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IDKMYDE: Japan: The Black Samurai They Didn't Expect · The Breakfast Club

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: The black Samurai they didn't expect was in Japan.
• 0:06
  Speaker 2: Welcome back Know.
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: It alls to another episode of the most anticipated podcast
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: on the Black Effect podcast Network, especially in February, entitled
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: I didn't Know Maybe you didn't either. I'm your host
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: b Dot and this week we're traveling all over the
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: world study in black history and how black folk have
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: not just impacted, but transformed the world we live in today.
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: So get your digital passports today would travel to Japan now.
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: To be honest, First of all, do you have any
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: clue what a samurai is? These were elite warriors in Japan.
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: I'm talking about martial arts. They were disciplined, they were badass.
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: But be honest, when you picture a samurai, black is
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: probably not the color of your brain.
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: Pigs, and that's not your fault. That's the edit.
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: But before we get into the meat of the episode,
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: I have to give you three of the most useless
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: facts you'll never ever need, not a day in life.
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: Up first, there was a documented African man living in
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: Japan in the fifteen hundreds. Your second useless fact is
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: that same African man served under.
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: One of the most powerful warlords.
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: In Japanese history. And your third useless fact is he
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: wasn't a servant. He was a samurai. Yeah, and I
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: knew nothing about it.
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: I didn't know. I didn't know. I didn't know.
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: I didn't know.
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: I didn't know.
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: I didn't know. I didn't know. I didn't know.
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: I didn't know.
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: His name was Yasuki, yas uk E Yasuki. He was
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: an African man who got to Japan in the late
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: fifteen hundreds.
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: They say were.
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: Probably brought there through the Portuguese trade routes. Historians believe
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: Yasuki was from Mozambique, probably from the Makoah people. Some
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: records suggested he might have been a child soldier before
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: being brought to India and then Japan. And when Yasuki
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: stepped off that ship, Japan had never seen somebody like that.
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: I mean he was tall, dark skinned, physically imposing. I'm
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: talking about people followed him in the streets just to
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: look if you above sixty five, that's how they treat
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: you in places like Japan and China. Now they automatically
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: think you play in the NBA and they want an autograph.
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: It was reported that some of the people thought his
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: skin was painted. They tried to scrub it off. But
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: when it didn't budge all the fascination got serious.
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: But here's where the story flips.
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: Yasuki caught the attention of Oda Nobunaga, one of the
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: most powerful and feared warlords in Japanese history. Instead of
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: dismissing him, Babuna God did the unthinkable.
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: He elevated him.
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: Yasuki was given a residence, a stipend, weapons, and they
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: gave him the status of samurai. Nobunanga reportedly said Yasuki
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: he had the strength of ten men. Japanese records confirmed
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: that Nobunaga spoke with Yasuki directly and was super impressed
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: to find out that Yasuki was smart as hell. That
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: wasn't symbolic like samurai weren't mascots. They were elite warriors, trusted, armed, respected.
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: Now here's the part that messes with the narrative. This
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: was before a race became a global hierarchy, before black
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: automatically meant inferior everywhere play in Japan, Yasuki was judged
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: on loyalty, ability, and presence, not his skin color. It's crazy,
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: but anti blackness that had to be taught globally. It
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: wasn't automatic and that's a receipts level historical fact. Yasuki
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: fought alongside Nobunaga, he was trusted in battle, and when
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: Nobunaga fell, Yasuki's fate faded into mystery, not because he
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: wasn't important, but because history didn't quite know where the
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: file of black man who didn't fit the script. A
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: century after CARTERGI. Woodson create a space to preserve Black history,
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: stories like Yasuki's are finally resurfacing because if we don't
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: document global black presence, people start believing we was only
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: ever enslaved, never respected, never powerful, never everywhere.
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: And I didn't know. Maybe you didn't either.
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: Congratulations, your passport has been stopped.
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: Next up, Ethiopia