Is Thomas Lockley Jewish?
Thomas Lockley – who claims to be both British and a historian focusing on Japanese history – has been in the news a lot lately since the latest ‘Assassin’s Creed’ game’s (‘Shadows’) main character is a ‘black Samurai’ based off of Lockley’s 2019 ‘non-fiction’ book titled ‘African Samurai’ which claims to tell the story of a ‘black Samurai’ called Yasuke during Japan’s feudal period. (1)
The problem?
Most of the ‘non-fiction’ book and Lockley’s alleged ‘research’ is made up or heavily misrepresented as one Japanese teacher has explained in quite some detail. (2)
This attack on Japanese history and attempt to implicitly claim (and popularise the idea) that ‘blacks have always lived in Japan’ is made all the more noteworthy because of the scale of backlash against by the Japanese which has even triggered popular petitions. (3)
It has also focused a lot of attention on Lockley’s atrocious scholarship but also on who Lockley is. I was recently made aware of claims that Lockley was of jewish origin and it turns out these are true.
Since on the ‘Lance E. Lee Podcast’ Lockley he states that his grandmother was a ‘refugee from Nazi Germany’ and ‘jewish’ although he qualifies this by stating his great-grandfather was a jewish convert to Christianity and his great-grandmother wasn’t jewish. (4)
Despite this meaning that Lockley isn’t jewish according to either halakhah – it is possible he is if his great-grandfather was a Kohanim, or a Levite and it was his paternal great-grandfather, and this had been passed down entirely on paternally on that side – or the Israeli Law of Return which wouldn’t apply unless he could show that his grandmother identified as jewish.
This is quite possible however given she fled the Third Reich because of her jewishness according to Lockley which would make Lockley eligible to be an Israeli citizen and live in Israel as a jew under the Israeli Law of Return. It is also noteworthy that Lockley clearly identifies heavily with the jewish side of his family, far more so than his non-jewish family.
Thus, we cannot but conclude that Thomas Lockley is indeed of jewish origin and is proudly so.
References
(1) https://www.gamesradar.com/games/assassin-s-creed/ubisoft-apologizes-for-assassins-creed-shadows-promotional-material-thats-caused-concern-within-the-japanese-community-promises-the-rpg-will-keep-evolving-until-launch/
(2) https://japanese-with-naoto.com/2024/07/10/perfidious-historian-thomas-lockley/ also see https://www.modernerudite.com/p/yasuke-debunking-pseudo-historical and https://wayofbushido.com/bushido-blog/f/the-bogus-story-of-yasuke-wokeness-revisionist-history
(3) For example: https://www.change.org/p/%E3%83%88%E3%83%BC%E3%83%9E%E3%82%B9%E3%83%AD%E3%83%83%E3%82%AF%E3%83%AA%E3%83%BC%E6%B0%8F%E3%81%8C%E5%BA%83%E3%82%81%E3%81%9F%E5%BC%A5%E5%8A%A9%E3%81%AB%E9%96%A2%E3%81%99%E3%82%8B%E8%AA%A4%E8%A7%A3%E3%81%AE%E8%A8%82%E6%AD%A3%E3%82%92%E6%B1%82%E3%82%81%E3%82%8B%E7%BD%B2%E5%90%8D
(4) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bNaPr1JROiU (47 minutes : 5 seconds)