,

When she returned home to Japan, after a part-time bartending job, she decided to become a model and try her hand at pageantry – not expecting to get far due to her ‘foreigner look’.

Her selection as the first-ever biracial Miss Universe Japan comes at a time when Japanese attitudes about race are beginning to change, NBC reports.

The vast majority of Japan is made up of homogeneous people.

It is one of the least ethnically diverse countries on earth, proudly counting more than 98 percent of the population as Japanese nationals.

Megumi Nishikura, whose film, Hafu: The Mixed-Race Experience in Japan, looks at the lives of multiracial Japanese citizens, highlights the fact that 20,000 half-Japanese people, including both multiethnic and multiracial people, are born in Japan each year.

Nishikura told NBC that Miyamoto’s selection as Miss Universe Japan ‘is a huge step forward in expanding the definition of what it means to be Japanese. The controversy that has erupted over her selection is a great opportunity for us Japanese to examine how far we have come from our self-perpetuated myth of homogeneity while at the same time it shows us how much further we have to go’.

Miyamoto is aware of the struggles she faces as a ‘hafu’ beauty queen representing Japan.

In interviews she has called Mariah Carey a major inspiration because of ther multiracial background, according to RocketNews24.

‘She went through a lot of difficulties before becoming a popular singing sensation,’ Miyamoto said.

‘She faced some racial hurdles, similar to myself, but she overcame them and became a top star, so she’s been a big influence on me.’

 

An Insurance Guy’s Nightmare

Wow… a $500,000 Ferrari…

So what sort of deductible do you get on that?

This one apparently involved eight Ferraris, three Mercedes Benzes,  a Lamborghini Diablo, and a rare Nissan GTR Skyline… And talk about being on the road at the wrong time and place…A Toyota Prius!

Astonishing accident involving eight Ferraris ‘world’s most expensive car crash’

A fleet of high-performance cars, including eight Ferraris, has been involved in one of the most expensive accidents in history after an astonishing multi-car pile-up in Japan.

Police said three Mercedes Benz cars and a Lamborghini Diablo were also involved in the massive crash at the weekend on the Chugoku Expressway, in the country’s south-west.

Witnesses reported hearing a “tremendous noise” just a few moments before the accident on the Yamaguchi prefecture highway amid terrible driving conditions.

While the majority of the 14 vehicles – which also included a Japanese supercar Nissan GT-R Skyline and a Toyota Prius – were travelling along the Osaka Prefecture-bound bended lane at least one Mercedes CL600 was driving in the opposite direction.

Miraculously, none of drivers – the majority of whom are reported to be foreign car enthusiasts – were seriously hurt in the wreckage but the bill is still bound to be painful nonetheless.

Such was the severity of the damage, several of the luxury cars have been written off, leaving their owners with the nightmare scenario of seeing their prized possessions turned into expensive scrap metal.

The total damage bill is expected to hit several million pounds. A new Ferrari 355 retails for several hundred thousand pounds.

The other Ferrari models understood to have been involved in the pile-up include a F512, F355, F430 and a F360.

 

Who owns America?

Hint… It’s not China.

This one from Business Insider – and summarized by CNN (I put together the little pie chart)

Who owns America? Hint: It’s not China

Our friends at Business Insider know this, and put those two principles to work today in this excellent and highly informative little slideshow, made even more timely by the ongoing talks in Washington, D.C. aimed at staving off a U.S. debt default.
Here’s the big idea:
Many people — politicians and pundits alike — prattle on that China and, to a lesser extent Japan, own most of America’s $14.3 trillion in government debt.
But there’s one little problem with that conventional wisdom: it’s just not true. While the Chinese, Japanese and plenty of other foreigners own substantial amounts, it’s really Americans who hold most of America’s debt.
Here’s a quick and fascinating breakdown by total amount held and percentage of total U.S. debt, according to Business Insider:

1. Hong Kong: $121.9 billion (0.9 percent)
2. Caribbean banking centers: $148.3 (1 percent)
3. Taiwan: $153.4 billion (1.1 percent)
4. Brazil: $211.4 billion (1.5 percent)
5. Oil exporting countries: $229.8 billion (1.6 percent)
6. Mutual funds: $300.5 billion (2 percent)
7. Commercial banks: $301.8 billion (2.1 percent)
8. State, local and federal retirement funds: $320.9 billion (2.2 percent)
9. Money market mutual funds: $337.7 billion (2.4 percent)
10. United Kingdom: $346.5 billion (2.4 percent)
11. Private pension funds: $504.7 billion (3.5 percent)
12. State and local governments: $506.1 billion (3.5 percent)
13. Japan: $912.4 billion (6.4 percent)
14. U.S. households: $959.4 billion (6.6 percent)
15. China: $1.16 trillion (8 percent)
16. The U.S. Treasury: $1.63 trillion (11.3 percent)
17. Social Security trust fund: $2.67 trillion (19 percent)

So America owes foreigners about $4.5 trillion in debt. But America owes America $9.8 trillion.

 

Captain Rides Out Japan Tsunami In a Boat

As virtually any experienced boater will tell you – if you go out on the sea enough times…

The sea will find a way to tell you just how small and insignificant you are.

Smashed into a 20+ foot rogue wave one time, off of Point Lookout in the Chesapeake – which has a ship graveyard to compete with the Bermuda Triangle. One of those “Oh shidt!” moments, where you are way too busy for your knees to start knocking until it is over…

That was a mere “wavelet” compared to what this guy hit.

Vodpod videos no longer available.

Captain Rides Out Tsunami in Boat, posted with vodpod

 

Third Reactor at Fukuchima Dai-ichi Goes Into Meltdown

There has been another explosion at the stricken Japanese Nuclear Power Plant in the last hour or two. This is the third explosion in the reactor complex since the earthquake. The complex is made up of 8 reactors. By some reports, this one is by far the most serious explosion – with the fuel rods exposed, releasing highly radioactive material.

This video is from the second explosion –

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dytttMoivoQ&feature=player_embedded#at=155

New Explosion Rocks Japanese Nuclear Plant

An explosion that released radioactive material occurred in reactor No. 2 at the nuclear center at Fukushima, in northeastern Japan, on Monday.

The blast damaged part of the primary container surrounding the reactor’s core and caused an escape of an undetermined quantity of radioactive material, the Nuclear Security Agency said.

The Kyodo news agency reported that radiation levels in the vicinity “exceeded the legal limit” after the explosion, which occurred at 6:10 a.m. on Tuesday local time (2110 GMT on Monday), shortly after the Japanese government admitted that the reactor continued to be unstable after it suffered damage in Friday’s magnitude-9.0 earthquake.

The operating crew at the plant worked all night to inject seawater into the secondary containment structure in an attempt to cool down the core and prevent a meltdown that could emit radioactive material, but that did not have the desired effect and the reactor was not able to be stabilized.

If the nuclear fuel in the core begins to melt down, that would constitute an emergency situation of the highest order because of the potential for a severe radioactive leak that could contaminate the area.

Reactor No. 2 at Fukushima on Monday suffered a failure of one of the 10 valves associated with its cooling system, something similar to what occurred before reactors 1 and 3 at the same center exploded after the quake.

 

 

Japanese Reactor Goes Into Meltdown in Japan After Quake

This one is going to meltdown. The big question is whether they can cool the core off fast enough to prevent any (additional) major release of radiation… Hopefully, they can prevent another Chernobyl. Apparently, they have already lost some workers, either badly injured or killed courageously trying to get this back under control.

This is despite the best building codes and system in the world to prevent just the sort of damage we are seeing from an earthquake or natural disaster. Because earthquakes are so common in Japan, major structures and buildings are designed to extremely high standards – higher than the US California Standards, which are the best in the US and generally accepted in much of the world. The fact that (possibly) only a few thousand people have been killed in an earthquake an order of magnitude stronger than that which hit Haiti is due to that. Most of the victims are likely from the Tsunami, despite the fact that a number of the towns and villages in the area have 10-30′ seawalls designed to protect them from just such an occurance.

To understand how violent this earthquake was, geographic sources are now reporting that the coastline of Japan was actually moved 8 feet! And shifted the entire planet on it’s axis by 4 inhces!

25 Years ago, a reactor outside of Detroit, Michigan had an “incident”…

 

 

Huge Earthquake, Tsunami Strike Japan

Our prayers go out to the Japanese people.  The scenes of devastation are incredible… The 10 Meter waves sweeping inland they are talking about are as high as 3 story building…

 

 

 

Japan’s Sado-Sexual Video Games Spread on the Internet

It would seem that a lot of Japanese porn centers around forced sex, typically with a young school aged girl. That “illicit sex” fantasy created` the world of Hentai – Japanese animated porn video games and movies. There is a new genre out there, where rape is played as a game. With the Internet, many of these games make it online, where they can be downloaded anywhere on the Internet, anywhere in the world for free.

Is this Japanese pornographic version of “Grand Theft Auto” removing social inhibitions? What is the message, when in order to “win” the game the player must commit rape? I this yet another training game for violent action, without any regard for consequences? And let’s not even get into the dehumanization of women…

Vodpod videos no longer available.

more about “Japan’s Sado-Sexual Video Games Sprea…“, posted with vodpod

 

Newest Faux Scandal, President Obama and Japanese Emperor

Well, the wing nuts are going crazy over this one – as usual –

The President of America bowing to the Emperor of Japan, who – like the Queen of England is a ceremonial leader from a historical feudal age that doesn’t exist anymore.

According to the conservanuts – you’d think the US just surrendered.

To put this simply – when you are the biggest baddest kid on the block,  paying respect to your friends …

Keeps you there.