To the surprise of anyone without a grain of common sense, Japanese players are not happy with Ubisoft’s decision to use Assassin’s Creedthe first official foray into the island nation as a platform for more “diversity activism.”
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Set in the Sengkou period of Japanese feudal history, the upcoming Assassin’s Creed Shadows will tell its story through the eyes of two distinct protagonists: Naoe, a completely fictional ninja, and Yasuke, a very fictionalized version of the real-world black African man who briefly served as a retainer of the notorious Japanese warlord Oda Nobunaga.
Notably, the decision to feature Yasuke as one of the game’s protagonists marks the first time in the entire Assassin’s Creed that a real-world historical figure (albeit a highly fictionalized version of him) will be made available as a playable character.
To this end, believing that Shadows“Depicting Yasuke as a full-fledged samurai rather than a mere servant was both culturally insulting and an outright attempt at historical revisionism,” one disgruntled Japanese gamer posted on Change.org on June 19, starting a petition calling on Ubisoft to not only take the game back to the drawing board, but to cancel its plans for its development entirely.
“Recently, a serious issue of historical accuracy and cultural disrespect has been raised regarding game developer Ubisoft’s upcoming release, Assassin’s Creed Shadows“The game is based on the theme of Japanese samurai and ignores the fact that samurai are a higher class of samurai and should be “gokemono” or servants of the nobility. In fact, the first European to be given the title of samurai, William Adams (Miura Anobori), was a standard-bearer with 250 koku (an ancient Japanese unit of measurement (1 koku = 180 liters/ 48 gallons) colloquially used to denote the amount of rice a person’s land could produce) and served Tokugawa Ieyasu.”
“Throughout this story, Ubisoft continues to misunderstand the nature and role of the samurai,” Toru continued. “This is a grave insult to Japanese culture and history and could lead to Asian racism. We demand that Ubisoft immediately stop the release of Assassin’s Creed Shadows and demonstrate serious inquiry and respect for Japanese history and culture.”
“Your signature is needed,” he finally concluded. “Sign this petition to make Ubisoft understand the importance of cultural respect and historical accuracy.”
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At the time of writing, the petition had already collected 21,465 signatures and was counting towards its total goal of 25,000 signatures.
And contrary to what many supporters claim Shadows“Whatever narrative direction one might claim, most of its signatories are Japanese.
“If it’s fiction, I can forgive it,” reads the top-rated supportive comment, posted by a user identifying themselves as Taya Yu. “However, we absolutely cannot tolerate lies like ‘true to historical fact’ and ‘Yasuke was a great black samurai.’ If left unchecked and treated as historical fact, the Japanese will be seen as trying to ‘hide’ the fact that black people were such great samurai, and it will become a story that ‘the Japanese discriminate against black people.’”
“It is obvious,” they added. “In fact, the foreign Internet already shows this trend. It is a falsification of Japanese history, an insult to the Japanese people, and clear discrimination against them.”
Similarly, in their second most upvoted comment, an unidentified individual from Toyama, Japan said, “I was a fan of Assassin’s Creed series, but when it was announced it was a politically correct promotion of black and LGBTQ+ people.
“Yasuke is presented as a noble samurai who can bow, and this is treated as historical fact in order to heroize black people and spread a false story to the world,” the user wrote. “This false story of Yasuke can be attributed to Thomas Lockley’s book, Nobunaga and Yasuke: The Surviving Black Samurai of Honnoji. This false story has already been spread overseas, and even the Brazilian Embassy in Japan tweeted that Yasuke was a hero. This is a falsification of history. We cannot stand by and let this happen. Furthermore, the content of the game and the manufacturer’s response have shown no respect for Japan. It is unbearable to see black samurai slaughtering Japanese people. I hereby object to this.”
And in third place, another Japanese user said: “Even if the launch is forced, it is better to express an opposing opinion. This is because overseas, if you do not express your opinion, you are considered to agree with it. If you express your objection as an individual, you risk being crushed, so it is better to post it as a signature so that it remains an opinion. You should also express your objection in English and French. It would also be good to make a picture or cartoon of this problem.”
“It’s a good thing to release a free creative game,” they explained. “For Japanese people, skin color is not an issue. But officials shouldn’t say that this game is historical fact. That shouldn’t be said, especially in a series that is supposed to be historically accurate. If you’re going to release the game, you should put a big sign that it’s fiction at the top of the game and in public relations for foreign countries.”
Noting the ongoing battle on Yasuke’s various Wikipedia pages between historians and historical activists regarding his status as a samurai, the user then asserted: “And they shouldn’t edit Wikipedia to make themselves feel better.”
“You will erase the one who was brought to Japan as a slave but worked hard to live at that time,” they continued. “If we let this happen, we will be seen as having allowed the continuation of unintentional and intentional discrimination against Japanese and Asian people.”
“Those who say, ‘Don’t get upset over a game,’ will be faced with reality in 5 to 10 years,” the individual concluded. “You will realize that you did not intend to do it when you are faced with reality. It will be too late by then.”
At present, Assassin’s Creed Shadows is expected to unsheathe his blade on November 15, 2024.
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