Thomas Lockley, the author of the controversial work of fiction "African Samurai," has seemingly vanished as the internet firestorm regarding his book has rapidly escalated. Reports indicate that he might be all but banished from Japan, with his contributions to Japanese media being delisted and his resume allegedly scrubbed from Nihon University's website.
Today, news broke of a potential "diplomatic incident" on the horizon as Japanese government offices have been flooded with letters from concerned citizens. It appears the Japanese people are taking notice of Lockley's claims and his involvement in Ubisoft's upcoming game, Assassin's Creed: Shadows.
While Lockley claimed to tell a historically inspired tale of Yasuke, the "black samurai," recent revelations have shown that his depiction of Yasuke is almost entirely fictional, based very little on actual historical data.
To make matters worse, Lockley has been caught editing Wikipedia and Encyclopedia entries about Yasuke, seemingly to support the narrative he constructed in his book. As more people began uncovering Lockley's deceptive attempts to alter history, he has fled all social media, likely to avoid facing mass backlash from both Japan and Westerners alike.
A new report indicates that a program on NHK called "Black Samurai: Yasuke, the African Samurai Who Served Nobunaga" has been removed from the media site. Additionally, Lockley's resume at Nihon University has allegedly been scrubbed from their website.
While a community note on Twitter/X claims he is still visible as a faculty member at Nihon University, the damage caused by his false claims cannot be undone. The petition to cancel Assassin's Creed: Shadows currently sits at around 92k signatures and shows no signs of slowing down.
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